The trouble for foreigners
I found Andres Chang’s letter to be offensive (Letter, Dec. 14, page 8). Perhaps it was intended to be.
He said that it can “be easy to be a white man in Taiwan.” Really? Because most Westerners who come to Taiwan cannot speak Chinese and that makes things difficult for us.
Yes, we can learn Chinese while we are here, but it is much more difficult for foreigners to learn Chinese than it is for Taiwanese to learn English because most Westerners did not learn Chinese in kindergarten, let alone elementary or high school. Cram schools in Taiwan are full of young people who speak fluent English so it would be very easy for these people to one day live in the US or Canada, but very difficult for people from the US or Canada to live in Taiwan.
I also found his comments confusing. He did call Mr Liao’s behavior “despicable” and said that it “in no way represents Taiwanese” and yet he went on to say how “difficult” it was for local men here and how “easy” it was for white men here. If people really believe that it is so easy for white men here then why would they not resent white men? Why would men in Taiwan not feel the way Liao did if they believed that?
When I first came to Taiwan I had to teach kindergarten classes in the morning, cram school classes in the afternoon and then I had to call students in the evening at home so that their parents could hear them speaking English.
I do not remember not having to work as hard as local people. I do not remember everybody being nice to me or respecting me all the time. I have a doctorate, but people do not consider me to be a real English teacher: I was very rarely asked to teach any grammar or writing classes; people would assume that all I could do was teach conversation classes.
I like living here in Taiwan, but as a foreigner, I am not allowed to complain about anything or else people will tell me that if I do not like it here I can leave.
How respectful is that?
Martin Phipps
Taichung
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