I think people in Taiwan may be more polite in terms of their tone of voice. However, the way they drive here in Taiwan is very disrespectful to pedestrians. I also cannot understand why bosses in Taiwan are allowed to yell at their employees.
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Are you sure this question can be answered so generally?
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It is hypocritical for people in Taiwan to say that they are very polite when they have lots of impolite behaviors.
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I’ve said in another thread, but I’ll state it again here. Tawanese are “friendly” when face is involved.
In situations where there’s no possibility of losing face, such as with driving (anonymous), or dealing with “lower” people (SE Asians, subordinates), they often behave like shit.
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this’ll eventually steer into Taiwan vs. Japan “politeness”
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Isn’t a lot of politeness highly context specific?
I imagine some people I work with think I’m impolite because I’m very direct, a FOB Canadian might find the difficulty in getting a straight and honest answer a sign of impoliteness when in fact it is sometimes the opposite
Walking past a 711 the other day I saw a couple of women heading to the door and my brain made the quick calculation that we would enter the same space at the same time, and that they wouldn’t notice and or process me on the other side of the window. So being a polite Canadian I stopped just short of the door so they could exit before I passed. I was not surprised when they exited and stopped in front of both me and the door and turned to start talking with each other; to my mind this was very rude but I imagine to their mind not because they didn’t see me and they didn’t ask me to stop; if you think about it the problem was me not just ignoring the world around me and brusing past anyone who might suddenly appear close by (though that approach doesn’t seem to work well in the roads)
My Taiwanese supervisors have never yelled at me, and I’ve never heard of anyone yelling at anyone where I work, so I don’t think it is fair to say that is a cultural thing, anyways
Yeah, I really don’t get this. I have found the people here to be generally pleasant and polite in interpersonal interactions, considering cultural differences. And I don’t recall ever hearing anyone say Taiwanese people are particularly polite, anyways
Yeah, this one matches my feelings more closely. I’m often hearing from Taiwanese people that Taiwanese people are so friendly, but I don’t see it. Generally pleasant and polite to strangers in interpersonal interactions, OK. I don’t think they are rude, especially by Taiwanese standards. But not friendly.
If someone’s definition of friendly is “pleasant and polite”, ok, Taiwanese people in my experience are definitly that. I can see how someone with less intercultural experience might see it differently, but also say and do things that elicit an “unfriendly” response
But if the definition of friendly is “wanting to get to know new people as friends”, definitely not.
https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/friendly
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Work for local companies and you’ll see what I mean.
I think the driving problem is generally more about being oblivious, not impolite
Racism isn’t impoliteness, is it?
I work for a local company, I would say my “superiors” here are perfectly polite, although my age/experience/qualifications/nationality certainly factor into that. But the thing is, there are subordinates around who don’t have all those things and I still don’t see or hear about impoliteness. Probably there is some sometimes, i just don’t see it as egregiously bad in my context. And if it doesn’t hold true across all contexts, how can we generalize to the whole culture either way
Funny thing is how my experience in Thailand was so different. My Thai supervisors and colleagues were mostly impolite to me even by their own cultural standards, while people I met outside of work were interested in being friends
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He also mentioned “subordinates”.
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Yeah, me too.
Pretty impolite of you to make this comment without reading my post, isn’t it?
And I’m sure my “superiors” see me as their subordinate, that’s just not how I look at it hence the quotation marks
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selective politness eh?
I agree with your sentiment that Taiwanese are not as polite as they think they are. In some situations yes, in some, no.
For me particularly its when considering others like strangers on the street or something. Standing in the way of doors, getting out of others way on a path, this sort of thing. Winds me right up.
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Taiwanese are often very insensitive.
I think “so friendly” comes from the greetings new (white) foreigners often get, where they’re “Welcomed to Taiwan” and showered with free gifts, food, and compliments.
Of course this display is solely for the local giver to get face, by showing off their generosity and English. The foreigner merely acts as a convenient prop.
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It has always baffled me how lot of people here seem to be totally unaware of what is going on around them, and that was even before phone-zombism became a thing.
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Many Taiwanese lack spatial awareness.
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Westerners is a pretty broad term.
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I would class this as oblivious to their surroundings, not necessarily rude, because when they do finally realise some one is trying to get past they will move and normally apologise.
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