Life as a Foreigner in Disguise

I am in a a country where I am a foreigner, but I don't look like one.

Living in Taiwan is nice, it takes time to adapt, different variety of food, the language, the culture and the people.

Food

Food wise, it is not very hard to adapt to Taiwanese food, just that coming from a country rich with different cultures and vast selection of cuisines, it would be hard not to miss home. Your taste buds will start to feel so bland that somehow you are not interested with the local food no more. So to resolve this we have to start cooking.

Cooking for two is never easy, it is hard to get the right portion of ingredients and you will tend to over cook for two. Not just the portion, there are still ingredients that you would not be able to find in the market or supermarket. For example, it is difficult to find a whole garlic at the market, they usually sell them after they are pealed. Nevertheless, you may try looking harder into different supermarket for the ingredients you want, they may be slightly overpriced.

I remember that last summer, I was craving for chocolate ice cream, so much so that I went to all ice cream shops to get them, but non of them were similar to Baskin Robins or Ben & Jerry's. The painful part of this is, living through the unfulfilled craving.

Language

I won't say I have serious difficulties in the language, as I know the language, Mandarin. However, Mandarin was not my mother tongue, it is English, or Malaysian language (meaning a mixture of all languages). So there are moments that I have the word in English or Malay or Cantonese, but just somehow can't get the Mandarin word of it. Besides that, there are terms used in Taiwanese that were different from the ones used in Malaysia, for example, the straw(水草->吸管) and plaster (膠布->ok棒). There are moments that I can't understand Taiwanese's accent, especially when they Taiwan-lise English words. You would think that it is another term that you didn't know, but it is actually an English word pronounced with a Taiwanese accent. It is rude to correct them, so you would have to bear with it and just used to it.

Another language is Taiwanese (台語). I am not a Hokkien, hence I can't make up one word of Taiwanese. It is said that Hokkien and Taiwanese share some similarities. My grandmother in law only speaks Taiwanese, so there are times that we can't really communicate as there is this language barrier.

Culture

There are cultures in Taiwan that I love. The people here are more responsible in keeping their surrounding clean, and are more polite to a certain sense. They are proud of their nationality, I mean very proud, as they dislike it when I say I am Malaysian, as to them, I am married to a Taiwanese, hence I have to be Taiwanese. Sorry to disappoint you, but does not necessary work that way.

In terms of traditional culture, there are similarities and difference between Malaysian Chinese and Taiwanese Chinese. For example, lanterns are for the Mid-Autumn festival in Malaysia but in Taiwan, it is for the 15th Day of Chinese New Year.

People

The people here felt more down to earth and have less stress in their life. They appreciate knowledge and art, as there are bookstores everywhere and art galleries are always packed. I especially loved how they hope to preserve the Hakka culture by setting up museums and parks explaining the Hakka culture.


I think I can live here for some time. Till we found another place to settle down, Taiwan will do for now.