Yes Taiwanese don’t like milk, bread, cheese, cakes, coffee, chocolate. The list goes on.
And how is that different to the small talk we hear in English.
Have you ever lit a fart?
I fart like a ninja. Silent but violent.
You know it’s gonna smell when it’s silent but you can feel the heat.
Does a fart have lumps? Because if I didn’t then I just had a shit in my pants!
Not everyone is Lin Yutang.
But why wouldn’t you just learn the skill, and then just pretend that you don’t understand when you don’t want to participate? Or better yet, why not just tell them in Mandarin that you’re not paying attention because you don’t care?
But if you know what the effective language learning methods are, why not apply them to yourself? Wherein lies the naive insistence that only paid professionals can teach you a language well? I’ve not paid anything in formal instruction toward my language learning, and yet I manage to make steady gains.
And the truth comes out.
I guess I have a motivation, and that is not to be teaching English nine years from now.
And learning Mandarin will help you achieve that precisely how? :loco:
For me, personally, or for people in general?
My objectives for Mandarin are going to differ widely from the general benefits of fluency in two major world languages.
? HH – do you not go out in Taichung!? :+) Lots of busy bread, cheese, cake, coffee, and chocolate shops all over the city. I’m thinking that the people here really enjoy western delicacies. (Or were you being sarcastic?)
Ehophi – Why don’t Taiwanese people like cinnamon? Please tell!
I’m just repeating the orthodoxies that I was told when I first came to Taiwan 
.
A lot do not like cinnamon. My tutor, a dozen or so students (in different classes) of mine have all said they think it tastes ‘too strong’. This was told to me when I told them I put cinnamon in my curry sauce when I make red curry…or that I sometimes sprinkle it atop my lattes.
My wife has an interesting theory as to why: cinnamon is used a LOT in traditional Chinese medicine. Therefore, they probably associate the taste with taking medicine (and in medicine its not done ‘to taste’ but just lumped in there with ground worms, deer tail, etc…whatever the prescription warrants).
Anybody who does not like cinnamon has terrible taste.
:no-no:
And powdered deer penis…
I agree. Nothing hard about Chinese really. You should try Zulu or Xhosa with all those bloody clicking sounds. Damn nightmare.
10 years later you are a weirdo if you don’t like cinnamon buns.
2 Likes