My girlfriend’s reading a book in Chinese about the English. Keeps mentioning things to me about English etiquette, interaction etc. How we talk about the weather, say goodbye 3 or 4 times before hanging up the phone etc. I’d noticed this last one since living in Taiwan - my English mates and I probably say something like,
“ok, see you later”
“yeah, yeah, cheers mate,”
“see ya, bye”
“bye”
whereas Taiwanese friends have hung up on me before I’ve had a chance to say bye once.
Anyway, I thought it would be a good idea to read up on Taiwanese culture from an anthropological type of viewpoint - it could ease understanding in a relationship, though I’ve obviously observed a fair bit in 5 years here. Of course this forum is a good starting point but does anyone know of any popular anthropology type books about of Taiwanese culture?