Hi, today I (white male) went with trash inside of our residential building (of maximum 150 inhabitants, the community has obviously more) and met in total 6 people.
I greeted them with regular “Ni hao!”
The result was…one of them, a woman, silently replied, her husband quickly looked down, like if I am not there, two others, separately, (1 male and 1 female) pretended like if I am not there and the other two of them (also 1 male and 1 female, separately) did their best to always show me their back only, so they don’t even need to look at me, of course, without response.
Where I am coming from, we would greet everyone in the building or meeting them entering or leaving the building, even food delivery guys, the postman etc.
If we can clearly recognize someone, we would greet them even if we stumble upon on them in the city and in the villages, if you do not greet someone, you are considered very rude.
People hold doors for each other, of course not always, there is always the jerk to slam the door into your face here and there, but not often and especially if we see the other person cannot find keys, is carrying something big or is disabled, we wait a little for them…
Not in Taiwan though.
Is this active, persistent ignoring of others really feeling normal and good for Taiwanese people?
If out of the sticks is in the countryside, then no, in Taoyuan, it is densely populated, where I live.
Of course there is also the opposite reaction, when school kids swarmed behind the fence smiling at me with excitement and curiosity of seeing someone unusual or in one store they remember when did I go there and even what did I buy like two months ago.
But that is rather rare and obviously much more often from women.
I live in Nankan, which I reluctantly accept is Taoyuan, and everyone in my building greets me apart from my immediate neighbours who hate me for some reason.
Not from my experience, maybe unlucky in your neighborhood. In my building many likes to talk to me in English, even I reply in Chinese they like to continue speaking English to practice their skills, which is fine with me, free English teacher
Edit: Maybe they have been unlucky with some foreign neighbors before you moved in? Some drunk foreign neighbor they had before
I have actually thought about introducing myself to the closest neighbours at least (my next door neighbours are actually Japanese), but my fiancée discouraged me from that, that probably they would not appreciate it much.
There’s a lot of introverts in Taiwan especially younger people. Older people would often greet you though.
Also in some communities the owners all know each other but don’t care much for the renters.
Also some old people hate kids cos ‘they are noisy’.
I’ve lived in many different apartment blocks in different cities I know what I’m talking about.
Once a middle aged taxi driver asked for my Line.
I thought he just wanted to practice English, but several messages later it sounded very weird and gay, so I blocked him.
Are you sure those people greeting you are Taiwanese?
For example, in the convenience stores, community reception, those who greet me and treat me better, are often immigrants from Vietnam, Malaysia or other Asian countries and I would myself not even discern their accent without being told they are not locals.
There is one Taiwanese man, who would something greet me very loud and cheerfully, but if he is feeling down (based on my observation), he ignores me as well.
I think, if in a culture it is normal to actively ignore neighbours, then the culture is rude itself.
Recently I watched a video about a small ancient city in a desert in Yemen, considering the age of the city could be called high rise buildings and one of the people interviewed said, that in Islam, it is a sin to not care and to not know how your neighbour is doing and if he or she needs help.
Well, yes, they are kind of isolated from the rest of the word, so it makes sense (and such bonds are necessary in almost all remote settlements anywhere) and I doubt that all muslims would be like that, but seeing that I am like…I wish it was normal everywhere.
Yes, pretty normal in my experience. Politeness doesn’t extend to returning greetings from weird strangers, most people don’t want to be your friend.
I found the mainland Chinese to be much friendlier
China and Thailand were like this, I wonder about Japan
A guy i have ridden the elevator with once actually sped up in the parking lot, slammed the exterior door shut behind him, and took the elevator. I was fast enough behind him to watch it close. I like to think he had a stomach problem and wasn’t a colossal prick, but am doubtful. In the building where I work, people hit the close door button to prevent other people getting on and wasting precipis seconds of their life
Wait until you start driving here
My first building had 1 neighbor who was cool. We were often running into each other on runs for smokes and booze, so there was that. Everyone else was shy to terrified. My current building has had one retired person get very chatty (and personal, I suspected whatever I shared might get shared around), but mostly there is no reaction.
Maybe if I stay here longer, but mostly I don’t see anyone anyways
haha, in Finland (at next door Estonia) not un common, but people do say hello often too.
So do they speak to you or them? People want to practice Japanese with me (ethnic Japanese) a lot, but on the other hand some are scared to talk with since they worry we do not have a common language. I had people say they were very scared to chat with me at first but really to just talk.