Taiwanese culture

Nicole and Iona said I should write more about Taiwanese culture. The problem is, I'm not around Taiwanese culture enough to notice things to write about. Or maybe, after nearly 10 months, I'm starting to not notice, which is kind of sad. If it's true.

Another sad thing is that we only interact with each other, day in and day out: what that means is it's all English, it's all us and not much of the local-ness. Well, I have had a chance to get out to deal with banking problems and accounting questions, which, while they have sapped a lot of my time -- time that is not at all abundant at the moment, so it can actually be quite detrimental to work to have to spend nearly a day getting into town and back, to meet on these issues -- at the same time, it's nice to get out and interact with the "real people". :)

So, as I sit here and listen to Brasilian music (which I looove -- what's better than a little bossa nova as you sit in your cozy work corner at home on an overcast day with a soft yellow light [and a mess in the rest of your room, directly behind you, which you're trying to ignore, so that you can get some work done, aherm] -- it makes me so happy), I ponder Taiwan and its culture...

"Garota de Ipanema" is playing, with a faster rhythm than usual, and this song is so Brasil (well, Rio -- Rio culture is very specific, aherm, as us Belorizontinos will tell you, ehe); so not at all Taiwan. But this is what Taiwan is to me:

1) Friendly
2) Opposite
3) Convenient

The first one is the most important one. You cannot fathom how friendly and helpful these people are. I'm still not sure if they're generally that way, with each other and their fellow countrymen, too, or if it's because I'm a foreigner, or if it's because I'm a particularly helpless and dumb-looking foreigner, despite being a large white woman who should technically be able to take care of herself. I'm inclined to think it's the last one and that they feel they need to help these dumb-looking ones, especially much, lest we create havoc in their trying-to-be-as-fancy-as-the-Japanese society. :D In any case, although it's hard to find people confident enough to use their English with me (I think I do actually scare some people, besides small children, until I open my dumb mouth and they realize I'm actually not intimidating), when I do find them, they go well above and beyond to help.

This has been manifested in how much our bank clerk and accountant have given of their time and friendly natures, to help to work things out. Well, some processes could stand to be a bit more user-friendly for us unknowing foreigners, but that aside, considering how much of a pain I'm sure I am in not knowing how it all works and having to present all the obstacles I run into, they have gone above and beyond.

Then, the other day, I was at Carrefour, picking up some dried herbs and I couldn't figure out the numbering system. It was one of those systems where you pack what you want into a little bag, weigh it, put in the number corresponding to the item and the sticker is printed, so that the cashier can then charge you the correct amount. Well, first of all, although I thought I had located the correct corresponding numbers, I couldn't locate them on the keypad. I tired entering them manually and it still didn't work. An attendant finally showed up (she wasn't around initially, so someone must've told her the large white woman was standing at the scale looking perplexed and regularly raising her arms in a "how does this work? I hope somebody notices and helps me!" fashion) and messed around. It still didn't work. She finally figured out that my small/light amounts weren't registering, so the option for entering the item code wasn't coming up. She had me fill them a bit more. Still didn't work. More. This done a few times. All of it done with no English from her and no Taiwanese or Mandarin from me. Finally, she filled them up to the point where it'd register on the scale, printed the labels, stuck them on, then took both bags back to the filling station and threw a bit more into each one, with a twinkle in her eye and a "shh" motion. Okay, I did feel a bit like a criminal, but I thought it was pretty fun and we had our own private little snicker as I thanked her profusely in both English and Mandarin, then made my way to the register. I think this was her way of saying "sorry for the inconvenience of our not-so-wonderful-evidently system".--And I walked away quite happy, not because I had a couple "free" grams of herbs, but because I actually felt like a part of this people on a friendly, normal and casual level, with absolutely no language skills used between us. (Have I ever told you I'm really good at getting my point across via miming and acting? The only people who don't get it are the ones who are too embarrassed to acknowledge that they get it, ehehehe. Yes, I know: it's a real talent. :D)

Anyway, that's just one example. I usually don't go out of my way to ask for directions or bother people for help -- I try to figure it all out myself first, because it's actually quite embarrassing for me to bother people, but when I have to break down and get help, once I find someone who isn't too shy to try to help despite not speaking English, the ones who do help, as broken or fluent as their English may be, always go above and beyond. So I guess I would say the #1 virtue in this country is their "above and beyond" friendliness.

With the second one, there, I've modified my language after, while in Brasil, stating that everything here is backwards and my mom transferred that to someone, later, in a conversation, as the "stuck in the middle ages" kind of "backwards". I had meant it as opposite or contrary to what I know or expect, so I no longer use "backwards", because I would feel bad if somebody thought that I consider these people backwards. I don't at all. I'm still not quite clear on how their logic works, because I get the feeling (and evidence) it's directly opposite, sometimes, to how my Brasilian logic works and what I was raised with (besides the fact that I was also born with a sharp lack of [normal] logic), but it's quite interesting to see that even when something initially seems illogical (or "stupid", as some less generous people might term it), here, there's always a good, sound reason why it's done x way.

They have a reason for everything, and it actually makes sense and appeals to my often-very-black-and-white persona. In addition, knowing how everything works and why, they are then able and often willing to work around it, to accommodate other options or needs (or the questionable large white woman). That's something I could learn from. So, it's always interesting to look for the not-so-apparent-reason-that-turns-out-to-be-quite-logical-once-you-know-what-it-is.

I also see how it influences the foreigners who have spent the majority of their lives in this part of the world. When you have that one aspect, but not necessarily the "overly friendly and accommodating" part, down -- which, in my opinion, balances out this people -- there can be some conflict of wills and opinions, but every absorption of culture has its downsides, heh. Anyway, all quite interesting to my happy little brain...

The other day, as I was taking the usual over-an-hour trip, to get to the bank, I put on my bossa nova and it was slightly surreal to be speeding through this Asian city with Brasil flooding my ears... It put me in a happy place. To me, it's a pleasant mixture. But then again, I was never really considered Brasilian, to begin with. :D

And thirdly... they just really know how to make things convenient, here. It goes along with that logic. I'm sure it's not as clean and perfect as Japan, but it's really a huge leap up and improvement from somewhere like Brasil, heheh. And people are so mindful of others and respectful -- or if it seems like they're not being so, they're doing it within the usual mindful and respectful boundaries of society.

Seeing things function well and logically makes me quite happy. Of course, I do miss Brasil's general structural melee, because I do suspect my nature is rather rowdy and melee-ish, fundamentally -- and let's not even get started on the food (such as British "fish and chips" tasting Chinese-y, haha) -- but this is a nice counterpart. For now.