Dangermouse, perhaps what seemed like a blank look to you was actually Richardm’s best effort at a smile.
Also, why did you say ‘hello’ when you were getting off the train? I usually say ‘goodbye’, or some variant, when I’m leaving. Hello is for when you get on the train.
If someone used hello instead of goodbye I would a) assume they were yet another person who wanted to practise their English, and b) definitely not get off the train with them to continue the conversation.
I hope that you nudged Richard and told him he was being a surly git and should have been a lot nicer to that chap who just tried to start a conversation with him. Did you talk to the guy youself?
Yes. He was very disappointed and wanted to make a formal complaint to the respective authorities about Richardm’s rudeness. I’m not sure what came of it though.
Is there a special ‘surly foreigner administration’ that you can file reports with? Perhaps it could be set up as some sort of scheme, where we are all ‘friendliness police’ and can write tickets for people who don’t smile.
It’d be great until people started being silly at happy hours.
I’m a rude bastard and will most likely ignore you if you dare disturb my stewing/walking routine. Then I’ll give you the Horrifyingly Blank Stare and the dreaded Insincere Nod of False Recognition. That’ll learn ya!
A better comparison might be with gays who hang outside public restrooms. Maybe we could use a “hanky code”?
(Isn’t that the name of a best-selling novel? “Da Hanky Code”?)
Liar!! You read your paper on the MRT and when a happy furriner walks towards the train exit to get off and says “Hello” you just look up blankly, then get back to your reading.
I even know you read the Taipei Times.
I know. I was there.
[/quote]
Is that true? Next time you can just give me a big hug like Namehottie does. Or punch me.
I tend to give the normal nod or chin lift when I see another foreigner, but usually don’t say anything else, unless they do.
It reminds me of a story about when I first got here, about a week after my arrival I was walking the streets alone exploring when 2 foreigners approached me looking confused, they asked me where a bar is cuz they wanted to get some drinks and me being a newbie I said you could try 7-11! I just didn’t know of any other place!
But now being here for awhile I look for those lost people to try to help em, since now I know of tons of bars!
I just want everyone I know to wear a big sign advertising the fact. Then I won’t have to do the Covert Stare of Potential But Not Yet Established Recognition leading to the Who Me? I Wasn’t Looking At You Anyway expression of surliness.
Start a sticky in this forum 
I haven’t experienced the snubs that have been spoken of here. When I make eye contact with someone on the street or wherever I nod and smile and get the same back. I don’t go out of my way to seek out foreigners to say hello to on the street though.
The first rule about Fight Club… 
People of color?
I took it to mean “people of a color that is not the majority in Taiwan.” Now, if you had said “colored people”…I would have been surprised.
(Actually, “colored people” is not polite in the US, but I’ve heard that in South Africa the term is simply descriptive for people of a certain mix of races. Can anyone clear this up?)
About the nodding, saying hello:
It seems that everyone here is touching on a common phenomenon: The more of something there is, the less special it is. In general, “big cities” are often deemed “unfriendly”. New York City follows this stereotype. Taipei, IMHO is surprisingly friendly considering the millions of people cramped in the given area. I’m sure the backpackers of 15+ years ago bonded more than now because they could tell they were all in the same boat.
I would sometimes ride a big bike up into the mountains on Sunday and come across a lot of others with big bikes. Everyone waves to each other or flashes their high-beam, etc. We all know we’re enjoying the same thing. Same with the backpackers. One time I even explored a pathetic excuse for a road (State Road 24, way east of Wu Tai, Ping Dong Xian) on my motorcycle in heavy fog (not recommended). After about an hour of not seeing another human, I encountered some backpackers from Taipei!!! OTHER HUMANS!!! We were so happy to meet each other. I lent them my (very rare at the time) mobile phone and let them call their friends from GaoXiong to come up and pick them up. I was the only person they had seen the whole day. No snubbing was involved. (Now, it kills me that my phone actually worked way up there).
Keep in mind that it’s ridiculous to think that someone could dislike a friendly hello. If someone seems to snub you, it’s probably because you surprised them and they couldn’t think fast enough to respond. By the time they decided to respond, you had passed each other. I am guilty of having done this a couple times. Keep being friendly. If you say hello or smile and you think you get snubbed, at least you “win”.
Maybe some foreigners don’t like, um, foreigners. 
Yes!!! Do what you want–it’s a free country!!!
I guess in my last post I was trying to help out the Good Samaritans. You don’t like foreigners? I can understand that to some extent, too.
Guess I’m a “middle of the road” kind of guy.
It’s nearly 1am and I was hungry. I just went out and got majorly snubbed by a foreigner!!! Speak of the devil… This guy’s expression looked like he had a Liu Lian up his ass and twisted his head around to face away from me as we passed. Interesting. Very interesting.
I will not POWT over this situation, though. (= agony in dealing with a Piece Of White Trash). Good meat, veggie, rice combo, too!!! Mmmmm.
[quote=“coolingtower”]It’s nearly 1am and I was hungry. I just went out and got majorly snubbed by a foreigner!!! Speak of the devil… This guy’s expression looked like he had a Liu Lian up his ass and twisted his head around to face away from me as we passed. Interesting. Very interesting.
I will not POWT over this situation, though. (= agony in dealing with a Piece Of White Trash). Good meat, veggie, rice combo, too!!! Mmmmm.[/quote]
Rotten luck. At least you got some good grub to make up for that rubbish foreigner.
It may be human nature that when we see a facial expression on a complete stranger, we automatically discount the possibility that it may have nothing whatsoever to do with us personally.
A sage observation.
The fellow might have been in pain, preoccupied with the misery of having just been jilted by his one and only, and thus in no mood for any kind of communication with a stranger randomly encountered in the street even if he was aware of you being there.
When I first got here I was all about snubbing the foreigners, I’m an exchange student here so I had in my mind that I had to experience the culture, and foreigners weren’t part of that. I’d smile if someone nodded at me, but then I always complained about it to my friend. "What the hell is the nod for? Does it mean: “Why hello there, I notice that you are not Asian, neither am I. That is nifty.”
Now that I’ve been here for longer I tend to understand a bit more, and I’m much more intersted in talking to fellow foreigners, really like hearing their reasons for being here. I’ve always found foreigners to be nicer than Taiwanese people, even if you do speak Chinese, some Taiwanese just can’t get past the foreigner thing.