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Spanish Matlock posted:and sometimes help with the cops when you're driving a scooter without a license. I can vouch for this on the singular (honest guv'nor) occasion i simply ignored the red and turned left.
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Jun 13, 2012 03:20
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| # ? May 15, 2024 22:42 |
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I met a Taiwanese guy with massive balls who got pulled over for drunk driving and just responded to everything the cop said in Korean. Frustrated and convinced they were dealing with a foreigner, they sent the guy on his way. My American friend got stopped for the same and didn't have a Taiwanese license either. He handed them his American driver's license and said it was the same thing. The cops didn't have any idea of what to make of it, so they just waved him on. What's amazing is that my South African friend was telling me how much better the police in Taiwan are than back in his home. Also, yellow ponchos are worthless on a full motorcycle. That's one of the two big advantages a scooter has to an actual bike. My shoes and legs stay dry on the little platform! They're also much easier to dive through traffic with. I got a car recently and it's mostly terrifying to drive anywhere but the freeway. Taiwanese drivers are so bad. My biggest fear was the scooters loving around, but that's only really an issue at the stop lights where they bunch up. When traffic is flowing, they're not a problem at all. It's the assholes in cars who don't think their decisions have any consequences and just do whatever that drive me nuts. It also doesn't help that the roads in the towns are awful. Atlas Hugged fucked around with this message at 04:00 on Jun 13, 2012 |
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Jun 13, 2012 03:57
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url posted:I didn't have a yellow thingy on me, so there was nothing left to do but enjoy the ride home (35 mins). The next time it's retarded rainy out, put all your expensive stuff inside your bike and go drive in the rain - it's pretty fun, mainly in the summer, provided there's little to no traffic. Haraksha posted:I got a car recently and it's mostly terrifying to drive anywhere but the freeway. Taiwanese drivers are so bad. My biggest fear was the scooters loving around, but that's only really an issue at the stop lights where they bunch up. When traffic is flowing, they're not a problem at all. It's the assholes in cars who don't think their decisions have any consequences and just do whatever that drive me nuts. It also doesn't help that the roads in the towns are awful.
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Jun 13, 2012 06:59
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hahaha @ racist. I've scootered about in the rain a few times, but, doing it deliberately I think is kinda key to it though, getting caught short isn't the same. When I've been caught short previously I've mainly been concerned by the wind, lack of visibility and the fact that the paint on the road seems to be made out of uber concentrated pure-strain banana skins. A lao pengyou and I are scheduled to go up a mountain for some fun sometime in the next few weeks, I think he mentioned shanxi, but I have no idea where that is, and I was a few beers in so I may be off base. I've been wondering about driving a car though, mainly because how crazy the scooters can be. I think i've almost given up my childhood fetish of having a fast bike though, but I'm now considering a dirt bike, mainly because the roads are awful in places and they are supposed to be quite comfortable for a commute. I did watch Deep Impact with the gf the other day, she was impressed by how Elijah Woods escaped with his gf & child on a dirt bike, so she's kinda sold on the idea too. My assertion that dirt bikes are used by bank robbers and that imo there is no better reference didn't carry as much weight as Mr. Woods'. :/
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Jun 13, 2012 07:53
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duckfarts posted:a pet peeve of mine, among many. I have the same thing.
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Jun 13, 2012 07:53
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duckfarts posted:Driving yesterday got me riled up with plenty of "TURN ON YOUR loving LIGHTS" hatred, which is a pet peeve of mine, among many.
