Living with Taiwanese family - cultural differences

[tommy525]

Precisely !

[Impaler]

Vell, then, I will zhust have to fahrt in your zheneral direxion, English pigdog. Your mahther was a homster, ant your fazzer smelt of elderberrys.

[tommy525]

Vell, then, I will zhust have to fahrt in your zheneral direxion, English pigdog. Your mahther was a homster, ant your fazzer smelt of elderberrys.

Doctor Evil , where is he when you need him ?

[Puppet]

Take off your shoes before entering the house/apartment.

Yes im a stickler on that. I hate it when people come to my house and keep their shoes on ! Pisses me off. Also do NOT sit on my pillow. That pisses me off too.

In fact everything and anything you do (or dont do) could piss me off , this way we are covered on all bases

How am I supposed to fart into your pillow if I don't sit on it? Sheesh.

Hold the pillow up to your butt. Much more polite.

[Taiwan_Student]

Dinner is the time the family takes a leasurly meal. Chat about the days events and linger over food. NOT!

Thought that is the perfect western idea of a family meal it is not the Taiwanese. People tell me that it is just polite to get the eating over with. Eat, don't rush, but don't linger. That's done over friut, in front of the TV.

Just in case it is BS what I'm saying, here is some supporting evidence.
My Chinese teacher spent time in Germany as an exchange student. In Taiwan you may be taught the language, but not the culture. She kept wondering why her host father kept asking her questions while she was eating. She felt a little annoyed too at first.

I've seen people scolded for talking in my family. But you are a paid guest and not a family member. Just be aware how different people do things. It's interesting. If anyone can give a rational to this quick eating please share it. Most people can't give me a reason to my satisfaction.

[archylgp]

Dinner is the time the family takes a leasurly meal. Chat about the days events and linger over food. NOT!

Thought that is the perfect western idea of a family meal it is not the Taiwanese. People tell me that it is just polite to get the eating over with. Eat, don't rush, but don't linger. That's done over friut, in front of the TV.

Just in case it is BS what I'm saying, here is some supporting evidence.
My Chinese teacher spent time in Germany as an exchange student. In Taiwan you may be taught the language, but not the culture. She kept wondering why her host father kept asking her questions while she was eating. She felt a little annoyed too at first.

I've seen people scolded for talking in my family. But you are a paid guest and not a family member. Just be aware how different people do things. It's interesting. If anyone can give a rational to this quick eating please share it. Most people can't give me a reason to my satisfaction.

I haven't had the same experiences as you. The family I am around talks while eating and will eat fruit pretty much anytime. We talk during lunch at my office, too...

[archylgp]

About living with a Taiwanese family. I have spent some days at my wife's parent's house in Hualian and how I deal with the food there is to not eat anything they cook. This started unintentionally the first day I was there. In fact, I've never even tried anything they've cooked. The reason being is I saw the oily food sitting out in bowels for hours before dinner. I don't know when the food was cooked but I found it totally disguising. I didn't tell them this, of course; they just think I can't get use to Taiwanese food. And that's easy for them to understand: the last thing they would want to eat is a hamburger. My wife knows why I don't eat the food, though, but she doesn't care much...And the nice thing about Taiwan, is there is almost always a 7 11 or something near by; in fact, there is a great pasta place close to where I stay in Hualian. It's about time I head back there and get some

[Belgian Pie]

Be aware that bathrooms tend to be wet all the time ...

[Belgian Pie]

Dinner is the time the family takes a leasurly meal. Chat about the days events and linger over food. NOT!

Thought that is the perfect western idea of a family meal it is not the Taiwanese. People tell me that it is just polite to get the eating over with. Eat, don't rush, but don't linger. That's done over friut, in front of the TV.

...

True, people eat ... fast ... members of the family come in and pick-up some food and disappear to their spot of comfort ... but hey I didn't mind, I got the good parts for me, just for me ... but they bought it anyways for me, huge shrimp, crab, lobster ...

[Taiwan_Student]

Be aware that bathrooms tend to be wet all the time ...

Yes, for some years we did not even have a bathtub. You take a shower right on the bathroom floor. Many families still don't have tubs or are getting rid of theirs.

Even though we now have tubs, we don't bother with the shower curtain anymore.
Too much freaking mildew.

This topic was brought up a few times in "Let's Talk in English" a Taiwanese language learning magazine. Apparently many Taiwanese go abroad and forget about the shower curtain. I've seen this before, In Israel where we would just squeegee the whole bathroom.

Don't forget. DON'T PUT THE TOILET PAPER IN THE TOILET. Fold it neatly and put it in the garbage can sitting next to the toilet.

archylgp, that's too bad. Unless your wife really thinks that her parent's are lousy cooks, it is worth a try. She survived. Yes, I really had to suspend several beliefs I had about food safety and hygiene but I saw everyone doing it and I just tried.

I love Taiwanese Food! My mother in law, may she rest in peace, made a special effort to include me. I have a deadly seafood allergy. She would make a special effort to include me by taking my portion out of the pot before she'd add the fish seasoning. She would then continue cooking my portion with the vegetarian equivalent of that sauce or leave it as is.

If your in-laws are really that lousy in the cooking department, you should still try other people's home cooking. Now, where are my chicken feet!