Your new local habits in Taiwan

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Member since 30 May 2013

PriscillaViP14 July 2016 09:42:49

42358

Hello everyone,

Living in Taiwan is a great way to immerse in a new culture and lifestyle.

Have you embraced local customs since you've lived in Taiwan? If so, which one(s)?

Did local customs change the way you see things, appreciate life or organize your daily routines? As far as the language is concerned, did you learn new expressions or words and do you use them?

What do you like most about the lifestyle in your host country? Are there any local specificities you are still struggling with?

Thanks in advance,

Priscilla

hauthomme Contributor

Member since 19 April 2016

hauthommeContributor18 July 2016 06:01:02

137

Friendship with benefit

Arguably the same across the world except to different degree, but newcomers to Taiwan should know that "true friendships" are hard to find here. That means most Taiwanese won't befriend you without ulterior motive. And even Taiwanese will occasionally confess to being inclined to take petty advantages of people. For example a female Taiwanese friend asked me casually to translate short copies from Chinese to English, knowing she would not pay for my intellectual labor.

Even large firms will "take advantage" of long-term hires to rip them off of pensions. I've seen it first-hand.

One form of such "friendship with benefit" is that you may be invited to weddings of coworkers and friends you barely know for it's customary to offer cash in red envelope as gift.

Another "custom" in Taiwan is corporations being widely dishonest and misleading when hiring. In short new hires will find extra duties not stated in want ads.

Yet another "custom" in the local corporatedom is patronage. Incompetence and corruption are widely overlooked and patronized. Whistle-blowing is generally not popular in Taiwan.

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