The Kindness of Strangers, the Friendliness of the Taiwanese

Anyone who has researched Taiwan, whether in the hopes of coming here to study, travel, or just for his or her own personal research, has bound to have come across blogs, travel, or education sites praising the Taiwanese as super friendly and helpful people. From my experiences of being here for about a month and a half now, I have found that this is indeed true. Obviously I cannot speak for all of Taiwan and of course I have come across my fair share of not-very-nice and sometimes unfriendly people, but in general, the Taiwanese people will be pretty friendly.

My friends and family have told me that I am weird for this, but I quite enjoy rainy weather and from time to time I like to walk in the rain, sometimes sans umbrella. On one such occasion, I also happened to be hurrying to class and I am sure that to anyone, I looked like I was hurrying to get out of the rain as I also had my head down and my hood on--rainy days and glasses do not make a good combination unfortunately. I heard steps behind me that sounded someone rushing after me which I did not really think to be the case. Imagine my surprise then when the person behind--a fellow student--slowed down besides me to share her umbrella with me. I was taken completely by surprise and was extremely touched at the same time that this complete stranger would share her umbrella with me when it wasn't even raining very heavily either. Granted the downpour was a little too heavy to be considered a drizzle, but it wasn't exactly a rainstorm either.

When she found out that I was going in the direction of the library, she told me that she was also headed in the same direction and offered to walk with me for part of the way. Now I had an umbrella in my bag, but I didn't want to seem ungrateful or embarrass her by telling her that I liked walking in the rain, so I thanked her for her kindness. She would have gone with me all the way to the library too if I had not asked her (knowing that she had to take the turn before the library) where her class was. When I told her that I'd be alright the rest of the way without an umbrella, she seemed a little hesitant to just let me walk out in the rain and finally told me to hurry so I wouldn't get drenched. This by far has to be one of my favorite stories of encounters with strangers and I was really touched by her kindness.

Another time, I was at a busy street market and as I was walking, the person behind me accidentally stepped on the back of my flat, causing it to come off my foot. I heard him apologize behind me but as it was a busy street I couldn't exactly stop so I just hopped off to the side of the street to fix my shoe back on. And though he already apologized, he turned towards me to apologize again and he seemed quite sincere too. By contrast, the same thing happened another time except with an American and instead of apologizing, I'm pretty sure I heard an "oh shit" and when he made eye contact with me (as I was fixing my shoe on the side of the street again) he quickly averted his gaze. Now, I am not saying that all Taiwanese are super sincere nor am I saying that Americans tend to be rude; I just found the contrast between these two reactions interesting.

As a Chinese American in Asia, I feel self-conscious about the idea of ordering in English even if there is English on the menu and sometimes if I don't know how to read the characters, I'll resort to simply pointing at the item on the menu or in the display to order. Sometimes I feel a little more daring and ask how to read the characters or what the item is. I have never gotten a negative response to this and the store owners are always willing to answer and help me. One nice store owner even pulled out the translator on his phone because he didn't know what 杏仁 was in English (it's almond).

So yes, I will say that the Taiwanese are, in general, a pretty helpful and friendly bunch of people who are willing to go out of their way for you whether you are a foreigner or not, so don't be afraid to ask them for help if you need it!