I know a lot of Taiwanese that will lie if they don’t want to do something.
Must be giving face or something to others by not directly negating someones ideas or suggestions or thoughts.
They will make up some fake reason as excuse. They will not just say “I don’t want to”. Which would be fine with me.
Drives me crazy because I try to solve their fake excuse and it just gets more frustrating.
I’ve learned, after a LOT of trying to fix it, to ignore the reason that is stated and just think to myself “They don’t want to”.
Also learned that it isn’t personal or negative, and I can’t think of it as personal or as a lie.
A simple example is eating. If they don’t care for my suggestion, they will say too expensive, or no parking, or don’t like that type of food, and will soon pick someplace more expensive, worst parking, and the same type of food. They will never just say “I dont want it, I’m not in the mood, etc.”
In the meantime, I’m looking for cheaper food, or better parking, or different style of food, and driving myself into a hole.
I see them lie to others, including family members, similarily.
When I first moved to Taipei I lived in a apartment with a mother , daughter and lodger.
The walls and ceiling’s where quite frankly disgusting.
I tried cleaning with bleach hot water other cleaners to no avail.
I couldn’t live with it so I decided to paint the whole 4 bed apartment, so I did in variation of colours, looked great. Paint is cheap in Taiwan.
Was only beginning, ceiling lights where crackling going on and off when it rains.
Top floor water leaking through ceiling, I go to look other residents have a garden on the roof, where all the leaks are.
I didn’t ask them moved all their garden to another part of roof and repaired leaks.
Later removed lights sorted out wiring.
Ho hum then fell out with resident land lady and had to move out.
She done well out of me.
I think it’s outside the window of polite discussion for 2021 but, generally speaking, predominantly white, black, Asian and Hispanic neighborhoods tend to have district characteristics that cut across income and education levels. Nationality…puts a bit of a twist into it but not really as much as you would think.
I don’t really mind this, but I’ll sometimes get in slightly awkward situations by trying to do small talk or build a conversation out of whatever the issue is. It’ll look like I’m trying to catch them in a lie, but that’s not what I’m doing!
Community ‘recycling’ bin for clothing that are in a lot of neighborhoods. Sign clearly says that collection is currently stopped. Every day new bags are piled on top of old bags until piles fall over. Following recent rain, it appears that rats and roaches are enjoying the donation more than any people every could.
I’m sure it is different in other parts of the country, but Dallas is a nice mix of ethnicities. I was staying in a Dallas airbnb apartment with a pool and BBQ grills. Some friends from Taiwan were also visiting, and the kids came over to swim and BBQ. I was surprised to hear them use so much English to chat with the American kids. Considering what we are seeing on the news these days, I was pleasantly surprised how friendly everyone was there.
