I’ve always classed the Taiwanese prediliction for 10-point turns on busy urban streets as simply selfish. Now I see it differently.
Its self preservation. Taiwanese get hopelessly lost if they try and drive around the block to reverse thier course.
Kaoshiung case in point: We’re looking for a restaurant which is on an E-W road (lets call it Tofu Lou) about 2 blocks E from our current location.
Taiwannette turns N at an intersection (not sure why she did the turn) to ask directions at a 7-11 on the corner.
Now we’re facing the wrong way on a busy road.
Taiwanette : “Oh, I’ll have to do a U-turn”
Me: “No, just go around the block back onto Tofu Lou”
Taiwanette: “How do you mean?”
Me: “Just turn right at the next intersection, then right again, then left back onto Tofu Lou”
Taiwanette: “Oh, I see. OK”
[In fact I wasn’t completely confident this would work out, though Kaoshiung is a lot more ‘gridded’ than Tainan is. I figured it was worth a try though]
So she makes the turn, but then the street dog-legs N and T-junctions.
Me: “OK. Take a right here”
Taiwannette: “No, You have to GO STRAIGHT. Trust me, I’m Taiwanese” (She was, I think, joking with the last bit)
Me: “I wont trust you. You arent using your GPS. You’ve made one turn and you are completely lost.”
So she GOES STRAIGHT (ie N) and points triumphantly at a (different, naturally) 7-11 on the next block.
Taiwanette: “See?”
Me: “Yes, a 7-11. All is Ｒight with the Ｗorld. You are SUCH a Taiwanese”
So she plunges on for a few blocks, then I persuade her to turn left Ｅ and with some difficulty, left again Ｓ
Ｂｙ ｎｏｗ Ｉ’ｍ ｐｏｉｎｔｉｎｇ ａｔ ７－１１’ｓ ａｎｄ ｇｉｇｇｌｉｎｇ ｈｙｓｔｅｒｉｃａｌｌｙ （ｄｕｎｎｏ ｗｈａｔ’ｓ ｕｐ ｗｉｔｈ ｔｈｉｓ ｔｅｘｔ． Ｃｈｉｎｅｓｅ ＯＳ） ｔｈｏｕｇｈ ｓｅｔｔｉｎｇ ｍｙｓｅｌｆ ｕｐ ｆｏｒ ｍａｊｏｒ ｆａｃｅ ｌｏｓｓ ｉｆ ＂ｏｕｒ＂ ７－１１ ｈａｄｎ’ｔ ａｐｐｅａｒｅｄ．
Ｓｈｅ’ｓ ｓｔｉｌｌ ｔａｌｋｉｎｇ ｔｏ ｍｅ ｔｈｏｕｇｈ． Ｇｉｒｌｓ ａ ｇｅｍ．