today in the thread:
OP continues posting on a message board looking for advice despite already having received the best advice he could get from us ijits multiple times:
Ok, well you already taught him a lesson not to close the door in people’s “Faces”. However, in doing so you did break the law with the middle finger. Ive done similar things many years ago. If you get any kind of criminal record bang goes your teaching job and your life in Taiwan. For him at most a suspension.
Also it’s not good for your own health to get so angry is it ? You didn’t let him walk over you and thus far it appears there are no criminal charges. Why not chalk it down to having a bad day?
Yeah, fair enough.
Yeah, I’m just a bit shaken up by it, and it’ll take me a little while to get over it completely.
@ninman ths last time I used the middle finger, it was in Philadelphia. Some angry driver was high beaming everyone, tailgating, honking.
I was in the travel lane, but once they managed to convince the last driver to get out of her way, I opened my window and prepared the one-finger salute.
In the time it took me to flip said bird, and raise my window, I was the surprised owner of a half drunk bottle of Gatorade.
Or, I could have been shot. Run off the road, etc.
It’s an experience that leads to better judgement on your part. It happens.
Another experience that will lead to better judgement is GETTING ON THE BUS. wow.
[Tolkienesque long-ass sentence warning]
As soon as that bus driver decided to abdicate all professional discipline, not to mention the most basic courtesy or consideration for his passengers, and hit the brakes only to leave the vehicle in traffic, only to bitch you out, you should have realized things had gone decidedly pear shaped.
This is your only security. The driver has so much more to lose here. 900 us for you. That will sting, but he could stand to lose that much in suspension, job loss(?). Maybe I’m optimistic about the quality of professionalism here.
Finally, I’ll ask anyone who cares to answer, both how and why did the driver see OP flip the bird. Because the driver was looking the last place they should. Not ahead at the road, not the left mirror to safely merge with traffic.
@ninman certainly exhibited stupid in his behavior, but the bus driver held the greater trust and responsibility, and arguably acted yet more stupidly.
We’re only excoriating OP because we lack recourse against the bigger idiot. If the driver was a professional, this thread wouldn’t exist, regardless of OP’s meager yet-burgeoning wisdom.
OP, prepare to defend yourself legally, but it would be approaching stupid to look to gain more than a life lesson from this episode. Play nice, play neutral, and it probably goes away.
Yeah, I’ve been told by multiple Taiwanese people that him stopping the bus not in a bus stop and then abandoning his passengers is a huge deal.
In Taiwan the bus driver is only allowed to stop the bus in a bus stop. So if the company found out he did that he’d be in major trouble, just for that alone.
I also want to know how he saw it too, given that he should have been looking in the opposite direction and concentrating on pulling out safely.
You don’t drive here much, do you? 
No, just drop the matter. You were lucky you weren’t sued or whatever or end up going to jail, or have commutable sentences (where you pay 1000nt a day to stay out of jail). Bus drivers don’t have a lot of free time by the way.
And that’s just “legal” remedies. If you piss someone off they may take other than legal remedies, which means ending up in the hospital or worse.
The advise of not pissing people off matters anywhere in the world. Just because Taiwanese are non confrontational doesn’t mean they will stay that way if you piss them off.
seems like looking in the right side mirror after you thump the bus would be a natural thing to do.
I’m curious though… which route and number was it? @ninman
My girlfriend is using the bus system a lot in Taichung and I want to make sure she doesn’t encounter such a driver.
The OP better hope people aren’t thinking in the same way. “ I wonder which foreigner that was- I wouldn’t want to encounter/employ them.”
lol another victim of Taiwan’s snowflake law.
Probably the stupidest law in Taiwan.
I am surprised I havent fallen foul of it yet, the amount of times I’ve gotten frsutrated with a moron and swore–usually people who do stupid things like get onto the MRT and stop at the entrance rather than getting onboard so everybody is trying to squeeze past them. They always get a “get out the fucking way”
I did some research and apparently there are similar laws in Japan and Korea, but weirdly not China.
I think sending people to prison for simply insulting someone is also ridiculous.
Yup totally agree but even in the west you can get worse than prison like getting cancelled (Differing consequences correlated with your social status).
In Taiwan they also have a "Public morality " law.
I think it’s all designed that if someone in a high place wants to get you then they can find a way.
@Marco might know more about the public morality law.
I think the adultery law was finally anulled.
Most western countries have that "Breach of the peace " law that is liberally used or can be. A public morality law sounds very subjective but Taiwan does have one.
Not an insult.
Where do you draw the line on what’s an insult? I would argue that referring to me as 外國人 is an insult, because he has no way of knowing that. If I had Taiwanese citizenship then I’m not a 外國人, and calling me that would be very offensive.
but he did, he got into a scuffle with the driver, they put hands on each other. He also tried to operate the bus.
The bird is the very least of OPs issues.
I told the police that. They didn’t charge me.
Nope. 外國人 can also mean just not from here. The people in my tribe call people who don’t live here that term. Sometimes we just call them tourists. Or other words in the Tsou language you do not want to know the meaning of lol.
Does not mean anything. The bus driver or the bus company could refer it to a prosecutor who could charge you. Or the police might change their mind and charge you. Not being charged on the day does not mean you cannot be charged later on.