I’m just interested to know how easy it is to make friends with the Locals? Much as it’ll be nice and familiar to be friends with ex-pats I don’t want to end up on one side of an us-and-them scenario. I’m gunna be teaching children so I don’t imagine I’ll be taking them out for a brew at the local. (Probably not anyway.)
Speaking Mandarin would be a good start. Smiling and saying “Hi” is always nice. Saying “He/she is sooooo cute!” to any and every baby you see.
Alternatively, you can always leave the door to your apartment slightly ajar so that the neighbors can hear and see what’s going on inside. Wear provocative clothing so that they always have a legitimate reason for having something to say about you. Answer any question directed at you immediately (even if you have no idea what the question was), and in a very loud screeching voice (or just a screech if you are clueless to the question) that makes their heads snap back.
That should do the trick. 
I personally find it easier to make friends with the Taiwanese girls. The ones I have met seem much more confident, friendly, outgoing, etc. than the local guys. Also, the girls seem to speak much better English.
Even at work the girls are more assertive and easier to talk to.
It seems at times as if some of the Taiwanese guys feel a little threatened by our presence.
Just a personal observation and certainly not true for all.
Good luck to you!
Thats interesting and not surprising if you are filching all their women!! I’m a girl so maybe thats my in to getting on-side with the locals;
“Hey there, what about all these big-noses stealing your women? Sad state of affairs no doubt!”
…and if they are women…
“I can introduce you to lots of foreign men.”
…and of course I will wear inappropriate clothing, leave my door ajar and argue loudly with my house mates, bark at anyone who asks me questions, demand everyone speak english to me and point out how short they all are.
Thanks for the tips guys, I feel befriended already! 
If you like going to department stores and sitting in coffee shops it should be easy to find local girls willing to join you. To find companions for other activities might be more difficult.
[quote=“Em-dogz”]I’m just interested to know how easy it is to make friends with the Locals? [/quote]Em-dogz -
2 words…Bin Lang.
So pulling a Taiwanese girl onto the bar and challenging her to skull a 1125 of absolut isn’t going to make us BFF? (Best Friends Forever) How do all the ex-pat guys hook up with them then? “Excuse me I was browsing the hat department and I couldn’t help noticing the marvellous shape of your skull…”
I’d like to meet some locals from my age group- 20’s and do fun stuff with them- but it sounds as tho my idea of fun isn’t conventional for Taiwanese. Am I right?
Whats Bin Lang? Is it betel nuts? If it is then we are away as I intend to pick up a habit as soon as I arrive.
There must be some wild and crazy, adventure-seeking locals, but they’re less common than back home. Taiwan is, for the most part, one extremely densely populated city and most locals spent their childhoods divided between school, cram school, 7-11, McDonalds, department stores, video arcades and at home with mommy and daddy, so that’s all they know.
I actually did say that to a Taiwanese girl once, long ago. She said, without missing a step, “You’re the first one to notice. I was dropped on my head when I was baby.”
I also said that to a local girl in my “single” days. She replied, without missing a beat, "I couldn’t help noticing the marvellous shape of your bone.
I also said that to a local girl in my “single” days. She replied, without missing a beat, "I couldn’t help noticing the marvellous shape of your bone.
[/quote]
Short girl? Dark hair, tan skin, cute?
With the exception of about 8 people, all my friends are local. No issues with that.
[quote=“SuchAFob”]With the exception of about 8 people, all my friends are local. [/quote]Is that including me ? :bouncy:
There must be some wild and crazy, adventure-seeking locals, but they’re less common than back home. Taiwan is, for the most part, one extremely densely populated city and most locals spent their childhoods divided between school, cram school, 7-11, McDonalds, department stores, video arcades and at home with mommy and daddy, so that’s all they know.[/quote]
Although MT is right about latter being more common, I have had the pleasure of meeting some really cool, fun young Taiwanese women that certainly don’t fit any standard mold. In different places, but if I had to pick some more likely locations: gyms and dance clubs.
Of course, they will be a minority there, but you’ll probably have no trouble recognizing them. In the gym for example, the clue is a girl who doesn’t wear glitter sweats and actually puts some/any resistance level while on the cross-trainer.
In the club, it will be the one who actually dances, instead of just clutches all night onto her (foreign) boyfriend passively.
And FWIW, in the beginning of my stay in Taiwan (a year ago) I had this weird determination that I wasn’t going to ‘waste time’ socializing with foreigners 
because, as I used to tell my Taiwanese friends back then, “foreigners? I have that at home” and wanted to focus on ‘soaking up the local culture’, blah, blah… But soon enough things fell into its natural place and now I have a pretty ‘balanced’ group of friends, without much deliberate planning.
I’ve known a few Taiwanese girls who could drink me under the table, into the basement and about half way to Switzerland. Then again, you’re talking to someone whose idea of fun currently involves a bit of light gardening and puddings.
You remind me of a girl I used to know called Emma - you’re not Welsh with bakery connections by any chance, are you?
[quote=“Em-dogz”]So pulling a Taiwanese girl onto the bar and challenging her to skull a 1125 of absolut isn’t going to make us BFF? (Best Friends Forever) How do all the ex-pat guys hook up with them then? “Excuse me I was browsing the hat department and I couldn’t help noticing the marvellous shape of your skull…”
I’d like to meet some locals from my age group- 20’s and do fun stuff with them- but it sounds as tho my idea of fun isn’t conventional for Taiwanese. Am I right?[/quote]
Welsh? bakery connections? Shes my third cousin. All emmas are related 
.
I have many friends here.
Locals.
They always wave at me, so they must be.
[quote=“bob_honest”]I have many friends here.
Locals.
They always wave at me, so they must be.[/quote]
If that’s the case, I’ve got tons of friends working on the XinYi line in front of my apartment building. They seem to multiply in number when I leave the house wearing a skirt (I know…I don’t see why they’re more interested then either 
).
I knew it. Just remember that we promised to be discrete about that whole incident with the carrots.