Maybe the person fined should take in the equivalent signs in English and see how well the judge can make out which lane to use…
Terry
Sorry for my bad pinyin Terri, my point has obviously flown right over your head.
The foreigner spoken about in this sitiation is one who argued that, if he had had time, he could have looked up those (don’t go through this area) characters in his dictionary, an thus, he’d be safe. Now please tell me - Can you stop your car on a freeway???
Please don’t tell me that you should be able to read Chinese characters in order to drive in the 1st place, as that defeats the obsolute purpose of an International drivers license.
btw Terri, sorry about the tollgate confusion, Australian cities all have it now, so you guys should get it soon
by aznRice
quote[quote] Why should Taiwan start putting english signs all over the city? [/quote]Please correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t English now the official 2nd language.![]()
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nushen = only goddesses may urinate here.
I didn’t say that Ironlady. Amos said it was the norm to have auto-readers.
You can only swap licences from the US in I think three or four states, the rest you have to take the test (I know, my state driver’s licence was not one of the lucky ones).
Remember folks, this isn’t Kansas and why should they write stuff in English? There are a shiit-load of Indonesians here, but I don’t see ANY special help for them (or the Philippinos or Thais).
How complicated can it be to recognize a character or two?
quote:
Originally posted by wolf_reinhold: There are a shiit-load of Indonesians here, but I don't see ANY special help for them (or the Philippinos or Thais).
I think the Indonesians and Filipinos would love to have English signs.
quote:
Originally posted by amos: Sorry for my bad pinyin Terri, my point has obviously flown right over your head. as has the spelling of my name over yours.... [img]images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img]Please don’t tell me that you should be able to read Chinese characters in order to drive in the 1st place, as that defeats the obsolute purpose of an International drivers license.
That's not what I said in my post. Anyway, even for a TW drivers' license, if they don't test it to give you the license, or include it in the manual, IMHO they shouldn't fine you for not knowing it.Scary possibility, though – if the foreigners argue that we could have looked up the characters, next we’ll get signs with bopomofo next to the characters or something equally interesting. Or maybe with 5 types of Romanization, making the signs completely block out the toll gates??
btw Terri, sorry about the tollgate confusion, Australian cities all have it now, so you guys should get it soon![]()
We are completely behind, no argument there. I’m surprised Congress hasn’t sent a delegation or two over to check it out, at taxpayer expense of course.
TerrYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY
Wow, chill-lax.
Maoman: Actually there aren’t any chinese traffic signs in Chinatown, although there may be a few street names translated. Plus, I’m sure that the toll way wasn’t in Americatown.
2nd, At least the taiwanese aren’t going to foreign places and drive around without knowing how to read the signs. I would hate to know what would happen if the foreigner who couldn’t read chinese got to a stop sign. When you drive in a foreign country it’s your responsibility to know the rules.
Rascal: I understand where you are coming from, but that is why these tourist and businessmen who travel only occasionally should stick to taxis and public transit if they are unsure of signs and rules.
“It takes time in which I then should not drive a car or do other things which are perhaps necessary for my work? Don’t know, but doesn’t sound like a plausible solution for me …”
Sure it does takes time to learn chinese, I’m not saying that it is easy, but moving to a foreign country isn’t easy either.
Ralf Schwarzenberg: That may or may not be true, but at least they are not going to thailand, Veitnam, Korea or Tibet and trying to drive there without trying to learn the lanuage. My family is Chinese-Thai (as in 100% chinese who lived in thailand) and both my parents can speak thai, laos, mandarin, hakka and english. I have to say that my parents don’t hate the thai. Also the language of many aborigines is Taiwanese and many Taiwanese can speak that and mandarin.
Urbanjet: Very good point. That would mean every nationality could get the message.
Alien: I get pretty mad sometimes, but I’m not a total hater.
I was talking about those Taiwanese that do hate. Sorry I should have made that clear that not all Taiwanese hate the “west”.
Amos: the mountain people of Laos have a custom where the male kidnaps a girl of their liking and marries her. The family of the girl is sometimes clueless to the where abouts of their daughter.
So if a mountain Laotian comes to North America and kidnaps a girl to marry, that’s alright? Therefore the girl would not have the right to sue or have the Laotian arrested?
okay, example is extreme, but point being you can’t assume the way you do things in your country is the norm in another.
amos: that excuse about the dictionary sounds like it was most likely a smart ass remark…I can almost hear him saying that to the cop.
by aznRice
quote:
Why should Taiwan start putting english signs all over the city?
by amos
Please correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t English now the official 2nd language. (with four confused sad faces)
I (AznRice) had wrote in the same post:
“OK I WOULD AGREE IF” english is one of taiwan’s official languages, but i really hate this western attitude towards the east.
