After being in Japan for several years, I met certain people who were so happy to meet a foreigner that they would help me learn Japanese. Some were so pleased when I said I loved being in Japan and why.
Seems that being here is the same as being back home. We don’t care about foreign students from HK or Europe coming to study English and make new friends. We want to talk to people who speak English fluently.
We feel these young students are just in our country to party and have fun while we work our butts off and face stress on a daily basis. I feel many Taiwanese people are the same (God knows how many have had bad experiences while travelling abroad too!). If Taiwan follows Japan,who follows America, why don’t they just jump the gun and try and learn more about westerners by setting up things like free Chinese classes/culture classes here in Taipei. The Shi-Da culture courses are a little costy. The Japanese aren’t too shy to speak to you in their own language even if you are a beginner.They feel like helping you is being friendly. I think many people in Taipei,if they can’t speak English and you can’t speak much Chinese, then they won’t give you the time of day. How do you feel on this matter? Is it just me?!
Considering the Japanese will always reply to you in Japanese EVEN if you can’t speak it or understand it I don’t think it’s a new revelation that they would be pleased that you’re “finally” learning their language.
Unclear about TW following JP (got that part) but the JP following America–didn’t you just mention that America is not the most open about the foreign exchange students? Which is kind of true though…
i’ve lived in taiwan for a few years, partly in hsinchu and taipei, partly in a town called Luo dong in i-lan county. in the city people are just less friendly, i think. also, they’ve probably had so much experience with foreigners who don’t speak a word of chinese (i was one of these people for ages) that they’re afraid to talk to you if you aren’t obviously fluent. but the countryside is a whole other story. i find if you live in a rural area, everybody wants to talk to you and be your friend, they’re ecstatic that you’re here, and want to know all about you. since so few people speak english… all this happens in chinese. i was forced to learn, just because every time i left my house someone would start asking me questions about myself and just expecting me to answer. so, haltingly, i did (luckily, i’m also an excellent mime 
). and after a year of this i can sort of vaguely function in daily life without looking like an idiot. but other people at my job were studying chinese and it wasn’t uncommon to see our taiwanese coworkers helping with homework and they were always eager to help any of us improve our chinese. sometimes it seems that people in taipei are just to busy to stop for anything… but if you want to have a million friends in about ten minutes and lots of help learning chinese, I recommend getting out of the big smoke!
Most of what I’ve gotten in 2 and a half years here is bewilderment as to why I would want to come to Taiwan. They often wonder why in the world I would want to come here!
Bewilderment is definitely a thing they express especially if you come from the US…I didn’t get that when I said “I’d rather come back to work here than stay in China”
Oh, they ARE very friendly and interested IF you speak Taiwanese. My teacher told me one of her students got 3000NT off rent because the foreign student exchanged a few words in Taiwanese with the landlord. I’ve always had better luck speaking bad Mandarin here though, than getting help in Hong Kong or China. You usually get a smile from a “lao ban nia” or the obasans. Maybe it’s the lack of national identity and pride? Why would they care why you’re here when they don’t even care for the country…it would help explain why so many more people’s faces brighten and the taxi driver gets even more excitedly and talks non-stop when you belt out a couple words in Taiwanese.
I don’t know about comparing it Japan because I never got that much of a friendly vibe while in Japan but maybe it’s because I look Asian. The first time I went there to visit friends and had problems like getting lost by myself in the subway no one was willing to help me since i didn’t speak a lot of Japanese, much less ask me why I was there and try to teach me the language. No luck the next few times I visited either. Unless I was at a purchasing counter, only the guys trying to sell me off as hostesses would approach me or grab me showed interested when I was out. Or it’s like this news piece: taipeitimes.com/News/world/a … 2003154450
They just aren’t as friendly to you it seems, if it doesn’t look like you can speak English. Could be as christata said too, since I’ve always heard people not in the main cities are friendlier. But sometimes NOT being the center of attention is what is craved and that’s why people don’t seem as interested in you–my friend was quite happy to come to Taipei and not feel like everyone was staring at her, the way it was in Beijing. For people to actually not show interest in her as being different, putting her on a pedestal, not “wow your chinese is so good” when all she said was “xie xie” was exactly what she desired.
By reading those discussions above, I found some of your view-points are very western and somehow stereotyping the Japanese and Taiwanese.
First, you probably don’t know that Taiwanese always mocks at Japanese’s poor English. That is probably be one of the reasons why Japanese always speaks their own language to you. I have been to Japan twice. Once I asked a Japanese for help with my poor Japanese. The Japanese guy knew that I was a foreigner. He asked me if I spoke English. I said: yes. Then he started to use English to communicate with me and told me that he always wanted to learn English and practice English. (I was kind of embarrassed that he wanted to practice English with me since my English wasn’t very good.) 
Secondly, regarding the question why Taiwanese always wonders why you want to come here. It is really kind of Taiwanese personality. People tend to “complain” a lot though they do not really mean to. Also, Taiwan is a very small country, but have a great population. So you can imagine why people say that to you. I also observe a phenomenon that most Taiwanese study abroad miss Taiwan a lot and will think it’s such a wonderful place to live. So if next time your Taiwanese friend wonders why you want to come here, ask her/him whether she/he has lots of experience studying abroad or traveling abroad.
Finally, sometimes I really think that we should not expect every country or every individual to be the same. If Taiwan is exactly like Japan or like America, then I really want to ask you the same question: why do you want to come here?
Have fun in Taiwan:)
Kiddo
PS: I can’t wait to go back there. 
I have noticed that the people in Taipei are very very very unfriendly and even moreso, just plain rude. What makes it worse is, I’ve stopped trying to be polite when I am in Taipei just because I get weird looks when I say something such as “excuse me” or “I’m sorry about that” when bumping into someone or needing someone to move. It’s turned into, “I’m going to shove you to the side to get through” or “I’m just going to bump into you and pretend it never happened”
My family is from Taichung and I think southerners are just much more friendly than the cityfolk. Here everyone is always greeting you, being polite, asking you how you are, etc… Even my cousin who now lives in Taipei (after living in Taichung and America) says that Taipei people are just a lot less friendly…
About costly culture classes… these days everything is about money… everyone talks money and everyone wants to make money, especially in the city… so trying to find “free” classes is close to impossible. I just suggest soaking it all in by making friends who are natives. Or just sucking it up and paying the price (yeah I refuse to take the culture classes… it doesn’t really seem worth my time)