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Catherine over at shu flies had a great post a while back about one of her blogging pet peeves – people who generalize and stereotype about every Taiwanese person based on the actions of a few. This also happens to be one of my pet peeves and something that I, being a foreigner, have to deal with every now and then. That is to say, as a foreigner, it’s easy for me to see a Taiwanese person or a group of Taiwanese people do something and create a stereotype about all Taiwanese people. It’s something that I have to watch myself for.
However, I have an answer.
Continue reading Erroneous Taiwan Stereotypes
Been a while. I’ve been busy. However, I did find time to turn Miss Expatriate into Mrs. Expatriate and thought I would write about the process of doing so here. Like most things involving government in Taiwan, getting married is a very simple process that is muddled in bureaucracy. The process of getting married
Continue reading Getting married in Taiwan
Laowai Chinese recently made a post about numbers in everyday Chinese language in mainland China. I thought I would take the concept and apply it to Taiwan.
Most of these are used when instant messaging friends or sending text messages. A few of them, like 4, 6, and 8 are pretty well integrated
Continue reading Speaking in numbers
Even after having lived in Taiwan for quite a while, I’m still surprised every now and again at the sad state of things. How can a country that is, quite possibly, the world leader in manufacturing computing technology, be so behind when it comes to computers?
Every foreigner knows how horribly antiquated and un-foreigner-friendly Taiwanese banks are. Today, however, I had the displeasure of finding out another horrible aspect of it. It all started when Miss Expatriate signed up for online banking with Bank of Taiwan so she could wire money back to her American account without going to the bank. Since we send money back every month, this seemed like a good deal. This past week, however, when she logged in, it simply wouldn’t let her do it. She tried a few more times until she finally called them today. Their answer? You can’t use Internet Explorer 8.
Continue reading Online banking woes…
Number of times per week, on average, someone from back home asks me “So… how is Thailand?”: 542 Number of people from back home who remember that I actually live in Taiwan: 1 (thanks, Mom!)
So Miss Expatriate and I were settling down and watching some tv the other night. Flipping through the channels, around 11 pm or so, we suddenly came upon a commercial. The product? Medicine to help men get erections.
Now, this is nothing new. Every country probably has these. In Taiwan, however, they are all
Continue reading Weirdest. Commercial. Ever.
It was a beautiful day outside, so I thought I’d take my new bike, a Giant Iguana, out for a short ride. Miss Expatriate was tired and didn’t want to go out in the heat, so I had the opportunity to set my own pace, stop for pictures, etc. It was quite hot, but
Continue reading Beautiful day for a bike ride
Michael Turton, author of the View from Taiwan blog, does a wonderful job keeping me and everyone else on the island informed about Taiwan politics and many other important matters. Now it’s time to show our appreciation by voting for him as the best Taiwanese Politics and Economics blog in the Hi-On Website Competition.
Continue reading Vote for Michael Turton as the best Taiwan politics blogger
Miss Expatriate and I went to Taichung yesterday to do some shopping and have dinner. While walking on the street, we happened upon this gem of a store:
The Macgyver Outdoor Store. It doesn’t really have anything to do with Macgyver, other than putting “Macgyver” in the title might possibly attract westerners who
Continue reading Macgyver Outdoor Store
Spirits and demons are big business in Taiwan. This shouldn’t come as a surprise to me or any other American – after all, about 40% of Americans believe in ghosts, 34% believe in UFOs, and 68% believe in Angels. Not in the spiritual sense, either… they honestly believe they exist and interact in the
Continue reading Ghosts, spirits, and demons, oh my!
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