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Jun 13, 2012 08:34
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TetsuoTW posted:Turn on your loving lights, use your loving blinkers, stop at (and not right on top of) loving pedestrian crossings, don't change lanes on a loving whim....
i'll admit, I kinda like to speed if there's enough room
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Jun 13, 2012 10:52
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duckfarts posted:
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Jun 13, 2012 10:59
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How about "Keep your loving buses, cars, taxis and scooters out of the goddamn bike lane (Dunhua, I'm looking at you)"
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Jun 13, 2012 11:15
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Bike lane? I thought the little dude riding a bicycle was just some kind of bizarre Taiwanese symbol that indicated it was okay to park there 
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Jun 13, 2012 11:18
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Spanish Matlock posted:How about "Keep your loving buses, cars, taxis and scooters out of the goddamn bike lane (Dunhua, I'm looking at you)"
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Jun 13, 2012 12:34
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duckfarts posted:I can't blame drivers on this one because the implementation of this "bike lane" is incredibly dumb and was doomed to failure right from the start. If this was an actual bike lane/path, it would be part of the sidewalk with a curb keeping traffic out of it like the bike path near that one park near xinsheng or jianguo south of Zhongxiao. Instead they make it part of the regular 2-lane road that already has major traffic congestion. They should just stop with the dumb charade and make it a proper third lane like it was supposed to be in the first place as it's pretty much the opposite of where you'd want to be when riding a bike and dunhua needs a third lane badly. What's even worse is that there's a purely decorative strip of trees and grass running down the entire center of the road that would be an awesome place for a bike path. gently caress Hau Lung-bin.
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Jun 13, 2012 15:28
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USDA Choice posted:Except for those who are salaried, in which case huzzah. *I have to say this because most people have lovely writing skills, college degrees be damned.
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Jun 14, 2012 11:58
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hitension posted:Along those lines, how is one supposed to go to school part time and work part time in Taiwan? Something I have been considering, if it is even possible. If you want to go to school part time while working, there's two ways you can do it. First, get a scholarship from the school. It won't require any specific visa/ARC, and importantly, will not make the stipend dependent on such either. Then, you can get any ARC job you want legally and study still (think of the working ARC as an unlimited class visa). Alternatively, your school can give you a love letter that will allow you to work up to 20 hours a week in any job you want. A couple classmates work as waiters/waitresses/western union clerks using this arrangement. The laws are basically designed to keep southeast Asians from takin the jobs and working illegally. If you qualify for a foreign white collar visa, there's nothing stopping you from using that while studying and collecting free money. Also, the law is changing so that if you go to school you can freely work for any Taiwanese company willing to pay you more than 37k. Note that this is lower than the foreign white collar visa, but it's a great loophole that will allow a company to hire you with minimal guff. Great for me because I'll be working at the incubator.
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Jun 14, 2012 14:53
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I'm looking at the scholarship offered by Taiwan's government -- it covers all tuition, fees, and a living stipend (20,000), but strictly forbids additional work. I did notice most schools offer tuition/fees waivers for international students, but no living stipend. I guess I just have to crunch numbers to see which is more economically viable. Living in Taipei on 20,000/month seems kind of tight based on the numbers people are suggesting.
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Jun 14, 2012 16:37
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If accommodation is covered, $20,000 isn't too bad.
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Jun 14, 2012 17:31
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No accommodations but it seems like living in a dorm is dirt cheap (7000/semester?!)
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Jun 15, 2012 03:50
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I think you might find the Taiwanese concept of a dorm a bit... unpleasant. My understanding, and granted this could be totally wrong, is that these are small rooms with like 6-8 people living in them. Entry is regulated and I believe there's a lot of gender segregation in the living quarters, but this is all second hand and years old information. There might even be a curfew on the dorms, but again, I'm not absolutley positive. It's something I would look into with great scrutiny.
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Jun 15, 2012 04:01
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I dunno, maybe it's different for foreigners visiting temporarily on a scholarship or something, but I've known plenty of Taiwanese college students who have lived in dorms that were pretty normal to me. Some of them were 4-people rooms, most of them were 2-people rooms though, the same I'd expect as far as college dorms back in the states were concerned. There weren't curfews, but yeah, you did have to show ID and there was boys/girls only floors, but I dunno, we had that in my university too in America so it didn't strike me as odd  I mean, you always should fully investigate the conditions you'll be living in, in any scenario, especially in another country, but I don't think the Taiwanese have a very different concept of dorms from what you'd expect in the west.
