Kelsey's Homerwork (finally)
Querky cultural differences between Taiwan and Canada.
I have actually been sitting at my computer to find some cultural differences that would come off as quirky and not racist on my part. I don't want to write a post that sounds like a bunch of intolerant ramblings of an uneducated buffoon. But I can't promise it won't, so here goes.
It's hard to point out cultural dissimilarities between Canadian culture and Taiwanese culture because to compare we first have to find a similarity to base ourselves. And since Taiwanese culture is so different I don't even know where to begin.
There are tonnes of major differences, but smaller less apreciable ones as well. Note that these our based solely on my observances and may be different from others' perceptions.
One of the biggest differences I find in the people of this country is their animation. Not the cartoons on TV but in the animation of their bodies as they talk and think and laugh with their friends. When I teach at my High School I always find it interesting to ask the students difficult questions. I sit back and await their response and watch a contortion of their face that I would almost call acrobatic. I try thinking back to my friends and coworkers in Canada and I can't recall anyone I've ever encountered scrunching up their face as they thought of an answer to a question. Yet, in Taiwan I have seen students distort their faces so much as they think they become almost unrecognizable.
Facial agility isn't the only area where the Taiwanese seem more animated than my Canadian compatriots. They seem to be overanimated and also over-reactionary to humor. In Canada if I am sitting around with my friends and someone tells a humorous, though not totally hilarious, story, we will laugh, smile, possibly cry if it's funny enough, but that's it.
In my classes with my adult students they will do all of this, but they will also throw their bodies into it. I have had students appear frighteningly close to falling out of their chairs as they laugh and convulse in levity.
Other differences would have to be their adherence to folk medicine and traditional beliefs much more than we do. In the west we have our folk remedies and traditions, but we don't swear by them. In Taiwan they have a much stronger belief in these things.
One of the oddest differences is in their recommendations to sick people. In Canada we swear by orange juice and ginger ale. But we know that these only cure certain ailments. In Taiwan they have this miracle drug. An elixir of bewildering proportions.
Warm water!
That's right. Louise gets mad at me when I make fun of it, but seriously, no matter what's wrong with you, someone, somewhere will tell you: You should drink more warm water. I've had headaches, athlete's foot, stomach cramps, mystery abdominal pains, coughs, sneezes, sore throats, eye pain, fatigue, and diarhhea(sp?). And they have all elicited the statement from either a friend, student or co-worker: You should drink more warm water.
