Indeed. I should have added to my analogy that I don’t make my guests clean the house or look after my kid either.
Look, words generally have specific meanings…or two/three.
Sure, I’m a resident of Taiwan, no doubt about that, but my legal circumstances makes me a guest worker.
Sugar coat it all you want with fancy elaborate terms, but by the clearest and simplest definition, I am a guest worker in Taiwan who is also a resident.
Sorry if you are above being lumped in with the laborers and carers who come from near-by countries.
I think @Southernboy makes a good point. I don’t like the term “guest” either, and certainly don’t think of myself as one. But I think it reflects the reality that foreigners are considered “guests” in this country by many, if not the majority of Taiwanese, no matter how long they’ve been in the country or how integrated they are in society.
This, to me, is probably the least attractive aspect of Taiwanese culture, and if I ever decide to leave Taiwan permanently, this will be the reason.
you can simply say you are a foreigner, or foreign resident.
I agree, those words also work.
I prefer resident guest worker as by it’s very definition describes my situation with no sugar coating.
A resident, non citizen of Taiwan who is here primarily to work on a temporary basis.
I like resident too. Temporary because my arc has to be reset annually.
So based on that definition, someone with an APRC is a resident only.
And, considering my interaction with Mr. no mask, my error was in not considering the possibility that he has an aprc. But that doesn’t make it racist. Even as a tw citizen, it’s still not racist.
Did I possibly make erroneous presumptions about him, sure. Racist? I don’t think so.
if you honestly think that everytime someone asks you where you are from, they’re being racist, maybe it’s time to go “home”.
Just because SOME people consider you temporarily here doesnt mean you have to buy into that . They are just some other people’s opinions. Opinions are like assholes, everybody has one .
The reality is very different.
Says it on my ARC. Resident. It doesn’t say Guest.
That’s not what you said (quoting yourself earlier ).
You said he was a foreigner based on his ethnicity.
That’s racist.
Of course, and I don’t buy into it. I guess in the end it all boils down to how many assholes you’re willing to be surrounded by. It’s an acceptable tradeoff to me now, but that calculus may change in the future.
Yep I’m with you there.
Look the reality of the matter is even if we didn’t stay in Taiwan our whole lives we have put decades into this place in many cases.
That’s not a guest anywhere. A piece of paper doesn’t change that.
i like teaching face to face, and that’s my job, but otherwise i’d take a cabin in the woods any day
In Japan you see that often. Taiwanese companies generally would laugh a foreign applicant right out of the office if one wanted to apply for these jobs now.
Just remember that in Taiwan that cabin will probably be surrounded by mosquitos, snakes and other creepy-crawlies, and be on a dangerous slope vulnerable to mudslides when the next typhoon hits.
have an unlimited supply of beatlenut!
A major cause of those mudslides I was talking about.
still better than a group of average human beings, IMHO
This is, unfortunately, likely true.
But the emphasis is on western-looking. From my experience children of a Taiwanese and a western-looking person rarely look like what most people consider “western”. I wouldn’t consider myself western-looking, Taiwanese usually instantly see that I’m mixed. Therefore I don’t see a large increase in this regard.
A few hundred…Maybe few thousand most here.
My daughter and her cousins are watching some stupid programme about choosing wedding dresses (I feel guilty letting them watch it, but I need a break*). A black family are currently choosing a dress and my eldest niece shouted out that the mother looks like a monkey. Obviously I gave her a stern talking to.
That was a racist experience.
- I actually quite enjoy it myself. Not as good as 90 day fiance.