[quote=“zender”]
I reckon cutting “White Man Hair” is no different than what they usually cut here. In Africa, many barbers have never cut straight hair.[/quote]
As a curly haired white female, I have played the ‘random haircut’ game plenty of times. Mine is much, much finer than most Taiwanese girl’s hair, and there is much more of it. It doesn’t ‘sit’ the same way, and it stretches a lot when wet. If I don’t watch exactly what they’re doing, they cut it much too short, screw up the layering and generally give me a really bad month. Short layers on straight hair are quite the thing in Taiwan, but look rubbish/very old fashioned on curly hair.
I tip a couple of hundred as long as they don’t yap about rubbish, too much (yes, they are bigger because foreigner woman eat cheese, no, British men most definitely are not gentleman/bigger, etc), or leave me looking too much like a Japanese teenage boy.
My god people… I’m in the camp of why should the customer be held ‘hostage’ for something someone should be doing for their job anyway?? I work in the high tech field. Should I expect someone to tip me if I did a great job in helping them solve a difficult problem??? NO. It’s my job and that’s why I’m being paid the amount that I’m being paid.
DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT ‘contaminate’ the Taiwanese culture and get them tipping! At least not before I get married this December. :beatnik:
My wedding is already costing me an arm. No need to give my other arm and leg too! Sheesh.
Assuming you’re French, no one would expect you to tip, anyway
I don’t think there’s any danger of the Taiwanese getting in the habit of tipping, and I certainly would not suggest someone tip regularly. I only do it in a few circumstances where I’m picky and get better-than-usual service. Or, in the case of cab drivers, where I’m feeling sorry for them because I think many of them used to have decent-paying factory jobs that moved overseas. I also feel bad when I take a too-far-to-walk trip that only amounts to NT100.
Assuming you’re French, no one would expect you to tip, anyway
I don’t think there’s any danger of the Taiwanese getting in the habit of tipping, and I certainly would not suggest someone tip regularly. I only do it in a few circumstances where I’m picky and get better-than-usual service. Or, in the case of cab drivers, where I’m feeling sorry for them because I think many of them used to have decent-paying factory jobs that moved overseas. I also feel bad when I take a too-far-to-walk trip that only amounts to NT100.[/quote]
Mais malheureusement, non, je ne suis pas francais. I’m what you would call a “banana”; born in Taiwan, but raised as a ‘foreigner’ when I was 8 mths old (ie. Taiwan is as much a foreign country to me as to many of you).
Just don’t tip and everyone’s happy, right??? Thus nobody is expecting anyone to tip.
It has come to a point that I constantly fret on how much to tip if I call for some soap or missing coffee filter at hotels here in US whenever I go on biz trips. I’m thinking "WTF? Because of someone’s incompetence, I have to end up calling someone to get me something that should already be in the room when I check-in, but now I have to tip someone else for their ‘trouble!’ Tips come out of my own pocket and cannot be expensed/reimbursed. If I do this 20x a year, I’m out of $$$ for something that they should be doing anyway. I like the idea of what you see is what you pay. No more or less. I hate to not tip and find out that my toothbrush was used as a tool to clean my toilet.
This type of passive aggressive threat is what is motivating me to tip at hotels.
I get my haircuts for $100 at RT-Mart. No need to worry about tipping since money never changes hands - you just put $100 in a machine and get a ticket.
[quote=“Loretta”][quote=“the chief”]You’re hardly qualified to jump in here, bub, last time you got a haircut, there were 4 Beatles above ground…
Oh, and Jeez, when I taught, I used get tips all the time…maybe there’s a quality issue…[/quote]
Three weeks ago, actually. :raspberry: :raspberry: :raspberry: [/quote]
We’re talking about a haircut, not snipping the split ends off of your sumptuous flowing (yet manly) mane, anyone can do that.
Yeesh, I’m not talking about “Plant corn early” or “Don’t stand up in a canoe” type tips, Fredo, I’m talking about someone slipping an extra thou or 2 into the pay packet for a job extra well done.
Why am I defending this? I thought I said I don’t tip when I get a haircut?
I guess I find it incon-theeve-able
that people who are well within the top earning bracket would begrudge passing on a minor gratuity when someone has utilized their hard-won expertise to make sure you get good work for your NT$.
What does she get an hour?
What do you get an hour?
My first job, when I was 13, was in a relative’s salon. Frankly, it was a pain in the &rse, but it was that or down t’mill. Some of the ladies used to give me 20-50p. It raised my level of attentiveness, to be sure.
