Cultural Compassion Moment #1 If you're a Westerner in Taiwan, chances are that you'll have had the following experience: A par...
Cultural Compassion Moment #1
If you're a Westerner in Taiwan, chances are that you'll have had the following experience:
A parent will push their child - sometimes an adolescent, often younger - in your direction, saying in vaguely scolding-sounding Mandarin, punctuated with poorly pronounced English, 'Hello' or 'How do you do?'
What the parent is probably saying is some variation of, 'Mummy and daddy have spent thousands on English lessons you didn't want in the first place. Now show us that we haven't wasted all that money!'
If the child is the confident sort, they'll then say a few words in English in your direction. This is fine. Greet them back, always smiling.
More often than not, the child will fall into personality type 'B', and will look distinctly uncomfortable. They might even look as if they hate you, but don't take it personally. Instead, imagine your your own parents, first forcing you to study a completely alien language when you'd rather be playing video games, then trying to get you to perform like a trained monkey for some random funny-looking stranger on the footpath. Just keep smiling. But remember this moment for Cultural Compassion Moment #2.
Consider instead the reluctant performing child of Cultural Compassion Moment #1. It's entirely possible that this nervous person before you is that child, all grown up, and that your current interaction is bringing up memories about which they'd rather not be reminded.
Though this only might be the case, smile sweetly, practising the compassionate patience of Buddha.
Source: Lonely Planet Taiwan
Cultural Compassion Moment #2
Also common among Westerners visiting Taiwan is an experience of the following sort: You are at a bank, a restaurant, or someplace else, desperately wishing that the local with whom you're briefly interacting could understand just a few words of simple English. But they can't; in fact, you seem to be making them visibly uncomfortable by your presence. Perhaps they're fidgeting, or stammering something unintelligible, or just giggling nervously. They certainly aren't helping you get your money changed, your coffee sweetened, or whatever it is that you came for. You find yourself wondering, 'Does this individual dislike foreigners?'Consider instead the reluctant performing child of Cultural Compassion Moment #1. It's entirely possible that this nervous person before you is that child, all grown up, and that your current interaction is bringing up memories about which they'd rather not be reminded.
Though this only might be the case, smile sweetly, practising the compassionate patience of Buddha.
Source: Lonely Planet Taiwan
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