something very weird at the office where i work.
This happen only in the finance department which consist in 16 desks and it happens ONLY in winter.
When someone is sick ( flu or cough) , one lady buy an onion, slice it and dispose the pieces everywhere as she believe that is the best way to absorb the bacteria — no contamination LOL
i have checked the theory on the net and it was used in the 1900 to fight severe flu ( http://healthybliss.net/healing-power-of-onions-can-onions-absorb-bacteria-viruses-and-flu/) however, scientists / doctors today claims that it doesn’t make sense (Do Onions Absorb Bacteria That Cause Illness? | BestFoodFacts.org).
However, we can smell that shit everywhere in the office ( we are occupying a full floor in a big building).
it STINKSSS — HELP
Hasn’t it occurred to anyone to just stay home and not go spreading your germs around if you’re ill? No clever mumbo-jumbo Chinese medicine-y stuff there, but it does work.
went home for a few weeks and came back to taiwan yesterday. the flight transferred in turkey. when i got to my seat i was asked by some taiwanese to switch with them, before they asked me they referred to me as na ge wai guo ren. in turkey, on a turkish airline and others still are referred to as outsiders… it put me in a slightly bad mood. i guess cus i have been feeling like a normal human again back home and now its back to being a novelty.
i think the novelty of being a novelty has worn off…
i don’t think it was racist. just bizzare. no i didn’t refuse them, they were very polite. although i don’t think they talked it through with the woman whose seat i was taking because she was pissed when she turned up.
We had a rat in our office the other day. It was caught with one of those sticky traps placed under a pile of boxes. The rat was only found when someone noticed the really bad smell of the HALF-DECOMPOSED rodent. Oh that smell of rotting flesh. I felt like I needed a shower all day long.
[quote=“BHL4life, post:1945, topic:38330, full:true”]
went home for a few weeks and came back to taiwan yesterday. the flight transferred in turkey. when i got to my seat i was asked by some taiwanese to switch with them, before they asked me they referred to me as na ge wai guo ren. in turkey, on a turkish airline and others still are referred to as outsiders…[/quote]
But you’re not Turkish, so you were a foreigner! You could have replied that you were happy to help out a fellow waiguoren…
How many times do we need to go over this??
When people from Taiwan (maybe China too, I don’t know) say 外国人, they actually mean “white man”, despite the literal translation.
That’s why they never use the term for Nipponese and Koreans.
Or black folks, for that matter.
So it makes perfect sense for them to use it in Canada or New Zealand or wherever.
And there’s nothing “racist” about it. There’s no inherent pejorative connotation (in and of itself).
Culturally it’s the same as saying “that guy with the glasses” or “the lady with the red hair”.
I can assure you, if a guy from Pingtung found himself in a Starbucks in Portland and someone asked who gets the mocha micha frappacrappa and another guy said “The Taiwanese guy”, he wouldn’t have any problem with it.
Obviously, some people in Taiwan have stupid backwoods xenophobic prejudices against Westerners, no one’s denying that, but as far as actual use of the word, one should unkink one’s weenie.
Did the same thing on boarding a flight and being asked to move from a bulkhead aisle to a middle seat behind, big smile and a firm no. Then got to eavesdrop on how “nage waiguoren” wouldn’t co-operate and move and would the folks in the seat behind like to move up to the bigger seat in front! Also on another flight was asked to swap with bloke so he could sit with his wife, only problem was I and the guys wife were in premium economy and the guy was in standard economy, so no, how about you see if someone from economy wants a free upgrade…
Whenever I get hit with a request like that (which, to be honest, doesn’t happen that often), I like to give them a taste of their own medicine by replying with 歹勢啦，不方便 (Sorry, it isn’t convenient). The look on their face is always priceless. A less literal but more accurate translation would be “Piss off, mate.”
I’ll enlighten you - people from China don’t think like this (at least according my Chinese teacher from Harbin), they all call black people, white people, Koreans and Japanese 外国人。
They just call them as “台湾人”, Taiwan Ren. Or if they don’t know where they’re from, “外地人” Wai Di Ren (if they look Chinese). Excuse my use of simplified characters.
