Taiwanese pet peeves about foreign countries

There’s a lot of thoughts about various foreigners’ pet peeves about Tiawan.

There are a lot of Taiwanese going to the west to study, I wonder what pet peeves those Taiwanese who have lived in other countries have about those countries ?

I reckon that they would make interesting reading when compared with the westerners thoughs about Taiwan.

[quote=“travelling”]There’s a lot of thoughts about various foreigners’ pet peeves about Tiawan.

There are a lot of Taiwanese going to the west to study, I wonder what pet peeves those Taiwanese who have lived in other countries have about those countries ?

I reckon that they would make interesting reading when compared with the westerners thoughs about Taiwan.[/quote]

The main complaints I hear from Taiwanese studying abroad in the US or Europe are:
Food sucks
Boring
People are fat

I think I can guess their number one pet peeve: Too many waiguoren!

I actually heard a Taiwanese girl say that in the LA airport. I was all :shock: then I said “meiyou cuo!” :smiling_imp: and she was like :blush:

When the missus lived in Australia, she was pretty pissed that everything pretty much closed at 5:00. No night markets in Melbourne sweetheart :wink:

When in Germany:

It is too cold in winter.
She cannot have a scooter.
No decent breakfast, no decent dinner.
Eating potatoes makes her fart all the time.
everything is so expensive

On the upside there are:

a public transport system that actually works (she is from Tainan)
breathable air
lots of cookies, chocolate and yoghurt
most things and people are on time
there is toilet paper in every toilet

The funniest observation:
“my godness, German girl’s boobs really are big!”

The big thing I hear about the States is how terrible the Chinese food is.

My wife still refers to white people as foreigners, even though we’ve been here in the States for 3 years.

As for the Chinese food thing, who do you think is responsible for that? A friend of ours is a chef at a fairly nice Chinese restaurant. He cooks great food at home but won’t eat at the restaurant. Strange. have you ever heard an American say, “Hey, let’s go eat at Uncle Chen’s Chinese Garden. I hear they have really westernized food.” But maybe that’s just what people say. The other night our chef friend had us and an older couple over for dinner. He had about 6 different dishes, but told us that the (very) sweet and sour shrimp and pork was for the nice older couple because they probably wouldn’t like the less familiar dishes. He was right.

As for CS’s “boring” comment, I’d have to agree on that front, I think that has more to do with country/suburb vs city living. Then again, most people here live in the suburbs.

Big boobs–yeah, my wife’s always pointing them out to me. :smiley:

As mentioned above, the biggest complaint my Taiwanese have friends about life abroad is food (or the lack of food they like). One friend even told me that the vegetables in the States are not as “fresh” and there is not as much of a variety.

Denmark:

Cold, no-one of her family present, hard to learn the language, very closed job market, old flats (But still better quality than most in Taiwan), less money (but then again, her husband was a student), feeling a bit outside society.

Never ask a German “How are you?”. He might just tell you the truth.

?

How many times have I heard from Chinese: “It is easy to confuse US (paper) money because it all looks the same.”
Well, my answer is two-fold: Yes, it is confusing if you are an idiot, and if you can’t figure out which bill is which, then you don’t belong in the United States.

Well, I’m in sympathy with that confusion, and I ain’t no Chinese. Of course you can “figure it out”, but the unique sizes and colours of notes in most other currencies make it much easier.

Yeah it’s pretty tough I guess. Is that a one or a ten printed there? :unamused:

Consider it a kind of test. If distiguishing between the bills is a problem for a person, perhaps they should be turned away at the airport.

Oh such venom!

The point is you don’t need to look at the number on many other currencies. The colour alone tells you. Pretty convenient if you are just flicking through the notes in you wallet etc. If you are used to that, then switching over to US dollars might be viewed as “confusing” mightn’t it? I certainly don’t see it as a reflection of one’s intelligence.

Serously, Soddom, you don’t need a color guide to know the difference between the bills. Sure, other nations use such a system, but telling the difference between a five-dollar bill and a twenty in the US is not in the least confusing.

Wolf, you’ve never seen "Grifters’?

?

Well, normally you say “How are you?” as a form of greeting, not necessarily expecting an answer.
But if you ask a German he might actually say “Oh, I am not feeling that well …” or “Danke, es geht mir sehr gut” … or something like that.

Wolf wrote [quote]How many times have I heard from Chinese: “It is easy to confuse US (paper) money because it all looks the same.”[/quote]It’s not just the chinese who say this either, I met yanks too who reckon the money thing we’ve got going in Aus craps all over the “boring” American notes.