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Jun 15, 2012 04:12
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Hm, looks like 4 to a room: http://dorm.osa.ntu.edu.tw/riki1/ri...%E6%B3%81&CID=1 Honestly it looks just like dormitories I've seen in mainland China, except much cleaner. The question is if Taiwanese students tend to keep their stuff clean or not... This one has some single rooms listed at still relatively low prices: http://osa.nccu.edu.tw/modules/tinyd2/index.php?id=14
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Jun 15, 2012 04:24
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hitension posted:I'm looking at the scholarship offered by Taiwan's government -- it covers all tuition, fees, and a living stipend (20,000), but strictly forbids additional work. Some schools do offer a stipend, it's usually small money though, like 6-10k. Better than nothing though. Depending on the program you are doing, you may not find any problem working 15-20 hours a week and going to school, generating a pretty decent income, especially if you have 6-10k as a little bonus.
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Jun 15, 2012 04:30
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At least you guys driving/riding in the city proper don't have to worry so much about TaiKe (not sure what the characters are for that 台柯?). You can tell which ones they are because they usually ride with their backs perfectly straight, and their knees pointed out to the sides. Regardless of how many other people there are on the road they will ALWAYS cut you off with only inches to spare as they pass you doing 90kph+ in the rain while talking on a cell phone and smoking a cigarette. Are you the only person on the road for miles? They cut you off. Road is utterly congested? They sit at the back of the group until the light turns green then zig-zag through everybody forcing everyone to slow down so they can be the first to the light that just turned red 90 yards down the road. Also in the countryside the blue truck drivers tend to be 100% more drunk than in the city so you have even less idea of what the gently caress they are going to do.
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Jun 15, 2012 05:04
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HappyHelmet posted:At least you guys driving/riding in the city proper don't have to worry so much about TaiKe (not sure what the characters are for that 台柯?). You can tell which ones they are because they usually ride with their backs perfectly straight, and their knees pointed out to the sides.
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Jun 15, 2012 05:14
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duckfarts posted:No, they're definitely in the city too(see Keelung Rd.), and the county(sorry, NEW TAIPEI CITY/XINBEI CITY) can be particularly bad. May be true. I have only been in downtown Taipei so not sure about the suburbs. I didn't many of those kinds of riders in downtown though. Same with in Taichung, as you don't see many there. I work in a rural area though, and every other rider is one of them. Its AWFUL.
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Jun 15, 2012 05:17
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HappyHelmet posted:At least you guys driving/riding in the city proper don't have to worry so much about TaiKe (not sure what the characters are for that 台柯?).
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Jun 15, 2012 05:47
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Ah, thanks. I know it was something like that. I'll try to remember the character.
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Jun 15, 2012 06:39
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Apparently my girlfriend's school was the worst and other schools are more typical of what you'd see in America. Her school had 6 girls in a room, a curfew, and boys were totally banned from her building. There was a mixed building, but the boys were restricted to their floor and could not gain access to the girl floors.
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Jun 15, 2012 06:47
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HappyHelmet posted:Ah, thanks. I know it was something like that. I'll try to remember the character.
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Jun 15, 2012 06:55
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My understanding of 台客 is that's it's basically the Taiwanese version of being ghetto/trashy/tacky, with the ability to span the range of those three words even. It can be a shirtless dude with a non-strapped helmet barely hanging on his head chewing betel nuts and smoking while he drags a propane tank that is hitting the ground when he hits a bump, or it could be a guy dressed in 70s HK fashion with a riced out car with lovely body mods and poorly placed LEDs who is talking on his swarovski studded phone. You could be a poor toothless dude who doesn't give a goddamn, or an ultra-vain loaded mobster, and still fit the bill.
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Jun 15, 2012 08:22
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A quick rip-through of the introduction to the Chinese Wikipedia article on Taike:quote:Taike or Tutaike is a a derisive term originating in the prejudices held by early waishengren toward benshengren. Today, it refers to people with a style of fashion and behavior regarded as "uncouth" or "vulgar." For example, attending formal events in blue flip-flops and undergarments, spitting betelnut juice with no regard for others, driving cars or riding scooters without mufflers, playing music loudly as though no-one else were around, etc. With the development of Taiwan and its mass media, taike have been stereotyped as members of a hick subculture.