I give (not much) money to charity for people less fortunate than me. Why refuse a few NT to someone who doesn’t have what I have and actually worked to make me happy? I don’t kid myself that it made her day to have the stress of trying to understand what I want in my crappy Chinese, to try and get a comb through my knotty waiguo curls and to have to massage my fat head. Hairdressers stand up for ten hours, have their hands in and out of water, and although, no, they are not road construction workers, their job is no picnic. We’re not talking about 1000NT here, we’re talking about the price of a beer. You wouldn’t buy your hairdresser a beer?
so it’s not about how hard you push, or the direction?
yeah, i’ll tip someone if they’ve done a good job, but if they’ve done an average job, or a surly job, then they certainly won’t get a tip. the prospect of getting a tip should be an incentive to work harder than normal. i don’t agree with the american idea whereby the tip is expected, and is used by the restaurant as an excuse to pay shit wages, and the staff come running after you if you don’t tip them for bringing your food late, cold, out of order, to the wrong table, with spit in it.
It has come to a point that I constantly fret on how much to tip if I call for some soap or missing coffee filter at hotels here in US whenever I go on biz trips. I’m thinking "WTF? Because of someone’s incompetence, I have to end up calling someone to get me something that should already be in the room when I check-in, but now I have to tip someone else for their ‘trouble!’ Tips come out of my own pocket and cannot be expensed/reimbursed. If I do this 20x a year, I’m out of $$$ for something that they should be doing anyway. I like the idea of what you see is what you pay. No more or less. I hate to not tip and find out that my toothbrush was used as a tool to clean my toilet.
This type of passive aggressive threat is what is motivating me to tip at hotels.[/quote]
Sometimes I forget when and why I’m supposed to tip in the first place. Is it for someone that has performed their job well? Or is it just part of a routine?
The post by cestmoi accurately demonstrates the difficulty of deciding when to tip and when not to tip in the US. I’d definitely remind my company of the culture difference so they could reimburse the tips as a business expense.
How about if I’m on a cruise somewhere? Are tips included or are you supposed to give a little extra when the bartender makes your mai tai? I really don’t know.
Anyway were talking about tipping in Taiwan. I find it interesting that words like cheap and stingy have been mentioned…
Hey there chiefy, good to know you’re thinking about me.
I, of course, am with Loretta on this one.
She’s a wise old bird.
In fact that first post of hers was so good, I’m going to print it up and put it my wallet and reread it every once in while, just in case I get the the urge to tip sometime.
Tipping is an abomination! :fatchance:
[quote=“the chief”]What does she get an hour?
What do you get an hour?[/quote]
Just to wind you up:
I had my quadriannual (is there such a word?) haircut courtesy of the foreigner hair specialist lady who has a very long thread all about her in the WCIF forum. It cost me NT$1000, and I was in and out in 30 minutes. Pardon me for expressing the sentiment, but she doesn’t need a tip, and I think I’ve paid enough already.
I agreed the price in advance, and whether it takes her five minutes or two hours it’s all the same to me. The price you see is the price you pay, and if you’re happy with the goods then you pay the price and everyone has kept to the terms of the contract agreed. No problem. No tip.
Yeesh, I’m not talking about “Plant corn early” or “Don’t stand up in a canoe” type tips, Fredo, I’m talking about someone slipping an extra thou or 2 into the pay packet for a job extra well done.[/quote]
What the hell kind of classes were you teaching that people felt compelled to give you that kind of advice? You really are on a different planet to the rest of us, aren’t you?
I gave another taxi driver a beer
in NTD of course
.
He deserved it, driving Guangfu Ave. in Hsinchu all day long, every day.
There’s a level above Mad as a Hatter, above bathing in mercury, … driving a taxi for a living in the 'wan.
He did 2 U-turns during rush hour on the big Guang. I closed my eyes.
Yes, Bc, but you’ve raised the ante with the amphetamines. My ranking only permits natural testosterone enhancement, namely binlang. Since there are no binlang babes on the big Guang, maybe they are in withdrawal dementia… they want to leave for a new batch of binlang balls but if they bail from the boulevard the till goes nil.
I’m sure there’s substitute for the binlang babe box, but I just haven’t seen it in action.
Down in Nantou, visiting Lushan and Hehuanshan last weekend, and the binlang babes down there were in down jackets and leggings (to confirm their essential babeness). Business seemed the same even with the Artic wardrobe.
