Excuse Me While I Vent!

Taiwan Living in Taiwan
1

During my three years + in Asia, I have learned to cope with many annoying things, and eventually adapt and appreciate the Asian way of life. There are many endearing things in this culture, and as an open minded person, I always try to see the bright side of baffling culture.

But hey, I gotta vent!

I lived for two years in Seoul City and never had the same negative feeling that I do here in small town Taiwan. What is it with some of the rude habits of the Taiwanese?

For example: Yesterday me and my gal were trying to enjoy a short afternoon at the park. Along comes a family of four with two little kids. Here is the mother encouraging their little girl to make these loud, very annoying noises not five feet behind us. What’s up with that? Why do the Taiwanese talk to each other, and comunicate with each other, in the loudest possible voice so that EVERYONE within a 500 meter radius can hear what they are saying???

I mean, they behave as if there is nobody else around who just might be a tad annoyed at that irritating noise that they’re coaxing their child to make. :loco: I also had this problem when I tried to pay the security fee at my apartment. Some guy who was “trying to help” the front desk attendant starts shouting at me in Mandarin. Withing a few moments, everybody and their dog is staring at the stupid white boy. Is there no discretion in this culture???

Then there’s the speaker trucks. I know this has been discussed on this board before, but isn’t there a limit to these things? Can I go to jail if I decide to throw things at them? Like maybe a few bricks? :smiling_imp: I swear I can’t take that shit anymore. Especially when they park near my apartment to take a break…with the speakers on full. I came very close today to ripping the speaker off the truck…definetly worth spending some time at the local police station!

I’ve been in my apartment for almost a year and for some reason, the hot water in my shower is almost non-existant. And they’ve been in there on three or four occasions to “fix” it. Yeah right. I am starting to realise that they see no problem with icy cold showers. They look at me like I’m weird when I say I want a hot shower. :help:

The final straw yesterday was when I couldn’t start my bike with the electronic ignition…again. And my kick-start is pretty much shot too. So I finally had the problem fixed for the third time at 500NT$. It really sucks when you’re trying to kick-start your scooter with your sandles on and your girlfriend is standing there watching you with her helmet in her hands.

Yeah it was a bad day. :unamused: But this is only a fraction of the everyday nonsense that is prevalent in this backwards society. How do you longtimers cope??? What is the secret???

I’ve got a great gal and a decent job with some nice folks. But 90 per cent of the life that I have experienced here is really beginning to make me wonder if I have the patience to live here on a permanent basis.

I really think the best thing for me would be to move to Taipei and be a little closer to the western community, where there is a little more understanding of the standards we are comfortable with. There’s just too much a poor little white boy like me has to contend with out here in the boonies with the natives.

Yes I know it ain’t Kansas anymore, Toto. But I’m really starting to lose it. :frowning:

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[quote=“wonder”]Then there’s the speaker trucks. I know this has been discussed on this board before, but isn’t there a limit to these things? Can I go to jail if I decide to throw things at them? Like maybe a few bricks? :smiling_imp: I swear I can’t take that shit anymore. Especially when they park near my apartment to take a break…with the speakers on full. I came very close today to ripping the speaker off the truck…definetly worth spending some time at the local police station!

I’ve been in my apartment for almost a year and for some reason, the hot water in my shower is almost non-existant. And they’ve been in there on three or four occasions to “fix” it. Yeah right. I am starting to realise that they see no problem with icy cold showers. They look at me like I’m weird when I say I want a hot shower. :help:
[/quote]

I know what you mean. On both counts.

It seems my water heater has a eerie 6th sense about when I am completely sudsy so it can choose that time to run cold. No matter how long I let it run hot before getting in, as soon as I have a headful of shampoo or am covered in soap, the hot goes on a short vacation. Even after I changed the heater.

And those speaker trucks. Arrrgghhhhh! 8:30 every Saturday and Sunday morning for the last month. I was so happy once the election was over. I thought that would be an end to it. But NOOOOOOOOOO! Around they come again, presumably thanking everyone for the votes. Some thanks!

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Is that the whole list?

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:bravo: If its any consolation, white men have been feeling this way in Asia for a long time. In 1936 George Orwell wrote a short article entitled Shooting an Elephant regarding one of his experiences in Burma. That article contains one of my favorite quotes, as follows:

The crowd would laugh at me. And my whole life, every white man’s life in the East, was one long struggle not to be laughed at.