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Jun 15, 2012 08:37
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 IT'S TYPHOON SEASON 2012 YO New typhoon is lurkin' about, seems to be getting here around Sunday night/Monday morning-ish according to current guesstimations.
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Jun 15, 2012 12:11
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Yeah, but it won't be poo poo for us, just a bit of rain and lovely weather. So probably better than this week. e: Also 
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Jun 15, 2012 13:02
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TetsuoTW posted:A quick rip-through of the introduction to the Chinese Wikipedia article on Taike: I can't wait until this includes lensless frames.
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Jun 15, 2012 13:15
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Haraksha posted:I can't wait until this includes lensless frames. If they passed a law in Taiwan allowing any passer-by to someone with lense-free glasses to go ahead and poke them in eye "just to be sure." I would be a very happy man.
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Jun 15, 2012 14:44
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Is Taiwan really this cartoonish? Because it sounds hilarious. Everything about it. The drunk blue truck drivers, the Taike, everything. Or is this normal for Asia.
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Jun 15, 2012 14:50
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Capt. Carl posted:Is Taiwan really this cartoonish? Because it sounds hilarious. Everything about it. The drunk blue truck drivers, the Taike, everything.
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Jun 15, 2012 15:03
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Capt. Carl posted:Is Taiwan really this cartoonish? Because it sounds hilarious. Everything about it. The drunk blue truck drivers, the Taike, everything.
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Jun 15, 2012 15:15
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Capt. Carl posted:Is Taiwan really this cartoonish? Because it sounds hilarious. Everything about it. The drunk blue truck drivers, the Taike, everything. I don't know about the rest of Asia, but I've heard its mostly similar in other Asian countries. And yeah, it can be pretty cartoon-ish at times. I remember one of my first memories in Taiwan was wondering around my new neighborhood exploring. I was waiting at a red light when an older man rolled up on a motorcycle with 2-3 propane tanks strapped to the back (fairly common here as they deliver the tanks to restaurants and such). He immediately reached into his saddle-bag and pulled out of fifth of whiskey, and took a huge belt off of it. Then dropped it back in the bag, and ran the red light  .Some things are pretty annoying though. Taiwanese people can be pretty susceptible to things like group think and fads... oh god, the annoying fads. The aforementioned lense-less eye wear seems to be the big one this year. Last year it was those stupid ugly boot things all the girls were wearing (yeah, I know girls in Western countries wore them too), etc.. etc.. Its always something, and because Taiwan is so small and crowded you will have no way to escape them.
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Jun 15, 2012 15:20
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I find Taiwan to actually be less cartoonish than Korea, but that may be because I was so desensitized to bizarre poo poo after a year in Korea. But I think a lot of Korean zaniness comes from how much loving alcohol they drink. Taiwan is actually pretty chill in that regard. Taiwan has the construction workers downing Whisbey (think Redbull Vodka), but I've never seen a blacked out soldier in an MRT station. I've had Taiwanese guys buy me drinks in a bar and force me to talk to them in broken English, but I've never been visited by a beer fairy. Once in Korea, an old man in a blue suede suit with a blue suede fedora led me and my friend to a street vendor, bought a couple of cans of beer for us, and then vanished into the crowd. I've had hangovers at work after going out with my boss, but in Korea it was standard policy to sleep off the previous night in the nurse's office and to rotate who got to crash on the cot between classes. Korea was also way more upfront with the sex industry and racism, but those things are bubbling just below the surface here too.
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Jun 15, 2012 15:41
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| # ? May 15, 2024 22:42 |
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That's a thin-rear end surface on the racism. Not so much for us whitefellas, more for the Southeast Asians.
sub supau fucked around with this message at 16:05 on Jun 15, 2012 |
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Jun 15, 2012 15:59
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