This argument has been used by several foreigners who feel that, if ROC citizens are treated a certain way in, say, the US, then US citizens should be treated the same way in Taiwan. However, if you want to be fair, then doesn’t something like thismake sense? After all, how many US states post all of their road signs in Chinese?
Yet I know of so many foreigners who routinely get out of tickets by claiming to not speak or read Chinese even if they do, yet still cry “international reciprocity” when ROC citizens in the US are entitled to priveledges they themselves want to have in Taiwan. Isn’t this somewhat of a double standard?
quote:Originally posted by Poagao:
After all, how many US states post all of their road signs in Chinese?*
Chinese is not an international language.
quote:Originally posted by Poagao:Yet I know of so many foreigners who routinely get out of tickets by claiming to not speak or read Chinese even if they do......
Chinese in Europe and the US do exactly the same thing.
In Germany road signs are in German only, but I think the difference (the issue) are the characters - a bit difficult for foreigners to “read” here in Taiwan.
A German, even he doesn’t speak any English, can at least read the road signs in the UK or the US, but hardly any in China/Taiwan or Korea for that matter.
A Chinese who doesn’t speak a bit of English (can’t read latin characters) would have a hard time though in those countries mentioned, too.
What I found funny was the unnamed “long-time foreign resident” quoted as asking how something can be a violation if the violator doesn’t know its a violation – what a big curly toley!
My Chinese is nowhere near good enough to be able to read those kinds of signs, but it wouldn’t even cross my mind that this should give me some kind of immunity.
Of course, the real story here is the super-duper reporters who allowed the quotees probable sarcasm to pass completely over their heads.
i think the original post was about the “double standard”
i knew serveral chinese women who cried their ways out of tickets in the US! lol
ive done the idiot smiling and head nodding too to escape the law…
im my mind, theres no double standard, it works both ways, just not for the same people…
in taichung i used to get stopped EVERY night going home at a motorcycle checkpoint becuase one of the cops, with an M-16, could speak English…id BEG him to let me get on home! lol it all evens out in the end
He should have known they were going to begin enforcing what is an old law anyway. It has always been illegal to pass through the wrong lane. Unless of course he was here briefly and driving a hire car thenI think he has a reasonable gripe.
What they should try and overcome is the reason why people want to take the bus lane in the first place. That is because there are usually 4 bus lanes and only 2 for (paying) cars.
The big problem at those lanes isn’t people going through the bus lanes as they have to pay the extra toll anyway. I couldn’t see that being a problem. The trouble starts when guys start trying to cut into the car lane because they don’t line up. That’s the all pervasive stuff you thick faced attitude that pervades a lot of Taiwan society. They don’t even try to police that, because it’s dangerous and difficult.