Many times Taiwanese will ask me "how to get along with foreigners." I always tell them that there is no trick, that basically it's all about personality. If you have an open and easy going personality than you can deal with anybody, no matter how different or "odd" they may be to you. Yes both foreigners and Taiwanese like to throw around the phrases "cultural differences" and "language barrier" but really if you can get along with your nutty neighbor down the street, than you can get along with any foreigner/Taiwanese.
For as much as Taiwanese and Americans are alike, it's been interesting (and sometimes frustrating) to see the ways in which we are different. As well as to learn the reasons behind what differences we have and the many different ways to look at things. However there is one thing that to this day I can just not understand the reason for it....
When people ride the bus and sit in the aisle seat, they won't move over to the window seat if it's free, even if somebody wants to sit down. They will make that person squeeze past them and sit in the window seat. I don't get it, this seems like a common courtesy to me, and something that would translate all over the world; if you are in the aisle seat and the window seat opens up, you slide over to make room.
In 8+ years I had never seen somebody slide over until today. I was on a small shuttle bus and the last guy got on so there was only one seat left, and it was a window seat. The aisle seat guy thought for a moment, then just slid over to the window seat. It was jaw droppingly shocking.
So I took a picture of the back of that guy's head. It may just look like a bald guy's head to you, but to me this is like getting a photograph of a leprechaun riding a unicorn. It's just as rare.
