Can’t believe no one brought up medical care. Most of the doctors in the Hospitals speak English, but registering can be a bit difficult since the receptionists don’t speak English. NTU hospital has very little English and is intimidating for someone who can’t read or speak Chinese (Tapei Medical University Hospital is better in this regard). Perhaps a better way for people to see the doctor (explain the procedures better at the hospital) or publish a list of English speaking doctors/hospitals.
Indeed, this is something that could be fixed without much hassle, as some hospitals do already have a pretty decent website interface. Now, if we could just book our appointments online as easily in English as it is in Chinese, that would be awesome. And it would be doable. Not asking for the Sun and the Moon here. Not a big an investment but plenty of returns.
There should also be clear instructions about what to do when you get to the waiting room. In the West (the US at least), waiting rooms have a reception desk. Here You’re supposed hand your papers to the nurse who is often in the clinic room behind one of the closed doors. That can be really confusing.
A consistent policy on when you do and don’t need to pay for printing/photocopying/application forms at government (including judicial) offices and a consistent policy of giving receipts. It’s one thing to be told you can’t make photocopies for free. It’s another thing to be told to pay for an application form, separately from the fee for the thing you’re applying for. 
To internationalize English is the way to go that is true. Things are improving. Not quite to the level of Singapore though. Which is what Taiwan should emulate, other then Singlish.
But then one should really learn to at least speak and understand Mandarin if one desires to live in Taiwan long term.
A person speaking ONLY Spanish could get by in the USA, but a person speaking only French would have a LOT of trouble. Not to mention if you were a person speaking only say Swahili or Afrikaans, or for that matter any other language. You would have to live and hang out only with people from your country . If you only spoke Mandarin you would have a hard time in the USA.
foreigners should aim to read chinese too, it makes things a lot easier.
having english translations or not won’t make a difference to those who have no desire to learn chinese. but its helpful, especially to tourists who are not going to know any chinese. personally i always try to use whatever chinese i can, i just think the lack of English translations here go against the image taiwanese have as being friendly and helpful to foreigners. why wouldn’t they want to improve this, not to mention it would be quite easy.
One should try to learn the local language, but Taiwanese make it difficult by trying to avoid speaking Chinese to people that don’t look like them. Perhaps they should correct that attitude first.
With the occasional exception, this really hasn’t been my experience in 16+ years of living in Taiwan.
It’s common enough to be mentioned fairly regularly by foreigners in Taiwan though. Anybody who works here has certainly encounter some individuals who refuse to engage in Chinese with the ‘white man’.
It’s the bane of my existence. The reaching for the calculator or the pointing at the till to signify the dreaded transaction total.
It’s the bane of my existence. The reaching for the calculator or the pointing at the till to signify the dreaded transaction total.[/quote]
If you’ve already used Chinese, I can see that would be infuriating, but otherwise I personally don’t take exception to this. They’re just assuming you don’t speak Chinese, which - judging by the surprise and delight Taiwanese express when you do speak Chinese - is very, very common. I don’t think you can really blame them for making assumptions based on their past experiences.
On the English translations everywhere question, I do think residents should make some attempt to learn and use Chinese even though it can be very hard, especially when foreigners are busy making a living or are middle-aged or older, but there should be more English translations around the place. English is an international language, and translations benefit many speakers of other languages too. If the aim is to encourage immigration of highly skilled, experienced workers it seems obvious. Someone coming here to work in a demanding profession isn’t going to want to stay if they struggle to do simple things like booking train tickets, registering at a hospital. They just won’t have time to master a difficult language, and they won’t see why they should. Taiwan isn’t so special that it can compete with countries that make the effort to smooth the path for them.
Chinese everywhere is also off-putting for tourists, and that can have a wide impact. A foreign business owner or executive on a break who takes his or her family to Taiwan’s top tourist attractions is NOT going to view Taiwan as a country that can compete on the international scene in efficiency, effectiveness, sound business practices or any of the other relevant criteria. Simply providing English translations for everything would be a big step in the right direction.
If you speak Chinese someone and get English back it unfortunately usually means that your pronunciation and/or grammar isn’t very good. In 3 years here I have not had one instance where people insist on speaking English with me when I speak Chinese with them. In fact I love that more and more store clerks, serving staff and so on immediately speak Chinese to me without making a big deal about it.