:slight_smile:

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Hot water - try finding the hot water heater thingie. Is it gas or electric. Change the battery (9v) or try turning up the flame and temp setting.

Everything else, well, the only answer is to learn to live with it, go crazy, or leave. Don’t take it the wrong way, but that, in short, is the truth.

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[quote=“wonder”]
But hey, I gotta vent![/quote]

No problem, free venting services is what makes Forumosa such a fun place. :slight_smile:

But, Bassman’s right, your peeves ain’t never gonna go away.

7

People have different noise tolerances here. Chinese is one of the world’s “loudest” languages. Europeans often complain about how loud Americans are, but Americans can’t hold a candle to the Chinese. Often outside of shops you’ll hear music blaring away at high volumes that would drive westerners away from the shops were they in the West. For some reason, even hearing one song playing over and over without end, which is something that would drive most Westerners insane, is something people seem immune to here, too.

No, which is why I positively HATE election time. I was thankful to be in Bangkok the weekend of the election, allowing me to escape that madness. That includes the day after the election when the trucks go around thanking everyone for their votes.

Thankfully the election is over, so those damn trucks are no longer around.

[quote=“wonder”]I’ve been in my apartment for almost a year and for some reason, the hot water in my shower is almost non-existant. And they’ve been in there on three or four occasions to “fix” it. Yeah right. I am starting to realise that they see no problem with icy cold showers. They look at me like I’m weird when I say I want a hot shower. :help:
[/quote]
Haven’t had this problem. People here like hot showers too, as far as I’ve observed. But those tiny water heaters here suck big time.

All I can say is try another mechanic. Be thankful that repair costs here are a tiny fraction of what they are in the West.

Patience and a sense of humor. Really! And venting every once in a while on a forum like this certainly helps too.

90%? Mine’s more like 10%. I happen to enjoy a lot of the quirkiness of this place. But then I live in Taipei, so I don’t have to deal much with hick-town attitudes.

[quote=“wonder”]
I really think the best thing for me would be to move to Taipei and be a little closer to the western community, where there is a little more understanding of the standards we are comfortable with. There’s just too much a poor little white boy like me has to contend with out here in the boonies with the natives.[/quote]
Living in the big city might eliminate some of those peopblems. People are more urbane and less hickish here…comparatively speaking, of course.

[quote=“wonder”]
Yes I know it ain’t Kansas anymore, Toto. But I’m really starting to lose it. :frowning:[/quote]
Patience. You’ll get used to it. In the meantime there are things you can do to make your own life more comfortable, particularly in your own living quarters (unless you live with the gf’s parents, that is). Furnish and decorate your apartment the way you want, fix the kind of foods you like, eat at restaurants or xiao-chi-dians that you like, engage in activities you enjoy, listen to music you love, hang out with friends (foreign or domestic) that you like, take some vacations (in Taiwan or overseas) and don’t overwork yourself.

8

I can’t believe you take hot showers. 20 degrees is nothing to me. I dare the weather to go lower. I dare it.

9

We’re looking at temps of down to 9 degrees for next weekend in the north, apparently.

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Is that all? :laughing:

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Noooo!!!

I enjoyed a nice long hot soak in the tub with my neck pillow and some bossa nova playing in the background. Of course, that was with the hot water running out two times before I could fill the tub. And don’t get me started on how much water pressure sucks when you live on the 12th floor of a building with 44 other apartments. I find it’s easy to survive by finding to positive in things…for instance, sure my showerhead doesn’t spray the way it did when I had a 2nd-floor apartment, but being so high up, I wouldn’t trade it for my view of the mountains to the north and Taipei 101 to the east with any of the apartments on the lower floors which are surrounded by other buildings.

12

There will come a day when you get back from that trip to BKK or some other place and you smell that damp - dust-ball in a corner smell at CKS (old terminal, pre- renovation) and say, “wheeew…glad I’m back”. It’s reall nuts out there.

Taiwan can be annoying, but 90% really does come under the titleof, “mostly harmless”.

