can you elaborate?
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I meant “uninterested”. I fixed it.
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These days, conversations take place almost exclusively on Line, mostly with cute stickers (some animated). You need to start building a strong portfolio of Line stickers.
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Talk about Rick James, sour cream, and Troubadour poetry in Angevin France. If that doesn’t spark erudite conversation, nothing will.
well I guess your Chinese after 4 years, plus growing up there some years is good enough to understand news on tv or follow and participate in business meetings without problems - but yeah you don’t share the foreigner advantage of Taiwanese admiring your Chinese no matter how little time you lived there.
What about just speaking English with them? They will soon notice that a meaningful conversation works out better in Chinese. Just need to try English often enough so that they are reminded of it not being a good solution. And most Taiwanese even if they spent 6-12 months in an English speaking country have really poor English fluency (not skills, their vocabulary and grammar is usually quite strong in comparison).
If there really is no common topic to talk about - that will not help - but it really should not be about your Chinese.
I met many people in Taiwan who weren’t interested in me after they noticed I refuse to speak English - it’s a power game - they want to lean English I want to speak Chinese. I usually win because I just don’t give up on my principle of speaking Chinese, or they look for other targets. In Taiwan for meeting such people - I would just insist on paying all bills - and tell them it’s better for me than paying for a Chinese tutor (usually people who speak good English are more interesting for me to talk to, because better educated/more common interests). But yeah it will still be a long way for me until I can talk about economics, science or politics fluently in Chinese - I guess you don’t face that disadvantage. Rather see it as an advantage that many people want to use you for English practice. You will have enough chances to continue improving your Chinese.
In Europe it’s actually even easier - most Chinese / Taiwanese enjoy speaking Chinese with locals - they have enough time to practice their English anyhow with others.
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By making your suit dirty at dinner buffet.
Interacting at work with the local Taiwanese folks is a chore for me too. I just slog through it and act positive and friendly with all. I am not too bothered about it, although it would be fun to shoot the breeze sometimes.
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I have extreme difficulty interacting with Taiwanese people too. For the most part I have zero interest in things they are interested in.
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Have you tried introducing some social lubricant? I find after 5 beers people loosen up substantially and warm up to you even if there are limited shared interests.
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Agreed that people are a lot looser away from work (after hours, not lunch).
Indeed alcohol makes a difference. I think it also depends where you work. My previous job was much cooler. There were younger people and somehow there would be opportunities for alcohol consumption.
Talking about year-end parties what are your companies doing this year?
How about talking about the food from where your living before or anything about where you lived before ? Seems a big topic for me when I meet new people, always talking about food in Japan or Hawaii (and other places I lived or travel to) and what we miss, like and don’t like ect. Even outside of work I made foodie friends at coffee cafes and other eateries or drinking places and even the bus with a girl that had some interesting food.
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Yeah that’s my experiences of working with most Taiwanese. People are friendly but boring. I will always make an effort to spend time and talk to coworkers, but I don’t really care about a lot of the shit they have to say.
Also a lot of Taiwanese are quite protective of their true private lives in professional settings, which makes sense as people are gossipy as fuck
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That’s the problem. Taiwanese are never ever genuine. They are very protective of their true selves to anyone, not just professional settings. So it’s very hard for me to be friends with them. I don’t know how so many here have Taiwanese wives, and how they’re able to relate to them at all.
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I have had coworkers I’m friends with and have a lot of good Taiwanese friends, although will say most on fringes of society. Just the office dynamics are a bore
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Problem is, I can’t tell them apart, and I generally take their reaction to be genuine unless they give me reason think otherwise. However most Taiwanese generally stay away from me.
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You are uninteresting to them or they are jealous you even got the job or your language inabilities in mandarin limits the scope of your conversations in mandarin
But fear not we don’t always have friends in the workplace as yours may generally be hostile
It may not be you it could be them
Here’s what you can do possibly may work
As a young pumk working for an American company in Taipei I was the assistant to the GM and there were about 80 local workers
Nobody would help me in my job and they were not all that friendly either
I soon figured out that they had a local manager there that was wondering why this young punk got the job and had told the staff not to help me
So I went and asked for his help being The Godfather
of that group there and once I got his blessing it was like a light switch and I was IN
So see if there is a local office manager that runs the show and get on his side
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If they stay away from you then you are the black sheep of the group
You don’t think the same you don’t act the same so they can’t relate to you
You have to find like people to hang with elsewhere