Hello, everybody. I’m a college student.
I have to interview 3 native English speaker about your cross-cultural experiences in Taiwan.
But in the real life, I have no chance to meet other foreigners…
I will give you those questions and appreciate if anybody who can help me to do this.
Thanks for the help! :snivel:
[color=green]
Title changed by mod for clarity – DB[/color]
Just go talk to a foreigner on the street. What do you mean no chance?
It seldom to find them on the street for me…What can I do?
PS. no chance = don’t get many chances. I corrected it! I’m sorry about my poor English. 
if you live in Taoyuan, try local dives like Rodeo’s, Starbucks, Carrefour, and anywhere around Chung-Cheng Road. You could also stake out an established bushiban at around 9:00…
I’m not live in Taoyuan “city” …
It looks like a big problem…
Why not just post your questions here and ask people to send you their answers via Private Message? I’m sure someone will respond. Most of them will tell you a load of untrue shite, but that’s what they’d do if you met them on the street anyway. Many foreigners get really pissed off with this STUPID “Go out and catch a bignose” CRAP that stupid teachers here do to their students, and tell deliberate lies to make you look foolish and to try to make the teacher look stupid.
Really?
This assignment is made by our foreigner professor!
I believe someone will respond it.
But…should I post those questions here?
I’m not sure whether he could browse the website or not… (A little bit scared about that)
Please give me some confidence!
Your professor is asking you to go out hunting for bignoses even though he knows you live in a place where there are few of them around.
Sounds like a nice guy. Not!
Why can’t you just tell him there aren’t any where you live and ask him if he’d mind if you put your questions up here?
If he’s really insistent that you go out of your way to annoy total strangers on the street, ask him to invite you and some of his personal bignose friends to his apartment or a coffee shop or something so can question THEM.
[quote=“akt2139”]This assignment is made by our foreigner professor!
I’m not sure whether he could browse the website or not… (A little bit scared about that)
[/quote]
If he’s reading this - dude, you’re a wanker.
akt, why not come to our beach party on Sunday? Then you have a valid excuse to be talking to people.
Approaching complete strangers just to ask for their help with your homework is possibly going to piss them off. I’ve always tried to be polite in declining, but if pressed I have no problem telling people what I really think. Your professor is putting you in a difficult situation by asking you to do this and you should just go back and tell him that you have been advised - by a lot of foreigners - that this sort of behaviour is not acceptable.
If the assignment is for the urposes of forcing you to practise speaking with foreigners and taking notes then there isn’t much point in cheating by posting the questions here. You may as well just make up your own answers.
If the answrers are actually important then I’m sure people will answer them if you post them.
This is why I never make eye contact at CKS Memorial Hall. Damn high school kids.
Teachers who ask their students to do this are roody poo buttplugs.
Akt, where in Taoyuan are you?
[quote=“Loretta”][quote=“akt2139”]This assignment is made by our foreigner professor!
I’m not sure whether he could browse the website or not… (A little bit scared about that)
[/quote]
If he’s reading this - dude, you’re a wanker.
akt, why not come to our beach party on Sunday? Then you have a valid excuse to be talking to people.
Approaching complete strangers just to ask for their help with your homework is possibly going to piss them off. I’ve always tried to be polite in declining, but if pressed I have no problem telling people what I really think. Your professor is putting you in a difficult situation by asking you to do this and you should just go back and tell him that you have been advised - by a lot of foreigners - that this sort of behaviour is not acceptable.
If the assignment is for the urposes of forcing you to practise speaking with foreigners and taking notes then there isn’t much point in cheating by posting the questions here. You may as well just make up your own answers.
If the answrers are actually important then I’m sure people will answer them if you post them.[/quote]
Very valid points.
Another fine point.
We have several forumosans in that general area. I’m sure one or a few of us could help you out, as long as the questions are not too inane. In which case, someone such as myself could append a few notions. 
akt2139: Don’t give up. Your quest for knowledge will pay off.
Seek, and ye shall find…
In the meantime, just be yourself. 
[quote=“jdsmith”]This is why I never make eye contact at CKS Memorial Hall. Damn high school kids.
Teachers who ask their students to do this are roody poo buttplugs.
Akt, where in Taoyuan are you?[/quote]
Oh, that’s too bad.