I dunno; the Taiwanese government is constantly making new committments to increase the use and improvement of English in Taiwan. Surely the odd road sign couldn’t hurt, as most destination road signs, brochures and even products in the supermarket now have English labelling. If the government plans to stand for improving English and recruiting English teachers and businesspeople, doesn’t it make sense to have an English-friendly (if not English speaking, especially since it’s now an unofficial “official language”)? Think of Hong Kong or Singapore, for example; they are very English-friendly and a situation would never arise where an English-reading foreigner would be unable to read such a sign, because (GASP) they have English writing on them.
We also don’t know how long the person in question had been here (or do we?); if s/he is fresh off the boat, it’s a situation where our governments/ local officials likely would have granted clemency, rather than to punish an individual for illiteracy, which is inevitable for all except those who study Mandarin before coming here (and even they have difficulty with the traditional characters).
quote:
Originally posted by AznRice: 2nd, At least the taiwanese aren't going to foreign places and drive around without knowing how to read the signs.
Sorry, but that’s exactly what my colleagues (all Taiwanese) did in Ireland. (Don’t worry, Hexuan, that was more than a year ago, you are safe now.) I was told similar stories by Taiwanese who went to other countries. Though, this is probably not something only typical for Taiwan.
But truely “taiwanese” imho are the results the new regulations produce. I don’t mean the fact that foreigners are fined because they can’t read Chinese, but the ways people avoid being fined:
While you get fined for passing the wrong gate it is perfectly ok to block a gate for five minutes to search the whole car for a ticket.
While you get fined for passing the wrong gate it is perfectly ok to drive across a few lanes right in front of the gates, blocking all other traffic just to get to a “cash gate”.
I’m not sure if the new regulation was originally meant to give us such “drive through entertainment”…
Oh come on. there’s a huge difference in being able to recognise the Chinese characters for “stop” or “slow down” and “cars only paying cash go this way.” There are lanes (and signs) for cars paying with tickets, cars paying cash, and other vehicles. Although the “other” lane often has cars in it.
Besides, the article said that the toll police had fined scores of Taiwanese for using the wrong toll booths. Maybe some of them were confused as well. Or maybe the foreigner was just following them thinking he was doing the right thing.
Aren’t the toll booths in the north outside of Taipei City? Aren’t they in Taipei County? I’m not sure the county even pays lip-service to the English drive like the city mayor does.
I remember passing through one of the tollways heading from Chungho to Sanshia (that one)and being in the wrong lane. I still don’t fully understand why the toll girl wouldn’t come to the party, but I was in the ticket lane with no ticket in hand, just the 30nt. Anyway, she wouldn’t accept my money at all. Quite embarrased, and thinking to myself, now if this happened back home, the girl would listen to reason and let me through. Rather than take my money, the toll girl went to the cars queued up behind me, asking them if they’d trade a ticket for 30nt. This took a few minutes and pretty much defeated the idea that the ticket booths are supposably faster.
Speaking of toll booths, considering that I am a moron, I have no idea how toll booths are run in the US, for example. Specifically, are there humans working there like here? I mean, what must be the ‘smoker’s equivalent’ for ticket takers here? Three packs a day? That has to be one of the most unhealthy jobs imaginable.
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Originally posted by wolf_reinhold: Speaking of toll booths, considering that I am a moron, I have no idea how toll booths are run in the US, for example. Specifically, are there humans working there like here?
The toll booth attendants are like some of the non-professional English teachers in Taiwan (the ones who think NT$400/hour is good money) except they don’t travel well. Come to think of it, exactly alike.
Having driven in a dozen different countries, I haven’t had much problems with moving violations. My biggest problem is trying to understand the parking regulations of different cities around the world.
I’ve once got a parking ticket in Israel and thought I talked myself out of it. But that ticket found me 12 months after I left the country! Luckily, no Mossad agent was involved with the investigation.
ownlee stoopid peepul cant reed. Noe excusses!!!illiturrissee shud bee punnished ware evver it reers itz uglee hed. finez ar not enuff!!!
tue badd here is not malayshya so wee cant kayne the fukcer…
I regularly drive the highways and what [eed me off more than anything was the general lack of media coverage or advertising over this whole issue hence why many locals were getting caught as well.
As it happens i never use the wrong lanes, but many do and pay the extra 10NT cost, why should this not be allowed to continue.
BTW, the cost per trip is 40NT and not 30Nt as someone said.
The regulations and signs have been in place for two months now. The locals who got caught were caught not because they didn’t know about the regulations, but because they had been ignoring them.
quote:
Originally posted by Traveller: [QB]As it happens i never use the wrong lanes, but many do and pay the extra 10NT cost, why should this not be allowed to continue.[QB]
This can’t be a serious question???
Why enforce any laws then?