Culture Shock on Discovery Channel?

At the very beginning of my stay in Taiwan I thought that nothing could really suprise me here. After watching so many TV programmes about foreign cultures and visiting most of European countries I considered myself as well prepared for 2 months in Asia.


 Seeing Coca-Cola, Starbuck's, Zara and Carrefour on every corner in Taipei, Toucheng, Jiaosi and Ilan made me feel disappointed and realize the fact that the earth's really changed into Global Village. 
You can even buy Spanish beer here, which I thought was 100% Spanish and not available anywhere in the world apart from Spain.

I worried if there was nothing more to discover, nothing to suprise me. 

Have I really already seen everything on Discovery Channel? 

...and then Culture Shock came.

Eating with chopsticks was fun and new experience, for some it may be nothing extraordinary - you can easily order Asian food everywhere in Europe and it will arrive with chopsticks attached. But using chopsticks for every meal, including breakfast, for few weeks without any breaks for fork and knife - it's a totally different matter.

Talking about breakfast: it's not European at all to eat rice with pork and vegetables at 8am. 

Looking for alternative? Noodeln.

After a week I desperately needed a sandwich, or at least just bread ...until I found that rice/noodeln are served in Taiwan in thousands different ways and are a really good idea for healthy and solid breakfast.

Do you speak Chinese? I don't. 

Do Taiwanese speak English? Definitely no. Can Taiwanese speak English? Definitely yes.

Chinese language has nothing in common with Polish or English, 

it sounds differently, its alphabet is different.

There's no possibility of guessing what the words mean if you've never learnt Chinese.

But it's 21st century, right? Everyone speaks English. Children all over the world learn English, even in kindergarten. Here in Taiwan too. But when it comes to having a conversation - they're blocked, petrified, unable to say a word, so afraid of making a mistake. It takes time to make friends with Taiwanese, make them feel comfortable spending time with you and overcome their fear of speaking English. 

Than, you can talk about everything!

When you're just a foreigner, you're isolated by not understanding a word. People speak loudly, laugh and all you can do is wait until they translate their words to English.

 If you've already made friends with them, they speak English every time you're around.

Right now, I'm free from hesitation and prejudice and what I do is soaking in 

every aspect of Taiwanese life.

And it feels amazing!

I could write more about what's so specific for Taiwanese culture, 

but it won't make anyone feel that.

Until you start travelling you won't get to know any culture - even on Discovery Channel. 

Kasia