Okay. I have almost exclusively Taiwanese friends. I grew up in an Asian area. And I ask a billion cultural questions a day and have two friends whose “Job” is to teach me manners. And I still have situations like this where I have NO idea what I did wrong.
Sometimes I do something I think is sweet to find out later that I was being horribly rude.
Get used to it. You will get friends who realize that you are bound to make stupid mistakes.
Just wait till you can speak Chinese. If you DO speak Chinese you are arrogant and showing off. If you speak English you are being arrogant and showing off. Can’t win for trying.
Hey. here’s a bit of advice. Avoid locals who seek out foreign roommates. If they are SEEKING a foreign roommate specifically, they have expectations of you. You are best with a) someone who doesn’t care about ethnicity or b) another foreigner.
My roommate lived in the US for a LONG time. (like almost 10 years) We get along great because she understands BOTH cultures. Mine so she knows when I am being polite (and not snooty) and hers so she can tell me when my “polite” is actually rude…
God bless whoever created Forumosa!! Even on a day like today, you guys made me laugh. Thank you!
Ha, as for telling her the whole experience is being publicly posted–right now I just want to get the hell out of here without doing anything that might make her want to break my things. But there’s a good chance a letter will be left for her along with the keys—
Thanks so much, Suchafob! That’s great advice, and it’s nice to know that it’s not only the newbies who mess up. The Taiwanese I’ve met so far are SO friendly that I didn’t think twice about living with one–Well at least I won’t make that mistake again Note to self: be more selective!
Man, your roommate sounds great, I’d pay good money for one like that! She can help you with the cultural translation and Chinese too—Hmmm, maybe I should start a roommate-matching service LOL!
Woah. I never said not to live with a local. I said not to live with a local who specifically wants a foreign roommate. Not the same thing. I have had both. And my local roommates who haven’t sought out the foreign roommates weren’t psychos.
[quote=“SuchAFob”]Okay. I have almost exclusively Taiwanese friends. I grew up in an Asian area. And I ask a billion cultural questions a day and have two friends whose “Job” is to teach me manners. And I still have situations like this where I have NO idea what I did wrong.
Sometimes I do something I think is sweet to find out later that I was being horribly rude.
Get used to it. You will get friends who realize that you are bound to make stupid mistakes.
Just wait till you can speak Chinese. If you DO speak Chinese you are arrogant and showing off. If you speak English you are being arrogant and showing off. Can’t win for trying.[/quote]
I don’t like the tone of what you say here. Who the hell do you think you are? :fume:
Sorry Suchabob, I worded that wrong–what I meant was that from now on, instead of automatically assuming that I can live with a Taiwanese person just fine, I’ll evaluate the situation a little more & think twice first.
On the plus side, I am finally out of that place. Although she actually wanted me to leave a copy of my passport!! Ya, I left a note telling her why I thought that was extremely dangerous. Oh well, the saga’s over and hopefully this will become just an interesting story to laugh about later! Much much later…
[quote=“Stray Dog”][quote=“SuchAFob”]Okay. I have almost exclusively Taiwanese friends. I grew up in an Asian area. And I ask a billion cultural questions a day and have two friends whose “Job” is to teach me manners. And I still have situations like this where I have NO idea what I did wrong.
Sometimes I do something I think is sweet to find out later that I was being horribly rude.
Get used to it. You will get friends who realize that you are bound to make stupid mistakes.
Just wait till you can speak Chinese. If you DO speak Chinese you are arrogant and showing off. If you speak English you are being arrogant and showing off. Can’t win for trying.[/quote]
I don’t like the tone of what you say here. Who the hell do you think you are? :fume:[/quote]
[quote=“smithsgj”][quote=“Stray Dog”][quote=“SuchAFob”]Okay. I have almost exclusively Taiwanese friends. I grew up in an Asian area. And I ask a billion cultural questions a day and have two friends whose “Job” is to teach me manners. And I still have situations like this where I have NO idea what I did wrong.
Sometimes I do something I think is sweet to find out later that I was being horribly rude.
Get used to it. You will get friends who realize that you are bound to make stupid mistakes.
Just wait till you can speak Chinese. If you DO speak Chinese you are arrogant and showing off. If you speak English you are being arrogant and showing off. Can’t win for trying.[/quote]
I don’t like the tone of what you say here. Who the hell do you think you are? :fume:[/quote]
Is this a joke? What’s the matter with him? [/quote]
If you re-read it you will see that he is using ironic sarcasm…
Yes. It was CLEARLY a joke.
And your reply was also a joke. And this is also a joke. And so on…
Ha, yep that’s the one! (Sorry I know it’s been a few days–)
OK, OK, now all of Forumosa knows my dirty little secret…I’m ridiculously naive. It’s something I’m working on. Mixed results so far
Glad you were able to get out of that situation unharmed, RV. At least you got a good story out of it! Don’t worry about being too naive. It’s sometimes hard to spot who the crazies are. We even have a few on Forumosa.
We have one guy on here, for example, who tells everyone he’s Irish. If you encounter him online, you might actually believe it, but the second he opens his mouth it’s pretty obvious that the guy’s an American. What a crazy! :loco:
Anyway, Welcome to Forumosa RV! You are hereby initiated. Hope you decide to stick around and keep posting.
Thanks so much for the words of encouragement, Erhu! It certainly does make for an interesting story–at least I had more to tell people back home than, “Went to class–came home–ran errands–studied–went to bed.”
And I’ll make sure to watch out for any shifty wanna-be Irishmen!
Part 2 of the story–attacks have kept up all morning as I’m trying to find somewhere to move to. I’m trying to figure out how to explain that I can’t just take my bags and leave, first I have to find out which hostel has availability. Oh yes, and without sounding condescending! [/quote]
Be careful with this. Expecting renters to leave at the drop of a hat with no notice seems to be normal here.
One Taiwanese woman I know rents out an apartment to foreigners. When I was looking for a place to stay, she offered (actually, was insistent) to kick out the people renting from her so I could live there. I insisted she needed to give them a month’s notice - she said a couple of days would be enough.
I had one Taiwanese roommate (and we rented the place together, I wasn’t subrenting from her) tell me at 2 in the morning on the day I was flying back home for a couple of weeks that I would have to find a new place to live and that she was going to throw my stuff out if I didn’t leave.
She later did in fact do that to another foreign roommate - forced her in the middle of the night to leave - she had no where to go and no way to take her things.
My worst landlord - crazy David, from near Shida - took my rent money for one month, then a couple of days later told me he had rented the room to someone else, gave me back some of my money, and told me to leave, right then.
I agree with Such a FOB - if they specifically want a foreign roommate, avoid them. They either want to use you for 24-hour-a-day English lessons, or are a psycho-xiaojie looking for love. Or both.
Thank you!
Note to self: be more selective!