13

regarding water heater issues:

  1. Test/Replace Battery

  2. Turn heat setting higher, though not too high, as the mix of cold and hot water will fluctuate causing dueling bursts of HOT then COLD then HOT…etc

  3. Have girlfriend(assuming she’s local) take down Make & Model of water heater. Call 104(directory assistance) to locate water heater manufacturer(not your lazy landlord). If manufacturer is not in business, then its probably a good idea to scrap the whole system and get a new one installed(see below for more info). Request for service call(they all provide this service). Someone will have to stay home that afternoon and wait for the maintainance man. Most likely they will replace a circuitboard with air-tubing attached. Total cost? 600-1000NT. Sometimes its simply the brass nozzle where the gas comes out to be burnt is a little clogged. If water heater is truly fxcked, Water Heater Service dude will inform you. If you choose to replace the water heater, it will cost from 2,500NT and up…but this means efficient heating(less gas/shorter showertimes) and better conservation.

  4. as for water pressure issues, you can install a pump to add pressure to your existing apartment plumbing system. best make sure all the seals and o-rings in your plumbing are up to date…wouldn’t want high pressure water flying out of your bathroom wall while you were away struggling with your scooter

  5. for scooter starting issues, clean the terminals on the battery, have mechanic check starter motor, take bike in for entire overahaul or just get something newer that actually works.

hope some of this advice helps

14

The technique I use to ensure a steady flow of hot water is this: Most issues resolve around poor or intermittent water pressure causing the water heater to turn off, particularly if you want a mix of hot and cold.

  1. Turn heater as hot as it can go. It should sound like a jet taking off when it lights.
  2. Restrict the water flow control on the heater (if you have one) to raise and smooth the pressure.
  3. Turn on shower head full on hot so that the heater lights
  4. Turn on hot-water faucet of SINK so that the water pump never stops. 5) Add a litle cold water to you shower head. Adjust temperature with SINK, by diverting hot water away fromthe shower. Do adjust the shower head.

Honed throguh years of shitty water pressure and low tolerance for changing water temp., his technique never fails me no matter how poor the water pressure.

15

I think they’re afraid of silence. You should hear my neighbors.

I have resigned myself to never getting anything fixed on the first try. It could be the washing machine, water heater, or lights. I have stopped allowing repair men into my apartment. This bit of stubborness now means two rooms of my apartment have no ceiling lights, but a couple of lamps and a halogen trak-light set fix that.

Patience and a good sense of humor will take you a long way while living here.

16

Chinese noisyness gets me too. Especially when foreigners playing music or otherwise enjoying themselves at a volume the Taiwanese would consider poofy if it were Taiwanese doing it always requires the attendance of armed police. :loco:

It’s the only thing I hated about Shanghai. Far too noisy to live in - impossible.

You’re going to have to find a way of dealing with it. I have a huge electric fan which provides white noise for night times, and a pair of British Standard ear defenders for the unfuckingbelievably noisy office I work in and karaoke taxis.

Ear muffs have improved my quality of life immensely. Ear plugs are useless, get a pair of these and learn to sleep on your back.

17

That’s what I do. I don’t even hear the traffic, people, etc. any more. It did take a while to get used to the noise of the fan though.

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Is that all? :laughing:[/quote]
Oh, no! That means my inlaws will be pestering me non-stop to put on more clothes when I’m perfectly comfortable.

19

Well, I grew up in Taipei and had no problem with the noises when I was growing up. (Did not even notice.) I have been living in the States for 10 years now and absolutely hate the sounds of election trucks, loud music blaring out of stores/coffee shops, or even my own grandma having a conversation with my pa when I am home for visits. (My family members talk at the volume that can wake up the dead. I don’t know why. It’s hilarious when I am in a good mood; sucks ass when I am trying to sleep.)

Don’t know what to say to you, since people already gave good advice. I feel your pain; hope you find enough things to make your stay worthwhile…wait, did you say you plan on staying in Taiwan permenantly? I really hope you find things that make your stay worthwhile then. (No sarcasm. Just really hope that you find other things to make up for all these things that are driving you crazy at the moment.)

20

I don’t find the noise fusses me at all, even though I was used to a quiet suburb in Melbourne.

At home I always have music playing, when I’m out I’m always plugged into my mp3 player, and I’ve had a habit for the last 8 years of using earplugs when I go to bed.