It’s so easy to go to another country and, being American, think the people there are much more uncultured, unsophisticated and uneducated. Shoot, I used to do that all the time when I would come over here to visit my grandparents. And, for awhile, it would appear that that way of thinking wasn’t too off-the-mark. With a lower standard of living and the underdeveloped infrastructure, Taipei, at times and in some parts of city, looked more like a town than a sprawling metropolitan city. But, clearly, anyone living here or visiting knows now that Taipei is becoming more and more the latter than the former. Now, amid all this growth in culture and sophistication, there are some traditions, behaviors and other moments that leaves me either chuckling or scratching my head.
One is guys here (mainly older dudes) will just blench out loud. And I’m talking about in the company of other guys at some buddy’s place or at a loud bar, I’m talking about at work. Imagine everyone with their noses down, typing away on their computers or talking quietly with a co-worker and then piercing the quiet is a loud belch worthy of John Belushi in “Animal House”.
The other thing is how guys here will wear a rather unflattering tank top under their white dress shirts. Now, I suspect the reason for this is that it gets hot here and, thus, it’s understandable to buy dress shirts of thinner material. Now, with shirts of thinner shirt, particularly white ones, it can be rather see-throughy, thus, immodestly exposing the guy’s areolas. So, to avoid present that scarring image to others, they wear these unflattering tank tops underneath. Either way, it just looks very professional and sophisticated, to say the least. I’d rather just buy the thicker shirt or just wear a white shirt.
Another funny thing is some of the English names people chose here. Today, I saw a co-worker’s name on an email. His name is Price. Last name? Ho.
No comments:
Post a Comment