Ok, so this lady had one bad experience with one unfriendly bus driver. So, what’s the big deal? Writing an open letter to a newspaper for this is really over the top, IMO. Even worse is that this one incident is exploited on this forum to confirm one’s own prejudices about the Taiwanese. One unfriendly Taiwanese bus driver? That surely means that ALL Taiwanese bus drivers are stupid idiots. And btw, we all know now that Taiwanese IN GENERAL are habitual liars (according to Mucha Man). So this should come as no surprise. 
I can only see a couple of comments that could be construed as anti-Taiwanese.
As you say, writing a letter to a newspaper was over the top. However, the net result is an extremely gracious letter of apology from the Taipei government and the driver has been spoken to. Would the same results have been achieved with a letter of complaint to the bus company? Perhaps, but certainly nothing would have been achieved if the woman had just taken the view that that this is Taiwan and we have to accept it.
If a similar situation occurred in the UK the driver would probably have been sent on a very expensive race awareness course 
I can only see a couple of comments that could be construed as anti-Taiwanese.
As you say, writing a letter to a newspaper was over the top. However, the net result is an extremely gracious letter of apology from the Taipei government and the driver has been spoken to. Would the same results have been achieved with a letter of complaint to the bus company? Perhaps, but certainly nothing would have been achieved if the woman had just taken the view that that this is Taiwan and we have to accept it.
If a similar situation occurred in the UK the driver would probably have been sent on a very expensive race awareness course [/quote][quote=“tomthorne”][quote=“GC Rider”]Ok, so this lady had one bad experience with one unfriendly bus driver. So, what’s the big deal? Writing an open letter to a newspaper for this is really over the top, IMO. Even worse is that this one incident is exploited on this forum to confirm one’s own prejudices about the Taiwanese. One unfriendly Taiwanese bus driver? That surely means that ALL Taiwanese bus drivers are stupid idiots. And btw, we all know now that Taiwanese IN GENERAL are habitual liars (according to Muzha Man). So this should come as no surprise. 
[/quote]
I can only see a couple of comments that could be construed as anti-Taiwanese.
As you say, writing a letter to a newspaper was over the top. However, the net result is an extremely gracious letter of apology from the Taipei government and the driver has been spoken to. Would the same results have been achieved with a letter of complaint to the bus company? Perhaps, but certainly nothing would have been achieved if the woman had just taken the view that that this is Taiwan and we have to accept it.
If a similar situation occurred in the UK the driver would probably have been sent on a very expensive race awareness course [/quote]
Agreed that the majority view here is not anti-Taiwanese, thankfully. Note that this used to be quite different a couple of years ago when almost every discussion on this board ended as a huge bitch fest about how [insert negative characteristic] the Taiwanese are. However, my point is that similar shit happens in every other country too. If it happened to you in your home country, would you say something like “Those damn [insert nationality of your home country] bus drivers are really the worst!” Of course not, you would probably say something like “What an asshole!” without specifying or even giving a thought to the person’s nationality or race. That’s what normal people do.
Well talking about bus drivers. ON my one short visit to Paris many moons ago. The guy driving the airport bus once we reached the city was blocked by a car. Well the driver honked his horn several times, but the car did not move. So the bus driver got out of the bus (he was just a thin guy) and went to the car and pulled the driver of the car out of his car thru the opened window (seriously ! ) and he gave him a few punches. The other guy ran back into his car and raced off.
This was my Welcome TO Paris. And this was on the airport bus coming from the airport into the city !
[quote=“ironlady”][quote=“Deuce Dropper”]
Even if she wasn’t suppose to be there, she was and she was now in his care.
[/quote]
He didn’t react much differently from anyone else in the country who doesn’t speak anything other than Chinese and/or Taiwanese. How is it his responsibility to communicate with a random foreigner who speaks some language he doesn’t know, doesn’t speak any local language? How is she his responsibility? If I get on a plane to Italy but I really wanted to go to Taiwan, is it the airline’s responsibility to fly me there? If I get miss my stop on a Taiwanese bus, is it the company’s responsibility to turn around and take me back to where I wanted to go, when there were announcements in the local languages?
I have had my share of bus misunderstandings in the past, before I got to a reasonable level of Chinese. But that’s what they were – misunderstandings – and the misunderstanding was MINE, not theirs. Things work a certain way in Taiwan. It’s not how they work in Kansas, or Latvia, or Paris, or wherever. The driver could perhaps have been a bit more empathetic, but I do not see how it was his responsibility to deal with a random foreigner unable to communicate who is on the wrong bus (and if this was a student bus, a “partial” route, or whatever, it was the wrong bus).[/quote]
Yeah, because that is the same as what happened…SMFH
Don’t give up your day job if you planned on making a living paraphrasing fairly and accurately.
Yeah, I’ve had a few problems because of people making assumptions. One time I was going from Chenghua to Taipei, and had bought a local train ticket to keep costs down. A train was waiting, and I asked two seperate people - official and another rider, and they assured me multiple times it was not the train I needed. Only later, when the next few trains didn’t go anywhere near Taipei and I asked another official about it, did I realise they probably assumed I wanted to take the faster train. No problems though - I got into Taipei just in time to catch the last MRT train.
On a positive note…
One time I made another mistake on a train. I bought a standing ticket from a tiny village stop between Taidong and Hualien to Taipei. When I arrived on the platform, there was a train displaying “Taipei” as its destination, so naturally I got on it. I was surprised to find the train almost empty - since the ticket lady had told me there were no seats, but blessed my luck and took a seat. Slowly the train made its way along the ridge between the two mountain ranges of Taiwan, towards Hualien… or so I thought. I was surprised the mountains on the left seemed higher than the ones on the right. After a while, out of curiosity I decided to look for our location on my map. I couldn’t find the station we were at though, so asked the bin-lady to show me where we were. She pointed to a station SOUTH of the one I’d got on 
I explained I wanted to go north - to Taipei, and she got the conductor. He told me the next station was Taidong. Then he walki-talkied with someone, tried to explain something I didn’t understand, and then the train stopped at a small station. Confused, I got on another train coming the other way. Afterwards I realised he’d actually stopped the train especially for me, so I could catch the train going in the right direction!