As has been pointed out before, the idea that Taiwanese have to adapt to foreigners and not the other way around is ridiculous. The difficulty of Chinese is vastly overstated and in places that cater to tourists, whether sightseeing spots or restaurants or otherwise, there are already adequate amounts of English. Try suggesting to the owner of a small bar in Andalusia that he should provide English menus, you will rightly get mocked. But apparently in Taiwan it’s completely fine to suggest that. A lot of entitlement here when this is already the most convenient, safest and easiest environment for Western foreigners in the whole of Asia.
Let’s fix the real issues, let’s raise the bar for foreign employment - kick out the unqualified English teachers, but create incentive to attract actually qualified foreign talent for various industries. Make it easier for foreigners to start businesses. Stuff like that.
Don’t kick out the unqualified English teachers: provide a chance for them to become qualified. The fact that they are unqualified is because of the market here, not any failure of those that are providing services in that market.
With the occasional exception, this really hasn’t been my experience in 16+ years of living in Taiwan.[/quote]
if one has solid Chinese, then usually Taiwanese people will just speak Chinese. But if the foreigner is still practicing, and his or her Chinese is a bit rough, then Taiwanese will often switch to English. This is polite and even logical in a way, but it makes it hard to practice, so it can be frustrating.
its got nothing to do with the laowais Chinese ability. sometimes they are trying to be helpful but usually they just want to practice or show off their english. you do not need good chinese ability to order something. sure if there is some trouble they might switch to chinese but thats not really the language struggle we are talking about.
Mostly it’s just people wanting to speak English. They don’t even care if you are from Russia or Brazil…they’ll speak English to ya. We all know the type. 
One should try to learn the local language, but Taiwanese make it difficult by trying to avoid speaking Chinese to people that don’t look like them. Perhaps they should correct that attitude first.[/quote]
I’m going to side with RickRooney on this one.
I’m very curious as to why most foreigners are offended by locals NOT speaking Chinese to them. I see it as harmless, but some people get offended. If your capable of conversing in Chinese, Is it that hard to just start speaking Chinese to them right after they greet you in Chinese? Right?
I don’t doubt there’s many foreigners that try their best to learn the language and try to integrate themselves with the locals, however, that’s a minority of the foreigner population where the majority are those who are here for two years and don’t bother with it, right?
There are lots of reasons to get pisssd off when locals don’t speak the local language to ya
- you just want to get on with things, don’t make things complicated by speaking English suddenly or switching language in middle of sentence
- it points out that you are a foreigner or ‘different’ when you don’t want attention and want to blend in. You want to be more accepted as local by society or even have aspirations of being Taiwanese
- your English is shit in the first place
- when you want to learn the language , it doesn’t help or motivate
- you just want to have a normal conversation focusing on content and needs at hand not ‘being different’ or ‘practicing languages’
- you are competent in the language but they insist to switch to Ebglish in Chinese speaking country and their English is crap anyway , that’s ignorant and will annoy most people anywhere.
supposedly this happens in other countries like in Germany or Sweden so not unique to Taiwan, doesn’t make it feel good.
It’s mainly offending to me because it inhibits learning the language. Without usage of the language, you never improve. It also makes it discouraging to continue learning.
Mind over matter. You mind if it matters. If it doesn’t matter you won’t mind. Here’s my suggestion:
Don’t mind it and it won’t matter.
Carry on speaking mandarin no matter how they reply to you. There is no law that says that you can not continue in mandarin if you are spoken to in English.
When I speak to my sister in Taiwan she prefers to use Taiwanese. I reply in Mandarin because I am now more comfortable speaking Mandarin than Taiwanese. She continues in Taiwanese and I continue in Mandarin. What’s the problem.
I do the same when with my Taiwanese friends who also prefer speaking Taiwanese, I continue in Mandarin and they continue in TAiwanese.
There is no reason why you can not continue in Mandarin while they practice their English.
A lot of Taiwanese switch between Mandarin and Taiwanese all the time. Or between Mandarin and Hakka or Taiwanese and Hakka.
You speak what you want to speak and let them speak what they want to speak.