While some posts from the past few weeks might give a somewhat negative view of Taiwan, living in Taiwan isn't that bad. As a westerner, life can sometimes be pretty nice here. Although I think most Taiwanese have a much rosier opinion of westerners' life here. Yes we are not treated the same as Taiwanese, and there are times when we are actually treated better than Taiwanese, but more often than that we are treated worse. But I don't really mind that, as that's part of living abroad, and at the end of the day no matter what happens I am grateful for the chance to live on the other side of the world.
One small benefit we westerners get is when it comes to quantity and quality of food. In most lunch box places you are allowed to choose which side dishes they will put on your plate. As a westerner they will usually give us a little more food than the Taiwanese.
There are those which don't let you choose, but usually we are able to get around this as well. In the picture above is the food from a place that doesn't let you choose. But they have one side dish I don't like so I am able to say "oh i don't like that one" and they will give me something else. They will usually respect that there are some Taiwanese foods which just are not so good to the western palate. The meat in the picture is Taiwan's version of how they serve rib meat. And if you can see, they gave me one and a half pieces. More than others get.
Granted it's not all rainbows and sunshine. Some places will take advantage of foreigners. There are quite a few serve yourself buffets, and when you go to pay foreigners are charged more than Taiwanese. It's quite a shame, but you can just stay away from those places. And really I go in to any exchange thinking i'm going to be treated poorly, so i don't get too upset if i actually am. And if i'm treated fairly or even treated well, it's a nice surprise.
But of course it wouldn't be Taiwan without those many westerners who arrive expecting to be treated like kings and queens. I don't understand going to a country thinking you are better than the people there, yet people like that do arrive. They expect to be treated better, given liberties that Taiwanese don't get, and that in any dispute they are right.
Perhaps i'm being too harsh on them. Granted our cultures are different. In the west we have "the customer is always right" but in Taiwan it's more that customers are viewed as a burden. I learned very quickly that life is much easier here the sooner you adjust to the Taiwanese way of thinking. Yes some (many) things might seem strange or perhaps illogical, but you aren't going to change thousands of years of culture in one afternoon.
If I'm being honest, I don't really care for foreigners like this. Taiwanese opinions of westerners are still being formed, and every foreigner who acts entitled just makes the rest of us look bad, and get treated poorly in the future. Which is partially why I'm always (well i try) on my best behavior. I know that every action I make will influence the way the people around me view westerners. So i want to give everybody the best impression possible. Cause too many times I will walk into a place and the person is just a jerk to me, and I can only think "oh boy, what did some foreigner do to this person in the past to make him/her act like this towards me?" Then to combat their predisposition, I kill them with kindness. Or rather with creepiness since I can only smile widely and speak the Chinese of a four year old.