It seems it is causing you much trouble.
I live in Pingjhen, South of Taoyuan.
By the way, could you explain about the meaning of “roody poo buttplugs” and “akt”?
I couldn’t find those words in my dictionary. (I know maybe it is oral language or acronym/abbreviation.)
Hi akt2139, and welcome to Forumosa! 
As you can see, we have a wide variety of people here. Some of us will be happy to help you. Just post your questions, and some of us will send you answers as “PMs”, which means Private Messages (look in the upper right hand corner of the screen between “Nin hao, akt2139” and “Member Center” and you’ll see a link telling you whether you have any messages waiting for you.
Thanks for those suggestions written by “sandman”, “Loretta”, “TheGingerMan”, and “Dragonbones”.
I decided post those questions as follows:
What’s your name?
Where you from?
How long have you been in Taiwan?
What is your purpose for coming to Taiwan?
Can you describe a few of the problems that you have had since you’ve been in Taiwan? (Try to identify 3 problems.)
Can you describe a few of the cultural differences that you have encountered with the Chinese people?
Please send a PM for me if anybody who is willing to answer it.
Perhaps I will find many good answers and knowledge from that!
Thanks for the help again!
Hi and welcome.
I’ll leave “roody poo buttplugs” for someone else to explain.
Akt is just your user name without the numbers. akt instead of akt2139.
Oh, you could start a whole new thread.
Personally, I have no problem answering a few questions on the street for students. I know the drill now, although when I first arrived to Taiwan I thought it was a bit weird. What is one or two minutes of my time?
I used to work near Taipei Main Station and got asked quite a few times. I did balk, however, if the student asked to take my picture! ‘
’ I’m sure that their teachers had only wanted a picture to ‘prove’ that they had actually spoken with a foreigner, but I can imagine lots of horrible things done with it.
As homework, this may not be very effective, but shyness or embarrassment to speak English in public is an ongoing problem. If answering a few questions on the street can make the clerk at 7-11 stop running away from me, then it’s worth it!
Or in front of Shinkong Mitsukoshi. Survey central!
Few suggestions:
Greeting.
Introduce yourself (name), your school (name, class), purpose of asking the questions, how the answers will be used.
Hand out a business card. Do you have a business card? (Your school business card?) You are legitimate and you must
project this image. Nobody want to talk to crooks.
Apologize for inconvenience, ask politely for help.
Smile.
Accept rejection gracefully. (do not turn around and start wisher with your friends in plain view etc )
Good subjects:
Favorite things:
What is your favorite food in Taiwan?
Surprising stuff (culture clash)
Unique stuff (first time seen in Taiwan)
Feedback (make them work for you):
What do you think we could improve in our interview?
Bad subjects:
Bad idea: Irrelevant. Proper introduction should invite interviewee to give his name.
If not he is not interested in giving it out.
Ok
Bad idea: Too specific. Do not ask for numbers, facts. You are trying to chat up people.
Bad idea: Impolitely formulated. Possibly irrelevant.
A bit better: What brings you to Taiwan?
Bad idea:
Try to talk about positives - It saves good mannered people form a need to invent non-offending “problems” as truth could be too much for a college student
??
Haven’t been in China yet.
[quote=“akt2139”]Thanks for those suggestions written by “sandman”, “Loretta”, “TheGingerMan”, and “Dragonbones”.
I decided post those questions as follows:
What’s your name?
Where you from?
How long have you been in Taiwan?
What is your purpose for coming to Taiwan?
Can you describe a few of the problems that you have had since you’ve been in Taiwan? (Try to identify 3 problems.)
Can you describe a few of the cultural differences that you have encountered with the Chinese people?
[/quote]
Wow! I’ve never heard any of those questions before.
Apart from ever single day, in adult conversation classes where people pay for the privilege of asking me to repeat myself.
You’re welcome to participate in these forums, make friends, chat, practise your English, and generally be ‘normal.’ Or weird, if you prefer. That option works for a lot of folks here. But please read some of the millions of pages of garbage that have been written on these topics, and understand that the answers you need are there waiting for you already.
And if your homework is to SPEAK then posting here is cheating. Go and harrass someone on the street, and then come back here and discuss your experiences. That might be interesting. I for one would like to know your perspective on the whole thing: