Slower pace + access to nature (even within a few hundred yards of the Taipei 101) while also maintaining proper East-Asia level of civility/cleanliness
unironically one of the few asian countries with shit food >whoa bro look at all the wacky fried garbage we have at our famous night markets >dont you want to eat deep fried bubble tea!!??
doesnt hold a candle to china, japan, korea, thailand, even 3rd world laos and myanmar mog taiwan in every way possible.
never been to Laos/Myanmar but you are 100% right about the food. I love Taipei for everything but the food. It gets hyped up because westerners basedface about Woah Nightmarkets! and dont want to eat anything other than noodles and dumplings anyway. But "Taiwanese" food is very limited beyond that, there's not really proper "dishes" compared with China/Japan/Korea. Also nightmarkets are lame when you actually live in Asia its hot as balls and the novelty is worn off I want an air conditioned restaurant with a chair not a tiny plastic stool outside.
spot on. night markets are either for locals who don't go to drinking spots, tourists for the novelty or people making youtube videos and want to repeat content.
>it's hot as balls
Taiwan has seasonal variations, LOL. I'll likely be going in April, which has amazing weather.
Why can't it just be for people who want to kill a night and eat some ok cheap food?
Exactly, foraging bites to eat is cheap and fun. Fried shit is fricking delicious, only snobs pretend to dislike it. And sometimes a full sit-down meal is simply too much food.
Taiwan is China. Mainland is PRC.
Taiwan is the geographical name of the island governed by the Republic of China - the ROC. There are two Chinas, both geograhically and politically - however, the CCP insists otherwise.
I like fried food but 'foraging bites to eat' in a crowded market is more tedious than fun to me. Also 'seasonal variations' is a bit of a stretch, it has 6 months of hot and 6 months of overcast and 60s, more or less.
>Taiwan has seasonal variations
Yeah you got hot, hot as frick, a dry hot, a frick off hot and holy shit why is it so fricking hot. >T. Dude in Kaohsiung
Because other than Japan there are no other Asian countries that tick all the boxes: >VOA for normies >No litter or pollution >People friendly and accommodating to tourists >Pristine nature and wilderness, not overpopulated >Pleasant climate >Culturally intact >Not corrupt
The only area in which it doesn't near perfection is the local cuisine, but you can find authentic food from all other Asian countries there so not a problem.
Taiwan is honestly a pretty decent country but I would take Japan every time.
If you were nomad rotating tourist visas Japan > Taiwan > Japan > Taiwan would be a solid rotation though.
>you can find authentic food from other countries
Not at all. That was one of my biggest gripes - Taiwanese people do NOT understand other cuisines. You can get decent Japanese food, that's it. There's no Korean food worth shit, there's no Chinese food (which doesn't make sense, yes they are "different" but they're also literally Chinese migrants from less than 100 years ago so it baffles me you can't easily find quality mainland cuisine), and they certainly don't understand non-Asian food.
Food is far and away the weakest aspect but at the end of the day they still have a few decent dishes and you'll survive, even if you end up supplementing your diet with foreign chain restaurants/fast food every once in a while. That does lead into another gripe though; there are grocery stores, and you could buy ingredients to do your own cooking... until you realize that literally not a single apartment in Taipei/New Taipei has anything resembling a kitchen.
>taiwanese food
Lived in taiwan for three years and this is not really true but I udnerstand where you're coming from if you're in Taipei. If your life, like most expats, basically revolved around Zhongshan, Xinyi, Da'an and Songshan and you're not too knowledgeable when it comes to chinese, the path of least resistance is unavoidably going to street markets and/or mainstream restaurants, or even perhaps those breakfast shops such as laya burger or family biz who only open before 2pm and only have western food.
Your best bet is to get an actual taiwanese pal who can hook you up with restaurants he knows. There are a shit ton of cantinas and trad restaurants with good quality food. Case in point is picrel, right in front of NTU in Zhongzheng district, that serve some decent beef noodles and a shit ton of stuff that cost basically peanuts (most dishes cost 4 dollars at most, the ones at 8 are basically OMAD material). There are lots of restaurants like this in taipei but you should basically steer away from the center that is too "globalized" (it's all bubble teas and fried shit from japan and korea now) to have too many of those establishments.
Every gf I had was basically earning enough money to get away with not cooking and was lazy enough to be content with the same streetslop and fastslop every day. I remember one of them cooking rice in water and calling it a "rice soup". Nasty shit. A good kitchen isn't hard to get imho. The issue is that if you don't speak chinko pachinko odds are you're either a student or earning enough to get away with not cooking, so most anglophone friendly rentals do away with kitchens. Just get an induction plate and a rice cooker, cook your dish with the former and your carbs with the latter.
Also, learn how to cook with local ingredients or you'll go bankrupt. I learned that the hard way.
, this restaurant sells a generous portion (i'm a fat frick so i know what that is, trust me) of stir fried beef for 110 ntd. You homosexuals eat at cantinas or even worse, fancy restaurants down 101 or at the zhongxiaos because your date took you for a sucker and then wonder why shit's expensive. I do recognize that there was some inflation but unless you're a literal part time spanish teacher you're probably earning upwards of 3k$ per month net of taxes. You can easily get away with not spending more than 10k ntd on food even if eat out every day.
never been to Laos/Myanmar but you are 100% right about the food. I love Taipei for everything but the food. It gets hyped up because westerners basedface about Woah Nightmarkets! and dont want to eat anything other than noodles and dumplings anyway. But "Taiwanese" food is very limited beyond that, there's not really proper "dishes" compared with China/Japan/Korea. Also nightmarkets are lame when you actually live in Asia its hot as balls and the novelty is worn off I want an air conditioned restaurant with a chair not a tiny plastic stool outside.
>hot as balls
I'm the guy who keeps the AC on 24/7 but that's the point of a *night* market. You don't get to walk under the sun to enjoy the food. Also, Taiwan is only super hot for half the year, and sometimes rains and typhoons make it all the more bearable during that period. To be honest it is way more annoying to go to a night market during winter and it fricking rains and you can barely hold your food together because your other hand is too busy avoiding the million other umbrellas around. Also, it's just not true. Taiwan has good restaurants and serve a lot of chinese specialties, it's just that the guys that serve em don't have english menus because you goylems would rather die than try random shit.
Taiwan seems like Japan or China lite. So why does it get shit on here all the time?
You're under the impression that it gets shit on by different people but it's always the same weird incel that comes here and talks about gay marriage. I've been taiwanposting for 4 years now and there are two massive dumb c**ts that never miss the mark : >pajeet who's earning "100k£ in the uk" doing IT wants to earn the same figure in taiwan and complains that he can't >pro-CCP chud who believes going to china is bad so he's not really interested in the place, but is still mad that gays have a right to marry since 2019 and will sometimes post a 5-people strong gay pride and then state in many words that "it's over"
Always one of these two fricks
The top two posts you quoted are both me. I've lived between Taipei and ML China for nearly a decade and speak fluent Mandarin - point being I have no issue navigating 'real' local spots and cuisine, and know what good Chinese food is. IMO proper restaurants are few and far between in Taipei. Your pic rel looks tasty but idk how you get by ordering only one thing there. Haven't been to that place specifically but I frequent that type of restaurant and generally have a min spend of ~300 - which is NOT expensive, but per my own experience I just cant agree that 100ntd is true 'decent meal' level.
I love the city, but the diversity of food options (both literally the food itself and types of venue) is on par with T3 Mainland cities. I have occasionally found good international food (good Mexican, Indian, Japanese, Meh-tier American, Meh-tier Korean, bad Euro cuisines) in Taipei but never good Mainland cuisine from any province which would require a departure from typical Taiwanese flavors (most of them).
5 months ago
Anonymous
>but per my own experience I just cant agree that 100ntd is true 'decent meal' level.
Then i honestly doubt your claim of you being around Taipei for a decade. ML China, perhaps. Here's a breakfast menu from one of the joints i was talking about above.
You could get two hamburgers + 1 poached egg for 105 ntd. If you're willing to move the goalpost from 100 ntd to 130 you can throw a couple of fresh youtiaos (chinese churros for those who don't know) from the shop a couple of feet across the street if you're really hungry. That's what 100 bucks gets you in Taipei. So no, that's pretty far from having a "small bowl with two slices of meat". And i have to insist that the portions in the trad restaurant i've cited before are generous.
>generally have a min spend of ~300 - which is NOT expensive
Food in taipei can be either super overpriced or, if you know the right places, super cheap, is what my point was on my previous post. 300ntd can be a single but nice jap curry or it can be 4 big macs. I understand that you can't stretch it to infinity, but 100 can still provide you with a filling meal if you know where to look. I'd say 300 ntd is a reasonable minimal daily expenditure, but if you're eating for ten bucks, you're either eating a lot or you're eating some good food.
And that applies even more for night markets where the slop basically costs nothing.
Where? I spent most of my times in New Taipei and 100NTD doesn't get you anything impressive. unless you're feeling a microwaved convenience store meal.
Inflation is crazy. Prices increase by 5 NTD every two-three weeks it felt like.
Still doesn't explain how people are supposed to prepare healthy food for themselves. >ramen and oily potstickers full of salt and msg are not healthy food
5 months ago
Anonymous
That's not even what we were talking about you fricking moron.
Not really. I guess there's Kaohsiung in the South that's probably a bit cheaper and maybe 100NTD gets you a more solid meal there but places like Taoyuan are for sad fricking expat English teachers and the rest is just kind of flyover country.
Seeing as the new Taiwan dollar is worth slightly more than the Thai baht, it's very disappointing to hear that 100 NTD won't buy a proper made-to-order restaurant meal. Versus Bangkok, where I pay 50-100 baht for a meal, and the Philippines where I only paid 60-120 pesos.
[...]
I'm Canadian, so I have high standards for wilderness. Taiwan meets and surpasses them. The amount of empty space is incredible. I too have been all over SEA. Even in sparsely populated areas of China or Indochina all the land has been impacted by humans. In Taiwan you can walk through old-growth forest literally for days (t. I've done it)
>taiwanese food
Lived in taiwan for three years and this is not really true but I udnerstand where you're coming from if you're in Taipei. If your life, like most expats, basically revolved around Zhongshan, Xinyi, Da'an and Songshan and you're not too knowledgeable when it comes to chinese, the path of least resistance is unavoidably going to street markets and/or mainstream restaurants, or even perhaps those breakfast shops such as laya burger or family biz who only open before 2pm and only have western food.
Your best bet is to get an actual taiwanese pal who can hook you up with restaurants he knows. There are a shit ton of cantinas and trad restaurants with good quality food. Case in point is picrel, right in front of NTU in Zhongzheng district, that serve some decent beef noodles and a shit ton of stuff that cost basically peanuts (most dishes cost 4 dollars at most, the ones at 8 are basically OMAD material). There are lots of restaurants like this in taipei but you should basically steer away from the center that is too "globalized" (it's all bubble teas and fried shit from japan and korea now) to have too many of those establishments.
Every gf I had was basically earning enough money to get away with not cooking and was lazy enough to be content with the same streetslop and fastslop every day. I remember one of them cooking rice in water and calling it a "rice soup". Nasty shit. A good kitchen isn't hard to get imho. The issue is that if you don't speak chinko pachinko odds are you're either a student or earning enough to get away with not cooking, so most anglophone friendly rentals do away with kitchens. Just get an induction plate and a rice cooker, cook your dish with the former and your carbs with the latter.
Also, learn how to cook with local ingredients or you'll go bankrupt. I learned that the hard way.
>Not at all. That was one of my biggest gripes - Taiwanese people do NOT understand other cuisines.
You do realize taiwangays only cook fujianese and a few cook northerner shit ? Most "foreign" food is cooked by foreigners. Mainlanders from different regions have their restaurants and they cook some mighty decent food, especially sichuanese people. Koreans also have their own establishments. Hell, i've seen some other international shit in there, Vietnamese, Thai, Malay, Indian. Frick, there is a chinese dude who immigrated to NJ for decades and then came back and opened a pizza place which honestly could easily compete with your average NYC joints while his competition could only produce sbarro-tier slop at BEST.
The only foreign food taiwanese themselves do is Jap food, which they absolutely suck at, on that we can agree. They still do mean sushis though.
>still attempting mental gymnastics to prove some kind of point
just stop already. first I was a china shill, then it was "BUT COMPARED TO THE WEST" and now it's some snarky redditor response.
not him but the only gays you see are the ones you actively seek. Globalized centers always have lgbt communities because conservative backgrounds no matter where actively reject them. the 101 night clubs, and the dance bars were westerners hang out. If you're a conservative, which you seem to be, chances are you wouldn'be hanging there either. If you are, well do know that literally every country in Asia will have an overrepresentation of such people in those places as well. Even the ones that are anti-lgbt such as China. >parades
are easily avoidable and only happen once in a blue moon. And the ones that are not the actual gay pride parade are so anecdotal in significance and size you'd have to be actively seeking them to even know they exist.
But you already know that, given that we always give you same fricking response in every fricking thread.
Not really. I guess there's Kaohsiung in the South that's probably a bit cheaper and maybe 100NTD gets you a more solid meal there but places like Taoyuan are for sad fricking expat English teachers and the rest is just kind of flyover country.
>Taoyuan
Taoyuan is okay you moron. It is literally 40 minutes away from Taipei and has some super affordable housing. This being said, i'd rather live near the actual MRT.
Only good thing out of taiwan was winston wu and their silicone modified public service drones have either been zombie bimbos or kind of stuck up tbh tbh
Taiwan is nowhere near as politically correct or publicly supportive of lgbt as the west but you can't have a Taiwan thread here without comments (probably China shills) about trannies and pride parades like going to Taiwan is almost like visiting the Folsom Street Fair.
5 months ago
Anonymous
Yes I agree with you. I call it Reddit country not because of Taiwanese themselves but because of foreigners who basedface about le democracy of Asia and le bubble tea and how theyre SO supportive of LGBT (when thats not really the case).
I don't think theres actually China shills on SighSee though
5 months ago
Anonymous
>DAH CHINA SHILLS >ITS NOT LIKE DAH WEST
Taipei has a ton of lgbt's and troony parades. It's a fact. Nothing to do with china shills. The west worships troonys and lgbt's. Trying to compare the two is moronic.
5 months ago
Anonymous
Oh no, a few gay bars and annual parade in one street of Taipei. What do?
5 months ago
Anonymous
>still attempting mental gymnastics to prove some kind of point
just stop already. first I was a china shill, then it was "BUT COMPARED TO THE WEST" and now it's some snarky redditor response.
Not him and it doesnt but they're really not more tolerant fwiw. Nowhere in Asia is particularly 'intolerant' of gays, unless you're using the American definition of intolerant (not bending over backwards for, not showing exaggerated outward support for). They are just as well tolerated ie not discriminated against or harassed etc in the rest of Asia.
who said it did? stop with the mental gymnastics. nobody cares if you're a gay and stop trying to pretend everyone does.
your instantly on the defensive and ready for the victim role.
For male homosexuals it isn't even this so much as they're hedonistic narcissists. Gay men have a peculiar need to be worshipped as such, but more importantly, they want to coom. As bad as you may think straight coomers are, gay ones are way worse. If a gay dude is going abroad, there's a very high chance he's going somewhere to indulge his loins.
Taiwan is the least comfy Asian country. Nearly everything is new and it all feels shoddy. Even this picture for example. It's cheap concrete painted over. Everything in Taiwan feels like it's made of cheap, cracked concrete or plastic. It all just feels so fake and desperate to copy something else.
It’s comfy because it was the last Asian country to even be settled. That’s why it’s so sparsely populated and beautiful. Of course everything’s new and shoddy. I doubt you’ve traveled anywhere in Asia besides Japan of shoddy skyscrapers trigger you.
Taiwan has the highest population density of anywhere in East Asia. I've been all over Asia and Taiwan is just boring and soulless. Quit simping for a country on a continent you've never even been to.
Taiwan has the highest population density of anywhere in East Asia. I've been all over Asia and Taiwan is just boring and soulless. Quit simping for a country on a continent you've never even been to.
Depends where you are. Generally cheaper than Japan/SK/HK/Singapore, more expensive than Mainland and SEA
[...]
Depends where you are. Generally cheaper than Japan/SK/HK/Singapore, more expensive than Mainland and SEA
I'm Canadian, so I have high standards for wilderness. Taiwan meets and surpasses them. The amount of empty space is incredible. I too have been all over SEA. Even in sparsely populated areas of China or Indochina all the land has been impacted by humans. In Taiwan you can walk through old-growth forest literally for days (t. I've done it)
Everything feels about 3 times cheaper there than in the US, especially food, clothes and services. Healthcare and transportation are way cheaper but housing is about the same as the US.
>it's calm, the people are calm, the expats aren't weebs that believe they can become actual japanese but still are respectful of their surroundings >enough jap shit for someone who likes japan though, at very affordable prices compared to even japan itself >lots of greenery, lots of hiking spots, cities may seem old but it's never this oppressive concrete jungle like HK or Tokyo >there's still a winter of sorts during half of the year, march and april are basically ideal which makes for very cheap trips at the best moment >the girls are cuties, easily accessible, and are pretty trad (yes, even the english speaking ones)
what's not to like, Black folk
>I love the city, but the diversity of food options (both literally the food itself and types of venue) is on par with T3 Mainland cities. I have occasionally found good international food (good Mexican, Indian, Japanese, Meh-tier American, Meh-tier Korean, bad Euro cuisines) in Taipei but never good Mainland cuisine from any province which would require a departure from typical Taiwanese flavors (most of them).
I've had a quick glance at the din tai fung menu thinking you might find what you like there, and now i'm getting why you're paying 300 ntd a meal lmao. This being said, while i agree that Taiwanese food culture seriously lacks depth when put into the broader chinese cuisine context, I also believe that I've had my fair share of chinkslop in the west where you'll find every fricking regional cuisine and then some. I'm happy with my 5 buck taiwanese beef noodle soup + no tip.
reasons why i love taiwan(taipei) is there are not a lot of western foreigners/europoors roaming the streets so i feel like its the most untouched un molested country.
People are super friendly, the tourist are not weebs.
I dont really grasp the concept of what is expensives since i make 6 figs salary i assume a 180-240 ntd meal is pretty fricking cheap compared to the bullshit i eat in the states for 3-4x the price.
Taipei pros : >Good purchasing power despite recent inflation >Food is decent and you can find cheap international slop (the autist posting menus makes a good point) >Aside from traffic in the big roads, the city is pretty calm (especially in the lanes around them) >Excellent MRT system >Excellent train network >Very non-sino friendly, if you get a job (easier said than done tho) you can get away with not speaking much >Very friendly overall, people are polite but also warm, contrary to japs >Friendliness rubs on the foreigners (which you probably will be interacting with the most), people are very nice >Tired of fricking chinks ? Lots of big booty latinas too.
Taipei cons: >Contrary to other bigger modern cities in asia, taipei is not as active >Most anglosaxon immigrexpats are english teachers who think everyone here must be an english teacher >Like most asian countries, speaking the language is the only way to actually reach out to locals in a meaningful way >Rent is still cheap in new taipei city but it's really gone up
Taipei tips&tricks : >Menu anon is right, breakfasts cost nothing and few people know about those (i am surprise anyone here does) >Avoid voicing your political opinion until you've heard theirs first unless you want to spend a shitty night >Think twice before standing up to a racist chink. They are basically unhinged by taiwan standards, so things can escalate really quickly (and people will assume you started it) >If you're cooking, learn to cook with local ingredients. A 30 buck typical grocery bag in the west can cost upwards of a hundred bucks due to importation costs. >Bottled water is extremely expensive, but water dispensers are everywhere.
Cont.
Taiwan is basically a us ally, so any latin american country under the influence of the us has an embassy with it. Lots of grants led to a good amount of them coming to study and work.
Several latin american countries recognize Taiwan as the legitimate China, usually because they get free gibs from the taiwanese like money in the form of development aid and easier access to work visas.
Paraguay and Guatemala is not "several". But they do have a de facto embassy in almost every Latin American country, usually officially named Economic Office or Cultural Office for plausible deniability.
Cont'd
Rest of taiwan (note : taoyuan is practically taipei's suburb, and hsinchu is a special case due to all the engineers there) pros : >Very cheap >Magnificent hiking trails and amazing landscape >Even easier to get laid, you basically are at the top of the food chain, you're 100% exotic no matter your ethnicity compared to "globalized" taipei >Few foreigners, meaning you'll either really bond with them or you can do away with them, your call >Basically the english teacher's dream, good pay, low effort, 0 oversight >Better weather than taipei overall >If you like the countryside, that's as good as it gets
Rest of taiwan cons: >If you thought taipei was boring boy you're not ready for this >Literally NOTHING to do besides your job, hiking, or going at the beach depending where you're at. (Or fricking) >Taiwanese people absolutely suck wiener at english, but the countrysiders are even worse, if you don't have a translator gf it's joever >Taichung and kaohsiung are the only real "cities" the rest are just amalgamations of townships with nothing but restaurants and housing >Hsinchu is basically a giant dorm >Public transportation is dogshit (except for kaohsiung), understanding buses will be complicated if you don't speak chinese.
Rest of taiwan tips and tricks : >Either don't live there or be ready to make your life revolve around internet and your partner. >You can still find imported goods but at this point you might as well teach yourself how to cook with what you have. Because god knows your gf doesn't. >Still, it's a great start if you're a TEFLer and you're aiming for PR. The low amount of demand means you're not going to worry about getting fired.
Before I answer your question, let me be realistic here : most newcomers don't speak mandarin and most newcomers will probably bond with foreigners far sooner than any locals, if only because of the language barrier and the culture being so different. They don't get your jokes, they won't get your puns, they barely get your references, and even if you refer to chinese culture, unless you know how to speak mandarin, you'll more often than not end up translating some obscure reference they do not give a frick about. In time however, and if you take this seriously, it does get better. A lot of people don't bother though.
And now : To answer your question, there's simply not much going on in taipei to start with, so Taichung and Kaohsiung are even worse. They're basically second rate cities in what is mostly is a second rate region of East Asia. Most people will be speaking full on mandarin, the foreigners you'll meet will probably have mostly fully integrated and just don't care about meeting foreigners or going to them expat bars, or are basically autistic shut-ins who will actively avoid you if you're one.
Add to that the fact that most taiwanese woman past college have literally zero friends and will devote their entire attention to you, you won't be doing much save working, being with her, and, once you've basically visited everything you needed to visit, stay at home on your computer.
Even worse if you're in some isolated backwater township. The only good thing it does however is that it actively forces you to learn mandarin lest you become a hermit.
No one? Zero (0) people in the entire country Taiwan (population 23 million) speak Japanese despite statistics saying it's the most popular L2 after English?
Its obvious what I mean you nitpicking homosexual. Unless you are Japanese (and dont speak English or Chinese), it is a useless language for tourism/living in Taiwan. That you may occasionally run into someone who speaks it is irrelevant.
4 months ago
Anonymous
I always tought SighSee was a good board for language learners but it turns out it's quite the opposite. The idea of learning a language for any non-utilitarian reason, or practicing a language outside of its native area for a challenge doesn't even register to you, so you instantly assume a question like this
How common is Japanese?
must have anything to do with its usefulness in Taiwan. LOL! Talk about a midwit userbase.
4 months ago
Anonymous
>How common is Japanese >Very uncommon (expressed in hyperbole) >Hurr durr oh literally zero people speak it? Yeah right. BTW you're stupid for thinking the question has to do with whether Japanese is useful in Taiwan (the obvious implication of the question absent additional context)
Ironically I use Chinese all over SEA with non-ethnic Chinese, non-native speakers. So you're barking up the wrong tree. And even for what you're suggesting I don't think there's any real density of Japanese speakers that you'd be able to practice beyond pure luck/chance encounters same as if you were in Korea or China or Thailand.
4 months ago
Anonymous
You do realize how difficult it is to achieve proficiency in a language without real-world usage, right?
4 months ago
Anonymous
Lots of people speak Japanese in Taiwan. Virtually every old person speaks it well and you'll find it pretty often among hotel workers and stuff. I used it when English didn't work.
4 months ago
Anonymous
no. Not every old person speaks jap (waishengren don't), and the ones that do are getting seriously old now.
>hotel workers
no shit.
I always tought SighSee was a good board for language learners but it turns out it's quite the opposite. The idea of learning a language for any non-utilitarian reason, or practicing a language outside of its native area for a challenge doesn't even register to you, so you instantly assume a question like this [...] must have anything to do with its usefulness in Taiwan. LOL! Talk about a midwit userbase.
>asks if people speak japanese in non japanese country >bitches about how someone said "no one" instead of "very few"
being a popular L2 doesn't mean shit. most eurogays study a second language along with english but that doesn't mean they speak it fluently.
4 months ago
Anonymous
>I used it when English didn't work
I know a language that might have been more useful than both of those
I did in fact have a few conversations in Japanese in Taipei, and when I went to a maid cafe (yes I am aware this is cringe) they didn't speak English but they did understand enough Japanese I was able to enjoy myself.
I wouldn't recommend learning Japanese for Taiwan, or expecting to get by, and I found generally English was more useful.
But still, there are definitely niche scenarios to practice the language.
Not even if I met an underground Taiwanese idol and chatted with her about Japanese idol culture, culminating with her adding me on socials and inviting me to see one of her shows next time I'm in Taiwan?
Taiwan sucks ass, and I didn't think I could hate a group of white people more than the weebs who love Japan. But yeah, it's the group of white people who love Taiwan. Fricking embarrassing.
>DURRR DIS DAH ANIME SITE DOOD DURRR
can always spot the normie redditor who discovered SighSee from r/greentexts when they parrot this shit. >DAH DOOD EVERY BOARD MUST BE ABOUT ANIME. DURRRR IDK WHY WE HAVE BOARDS WITH DIFFERENT TOPICS IF ITS ALL ANIME DURRR
>normie
Protip: next time you're trying to call someone a redditor, you may want to pick your words more carefully so as to not out yourself - and by extension everyone who doesn't understand SighSee is and has always been an anime website - as one.
its really not, not even in the top 10 of asia
EAST Asia which it is.
ok and why?
Slower pace + access to nature (even within a few hundred yards of the Taipei 101) while also maintaining proper East-Asia level of civility/cleanliness
Is this China or Taiwan?
I think the op having Taiwan in the title should be a good hint
Yeah but is it China or Taiwan?
it is taiwan island.
Taiwan is China. Mainland is PRC.
unironically one of the few asian countries with shit food
>whoa bro look at all the wacky fried garbage we have at our famous night markets
>dont you want to eat deep fried bubble tea!!??
doesnt hold a candle to china, japan, korea, thailand, even 3rd world laos and myanmar mog taiwan in every way possible.
never been to Laos/Myanmar but you are 100% right about the food. I love Taipei for everything but the food. It gets hyped up because westerners basedface about Woah Nightmarkets! and dont want to eat anything other than noodles and dumplings anyway. But "Taiwanese" food is very limited beyond that, there's not really proper "dishes" compared with China/Japan/Korea. Also nightmarkets are lame when you actually live in Asia its hot as balls and the novelty is worn off I want an air conditioned restaurant with a chair not a tiny plastic stool outside.
spot on. night markets are either for locals who don't go to drinking spots, tourists for the novelty or people making youtube videos and want to repeat content.
Why can't it just be for people who want to kill a night and eat some ok cheap food?
>it's hot as balls
Taiwan has seasonal variations, LOL. I'll likely be going in April, which has amazing weather.
Exactly, foraging bites to eat is cheap and fun. Fried shit is fricking delicious, only snobs pretend to dislike it. And sometimes a full sit-down meal is simply too much food.
Taiwan is the geographical name of the island governed by the Republic of China - the ROC. There are two Chinas, both geograhically and politically - however, the CCP insists otherwise.
I like fried food but 'foraging bites to eat' in a crowded market is more tedious than fun to me. Also 'seasonal variations' is a bit of a stretch, it has 6 months of hot and 6 months of overcast and 60s, more or less.
Fair enough
>it has 6 months of hot and 6 months of overcast and 60s, more or less.
maybe true for Taipei. But Taiwan is more than Taipei.
>6 months of overcast and 60s
sounds comfortable
>Taiwan has seasonal variations
Yeah you got hot, hot as frick, a dry hot, a frick off hot and holy shit why is it so fricking hot.
>T. Dude in Kaohsiung
Taipei
>food
You're suppose to go to Tainan for that.
Taiwan seems like Japan or China lite. So why does it get shit on here all the time?
Seething Chinese
Because other than Japan there are no other Asian countries that tick all the boxes:
>VOA for normies
>No litter or pollution
>People friendly and accommodating to tourists
>Pristine nature and wilderness, not overpopulated
>Pleasant climate
>Culturally intact
>Not corrupt
The only area in which it doesn't near perfection is the local cuisine, but you can find authentic food from all other Asian countries there so not a problem.
You can't find good Chinese food which is understandable but frustrating
Taiwan is honestly a pretty decent country but I would take Japan every time.
If you were nomad rotating tourist visas Japan > Taiwan > Japan > Taiwan would be a solid rotation though.
>you can find authentic food from other countries
Not at all. That was one of my biggest gripes - Taiwanese people do NOT understand other cuisines. You can get decent Japanese food, that's it. There's no Korean food worth shit, there's no Chinese food (which doesn't make sense, yes they are "different" but they're also literally Chinese migrants from less than 100 years ago so it baffles me you can't easily find quality mainland cuisine), and they certainly don't understand non-Asian food.
Food is far and away the weakest aspect but at the end of the day they still have a few decent dishes and you'll survive, even if you end up supplementing your diet with foreign chain restaurants/fast food every once in a while. That does lead into another gripe though; there are grocery stores, and you could buy ingredients to do your own cooking... until you realize that literally not a single apartment in Taipei/New Taipei has anything resembling a kitchen.
when you can get a decent meal for 100ntd, there isn't much need for a kitchen
a small bowl of noodles with two thin slices of meat, or a single order of potstickers, is not really a decent meal
see picrel
, this restaurant sells a generous portion (i'm a fat frick so i know what that is, trust me) of stir fried beef for 110 ntd. You homosexuals eat at cantinas or even worse, fancy restaurants down 101 or at the zhongxiaos because your date took you for a sucker and then wonder why shit's expensive. I do recognize that there was some inflation but unless you're a literal part time spanish teacher you're probably earning upwards of 3k$ per month net of taxes. You can easily get away with not spending more than 10k ntd on food even if eat out every day.
>hot as balls
I'm the guy who keeps the AC on 24/7 but that's the point of a *night* market. You don't get to walk under the sun to enjoy the food. Also, Taiwan is only super hot for half the year, and sometimes rains and typhoons make it all the more bearable during that period. To be honest it is way more annoying to go to a night market during winter and it fricking rains and you can barely hold your food together because your other hand is too busy avoiding the million other umbrellas around. Also, it's just not true. Taiwan has good restaurants and serve a lot of chinese specialties, it's just that the guys that serve em don't have english menus because you goylems would rather die than try random shit.
You're under the impression that it gets shit on by different people but it's always the same weird incel that comes here and talks about gay marriage. I've been taiwanposting for 4 years now and there are two massive dumb c**ts that never miss the mark :
>pajeet who's earning "100k£ in the uk" doing IT wants to earn the same figure in taiwan and complains that he can't
>pro-CCP chud who believes going to china is bad so he's not really interested in the place, but is still mad that gays have a right to marry since 2019 and will sometimes post a 5-people strong gay pride and then state in many words that "it's over"
Always one of these two fricks
The top two posts you quoted are both me. I've lived between Taipei and ML China for nearly a decade and speak fluent Mandarin - point being I have no issue navigating 'real' local spots and cuisine, and know what good Chinese food is. IMO proper restaurants are few and far between in Taipei. Your pic rel looks tasty but idk how you get by ordering only one thing there. Haven't been to that place specifically but I frequent that type of restaurant and generally have a min spend of ~300 - which is NOT expensive, but per my own experience I just cant agree that 100ntd is true 'decent meal' level.
I love the city, but the diversity of food options (both literally the food itself and types of venue) is on par with T3 Mainland cities. I have occasionally found good international food (good Mexican, Indian, Japanese, Meh-tier American, Meh-tier Korean, bad Euro cuisines) in Taipei but never good Mainland cuisine from any province which would require a departure from typical Taiwanese flavors (most of them).
>but per my own experience I just cant agree that 100ntd is true 'decent meal' level.
Then i honestly doubt your claim of you being around Taipei for a decade. ML China, perhaps. Here's a breakfast menu from one of the joints i was talking about above.
You could get two hamburgers + 1 poached egg for 105 ntd. If you're willing to move the goalpost from 100 ntd to 130 you can throw a couple of fresh youtiaos (chinese churros for those who don't know) from the shop a couple of feet across the street if you're really hungry. That's what 100 bucks gets you in Taipei. So no, that's pretty far from having a "small bowl with two slices of meat". And i have to insist that the portions in the trad restaurant i've cited before are generous.
>generally have a min spend of ~300 - which is NOT expensive
Food in taipei can be either super overpriced or, if you know the right places, super cheap, is what my point was on my previous post. 300ntd can be a single but nice jap curry or it can be 4 big macs. I understand that you can't stretch it to infinity, but 100 can still provide you with a filling meal if you know where to look. I'd say 300 ntd is a reasonable minimal daily expenditure, but if you're eating for ten bucks, you're either eating a lot or you're eating some good food.
And that applies even more for night markets where the slop basically costs nothing.
Where? I spent most of my times in New Taipei and 100NTD doesn't get you anything impressive. unless you're feeling a microwaved convenience store meal.
Inflation is crazy. Prices increase by 5 NTD every two-three weeks it felt like.
again, as stated before in the thread, there is more to Taiwan than Taipei and New Taipei.
Still doesn't explain how people are supposed to prepare healthy food for themselves.
>ramen and oily potstickers full of salt and msg are not healthy food
That's not even what we were talking about you fricking moron.
Sure but the experience of Taipei is properly indicative to 90% of travelers to Taiwan
Not really. I guess there's Kaohsiung in the South that's probably a bit cheaper and maybe 100NTD gets you a more solid meal there but places like Taoyuan are for sad fricking expat English teachers and the rest is just kind of flyover country.
Seeing as the new Taiwan dollar is worth slightly more than the Thai baht, it's very disappointing to hear that 100 NTD won't buy a proper made-to-order restaurant meal. Versus Bangkok, where I pay 50-100 baht for a meal, and the Philippines where I only paid 60-120 pesos.
You are referring to the highland areas, right?
>taiwanese food
Lived in taiwan for three years and this is not really true but I udnerstand where you're coming from if you're in Taipei. If your life, like most expats, basically revolved around Zhongshan, Xinyi, Da'an and Songshan and you're not too knowledgeable when it comes to chinese, the path of least resistance is unavoidably going to street markets and/or mainstream restaurants, or even perhaps those breakfast shops such as laya burger or family biz who only open before 2pm and only have western food.
Your best bet is to get an actual taiwanese pal who can hook you up with restaurants he knows. There are a shit ton of cantinas and trad restaurants with good quality food. Case in point is picrel, right in front of NTU in Zhongzheng district, that serve some decent beef noodles and a shit ton of stuff that cost basically peanuts (most dishes cost 4 dollars at most, the ones at 8 are basically OMAD material). There are lots of restaurants like this in taipei but you should basically steer away from the center that is too "globalized" (it's all bubble teas and fried shit from japan and korea now) to have too many of those establishments.
Every gf I had was basically earning enough money to get away with not cooking and was lazy enough to be content with the same streetslop and fastslop every day. I remember one of them cooking rice in water and calling it a "rice soup". Nasty shit. A good kitchen isn't hard to get imho. The issue is that if you don't speak chinko pachinko odds are you're either a student or earning enough to get away with not cooking, so most anglophone friendly rentals do away with kitchens. Just get an induction plate and a rice cooker, cook your dish with the former and your carbs with the latter.
Also, learn how to cook with local ingredients or you'll go bankrupt. I learned that the hard way.
>Not at all. That was one of my biggest gripes - Taiwanese people do NOT understand other cuisines.
You do realize taiwangays only cook fujianese and a few cook northerner shit ? Most "foreign" food is cooked by foreigners. Mainlanders from different regions have their restaurants and they cook some mighty decent food, especially sichuanese people. Koreans also have their own establishments. Hell, i've seen some other international shit in there, Vietnamese, Thai, Malay, Indian. Frick, there is a chinese dude who immigrated to NJ for decades and then came back and opened a pizza place which honestly could easily compete with your average NYC joints while his competition could only produce sbarro-tier slop at BEST.
The only foreign food taiwanese themselves do is Jap food, which they absolutely suck at, on that we can agree. They still do mean sushis though.
not him but the only gays you see are the ones you actively seek. Globalized centers always have lgbt communities because conservative backgrounds no matter where actively reject them. the 101 night clubs, and the dance bars were westerners hang out. If you're a conservative, which you seem to be, chances are you wouldn'be hanging there either. If you are, well do know that literally every country in Asia will have an overrepresentation of such people in those places as well. Even the ones that are anti-lgbt such as China.
>parades
are easily avoidable and only happen once in a blue moon. And the ones that are not the actual gay pride parade are so anecdotal in significance and size you'd have to be actively seeking them to even know they exist.
But you already know that, given that we always give you same fricking response in every fricking thread.
>Taoyuan
Taoyuan is okay you moron. It is literally 40 minutes away from Taipei and has some super affordable housing. This being said, i'd rather live near the actual MRT.
They have souls
>Japan
>Japan, China
Only good thing out of taiwan was winston wu and their silicone modified public service drones have either been zombie bimbos or kind of stuck up tbh tbh
Very influenced by lib hippies
Taipei yeah. They have troony parades almost every weekend.
Sounds like they are good, tolerant people.
They overwhelmingly voted against legalization of gay marriage but it got passed anyway because yay!
Good. There's no inherent value in democracy. Personal and civil liberties should not be up to a vote.
Sure, just saying its Reddit country
Taiwan is nowhere near as politically correct or publicly supportive of lgbt as the west but you can't have a Taiwan thread here without comments (probably China shills) about trannies and pride parades like going to Taiwan is almost like visiting the Folsom Street Fair.
Yes I agree with you. I call it Reddit country not because of Taiwanese themselves but because of foreigners who basedface about le democracy of Asia and le bubble tea and how theyre SO supportive of LGBT (when thats not really the case).
I don't think theres actually China shills on SighSee though
>DAH CHINA SHILLS
>ITS NOT LIKE DAH WEST
Taipei has a ton of lgbt's and troony parades. It's a fact. Nothing to do with china shills. The west worships troonys and lgbt's. Trying to compare the two is moronic.
Oh no, a few gay bars and annual parade in one street of Taipei. What do?
>still attempting mental gymnastics to prove some kind of point
just stop already. first I was a china shill, then it was "BUT COMPARED TO THE WEST" and now it's some snarky redditor response.
>they are good people because they are aligned with exactly my beliefs
How does Taiwan being vaguely tolerant towards gay people compared to the rest of asia affect you in any way?
Not him and it doesnt but they're really not more tolerant fwiw. Nowhere in Asia is particularly 'intolerant' of gays, unless you're using the American definition of intolerant (not bending over backwards for, not showing exaggerated outward support for). They are just as well tolerated ie not discriminated against or harassed etc in the rest of Asia.
who said it did? stop with the mental gymnastics. nobody cares if you're a gay and stop trying to pretend everyone does.
your instantly on the defensive and ready for the victim role.
For male homosexuals it isn't even this so much as they're hedonistic narcissists. Gay men have a peculiar need to be worshipped as such, but more importantly, they want to coom. As bad as you may think straight coomers are, gay ones are way worse. If a gay dude is going abroad, there's a very high chance he's going somewhere to indulge his loins.
hot
Taiwan is the least comfy Asian country. Nearly everything is new and it all feels shoddy. Even this picture for example. It's cheap concrete painted over. Everything in Taiwan feels like it's made of cheap, cracked concrete or plastic. It all just feels so fake and desperate to copy something else.
It’s comfy because it was the last Asian country to even be settled. That’s why it’s so sparsely populated and beautiful. Of course everything’s new and shoddy. I doubt you’ve traveled anywhere in Asia besides Japan of shoddy skyscrapers trigger you.
Taiwan has the highest population density of anywhere in East Asia. I've been all over Asia and Taiwan is just boring and soulless. Quit simping for a country on a continent you've never even been to.
>Taiwan
>Sparsely populated
Depends where you are. Generally cheaper than Japan/SK/HK/Singapore, more expensive than Mainland and SEA
I'm Canadian, so I have high standards for wilderness. Taiwan meets and surpasses them. The amount of empty space is incredible. I too have been all over SEA. Even in sparsely populated areas of China or Indochina all the land has been impacted by humans. In Taiwan you can walk through old-growth forest literally for days (t. I've done it)
How cheap is Taiwan?
Everything feels about 3 times cheaper there than in the US, especially food, clothes and services. Healthcare and transportation are way cheaper but housing is about the same as the US.
Taiwan is good b ut only when you visited the other greater places in asia.
Taiwan is just Chinese Okinawa, at least the japs aren’t all autistic about it and understand both are just property of the US. Get over it Zhang.
Hainan is Chinese Okinawa.
I think it's the people. They're very shy which is quite nice as I'm typically stared at when outside of the west
I like the Taiwanese. They're the perfect level of sociability imho. Introverted but friendly at the same time.
>it's calm, the people are calm, the expats aren't weebs that believe they can become actual japanese but still are respectful of their surroundings
>enough jap shit for someone who likes japan though, at very affordable prices compared to even japan itself
>lots of greenery, lots of hiking spots, cities may seem old but it's never this oppressive concrete jungle like HK or Tokyo
>there's still a winter of sorts during half of the year, march and april are basically ideal which makes for very cheap trips at the best moment
>the girls are cuties, easily accessible, and are pretty trad (yes, even the english speaking ones)
what's not to like, Black folk
>I love the city, but the diversity of food options (both literally the food itself and types of venue) is on par with T3 Mainland cities. I have occasionally found good international food (good Mexican, Indian, Japanese, Meh-tier American, Meh-tier Korean, bad Euro cuisines) in Taipei but never good Mainland cuisine from any province which would require a departure from typical Taiwanese flavors (most of them).
I've had a quick glance at the din tai fung menu thinking you might find what you like there, and now i'm getting why you're paying 300 ntd a meal lmao. This being said, while i agree that Taiwanese food culture seriously lacks depth when put into the broader chinese cuisine context, I also believe that I've had my fair share of chinkslop in the west where you'll find every fricking regional cuisine and then some. I'm happy with my 5 buck taiwanese beef noodle soup + no tip.
>105ntd breakfast
No argument there, you’re right. I maintain my stance outside of breakfast though
>Din tai fung
I never go there and thats like a 1000ntd meal iirc
>where you’ll find every regional cuisine and then some
In the West? Done correctly? No. Although you can get decent Sichuanese food in the US now
>Happy with 5 buck soup + no tip
Relative to the West, agree 100%. Relative to elsewhere in Asia its lacking but it seems we dont disagree
reasons why i love taiwan(taipei) is there are not a lot of western foreigners/europoors roaming the streets so i feel like its the most untouched un molested country.
People are super friendly, the tourist are not weebs.
I dont really grasp the concept of what is expensives since i make 6 figs salary i assume a 180-240 ntd meal is pretty fricking cheap compared to the bullshit i eat in the states for 3-4x the price.
Taipei pros :
>Good purchasing power despite recent inflation
>Food is decent and you can find cheap international slop (the autist posting menus makes a good point)
>Aside from traffic in the big roads, the city is pretty calm (especially in the lanes around them)
>Excellent MRT system
>Excellent train network
>Very non-sino friendly, if you get a job (easier said than done tho) you can get away with not speaking much
>Very friendly overall, people are polite but also warm, contrary to japs
>Friendliness rubs on the foreigners (which you probably will be interacting with the most), people are very nice
>Tired of fricking chinks ? Lots of big booty latinas too.
Taipei cons:
>Contrary to other bigger modern cities in asia, taipei is not as active
>Most anglosaxon immigrexpats are english teachers who think everyone here must be an english teacher
>Like most asian countries, speaking the language is the only way to actually reach out to locals in a meaningful way
>Rent is still cheap in new taipei city but it's really gone up
Taipei tips&tricks :
>Menu anon is right, breakfasts cost nothing and few people know about those (i am surprise anyone here does)
>Avoid voicing your political opinion until you've heard theirs first unless you want to spend a shitty night
>Think twice before standing up to a racist chink. They are basically unhinged by taiwan standards, so things can escalate really quickly (and people will assume you started it)
>If you're cooking, learn to cook with local ingredients. A 30 buck typical grocery bag in the west can cost upwards of a hundred bucks due to importation costs.
>Bottled water is extremely expensive, but water dispensers are everywhere.
Cont.
>Lots of big booty latinas too.
Really? How come?
Taiwan is basically a us ally, so any latin american country under the influence of the us has an embassy with it. Lots of grants led to a good amount of them coming to study and work.
There is also a sizeable haitian community too.
Several latin american countries recognize Taiwan as the legitimate China, usually because they get free gibs from the taiwanese like money in the form of development aid and easier access to work visas.
Paraguay and Guatemala is not "several". But they do have a de facto embassy in almost every Latin American country, usually officially named Economic Office or Cultural Office for plausible deniability.
looks like they've lost Panama and El Salvador
Cont'd
Rest of taiwan (note : taoyuan is practically taipei's suburb, and hsinchu is a special case due to all the engineers there) pros :
>Very cheap
>Magnificent hiking trails and amazing landscape
>Even easier to get laid, you basically are at the top of the food chain, you're 100% exotic no matter your ethnicity compared to "globalized" taipei
>Few foreigners, meaning you'll either really bond with them or you can do away with them, your call
>Basically the english teacher's dream, good pay, low effort, 0 oversight
>Better weather than taipei overall
>If you like the countryside, that's as good as it gets
Rest of taiwan cons:
>If you thought taipei was boring boy you're not ready for this
>Literally NOTHING to do besides your job, hiking, or going at the beach depending where you're at. (Or fricking)
>Taiwanese people absolutely suck wiener at english, but the countrysiders are even worse, if you don't have a translator gf it's joever
>Taichung and kaohsiung are the only real "cities" the rest are just amalgamations of townships with nothing but restaurants and housing
>Hsinchu is basically a giant dorm
>Public transportation is dogshit (except for kaohsiung), understanding buses will be complicated if you don't speak chinese.
Rest of taiwan tips and tricks :
>Either don't live there or be ready to make your life revolve around internet and your partner.
>You can still find imported goods but at this point you might as well teach yourself how to cook with what you have. Because god knows your gf doesn't.
>Still, it's a great start if you're a TEFLer and you're aiming for PR. The low amount of demand means you're not going to worry about getting fired.
>The low amount of demand means you're not going to worry about getting fired.
??
Thanks for the thoughts and tips anon.
>Either don't live there or be ready to make your life revolve around internet and your partner.
Care to elaborate on this point?
No problem bro.
Before I answer your question, let me be realistic here : most newcomers don't speak mandarin and most newcomers will probably bond with foreigners far sooner than any locals, if only because of the language barrier and the culture being so different. They don't get your jokes, they won't get your puns, they barely get your references, and even if you refer to chinese culture, unless you know how to speak mandarin, you'll more often than not end up translating some obscure reference they do not give a frick about. In time however, and if you take this seriously, it does get better. A lot of people don't bother though.
And now : To answer your question, there's simply not much going on in taipei to start with, so Taichung and Kaohsiung are even worse. They're basically second rate cities in what is mostly is a second rate region of East Asia. Most people will be speaking full on mandarin, the foreigners you'll meet will probably have mostly fully integrated and just don't care about meeting foreigners or going to them expat bars, or are basically autistic shut-ins who will actively avoid you if you're one.
Add to that the fact that most taiwanese woman past college have literally zero friends and will devote their entire attention to you, you won't be doing much save working, being with her, and, once you've basically visited everything you needed to visit, stay at home on your computer.
Even worse if you're in some isolated backwater township. The only good thing it does however is that it actively forces you to learn mandarin lest you become a hermit.
>Want to start a new life
>End up in a shithole with no friends
>Nothing to do
Why even go there, cheap fried rice ?
How common is Japanese?
Way less than hanasiatic
>uhhhh durrrrrr
>how common is dah weeb language outside of dah only place its majorly spoken?
>duhhh i love jerking off to anime duhhh
Anime site. And Taiwan is not only the No. 1 destination for Jap tourists but the country with the most Japanophile youth.
No one there other than Japanese tourists and expats speak Japanese.
No one? Zero (0) people in the entire country Taiwan (population 23 million) speak Japanese despite statistics saying it's the most popular L2 after English?
Its obvious what I mean you nitpicking homosexual. Unless you are Japanese (and dont speak English or Chinese), it is a useless language for tourism/living in Taiwan. That you may occasionally run into someone who speaks it is irrelevant.
I always tought SighSee was a good board for language learners but it turns out it's quite the opposite. The idea of learning a language for any non-utilitarian reason, or practicing a language outside of its native area for a challenge doesn't even register to you, so you instantly assume a question like this
must have anything to do with its usefulness in Taiwan. LOL! Talk about a midwit userbase.
>How common is Japanese
>Very uncommon (expressed in hyperbole)
>Hurr durr oh literally zero people speak it? Yeah right. BTW you're stupid for thinking the question has to do with whether Japanese is useful in Taiwan (the obvious implication of the question absent additional context)
Ironically I use Chinese all over SEA with non-ethnic Chinese, non-native speakers. So you're barking up the wrong tree. And even for what you're suggesting I don't think there's any real density of Japanese speakers that you'd be able to practice beyond pure luck/chance encounters same as if you were in Korea or China or Thailand.
You do realize how difficult it is to achieve proficiency in a language without real-world usage, right?
Lots of people speak Japanese in Taiwan. Virtually every old person speaks it well and you'll find it pretty often among hotel workers and stuff. I used it when English didn't work.
no. Not every old person speaks jap (waishengren don't), and the ones that do are getting seriously old now.
>hotel workers
no shit.
>asks if people speak japanese in non japanese country
>bitches about how someone said "no one" instead of "very few"
being a popular L2 doesn't mean shit. most eurogays study a second language along with english but that doesn't mean they speak it fluently.
>I used it when English didn't work
I know a language that might have been more useful than both of those
I did in fact have a few conversations in Japanese in Taipei, and when I went to a maid cafe (yes I am aware this is cringe) they didn't speak English but they did understand enough Japanese I was able to enjoy myself.
I wouldn't recommend learning Japanese for Taiwan, or expecting to get by, and I found generally English was more useful.
But still, there are definitely niche scenarios to practice the language.
There's nothing cringeworthy about maid cafes
Not even if I met an underground Taiwanese idol and chatted with her about Japanese idol culture, culminating with her adding me on socials and inviting me to see one of her shows next time I'm in Taiwan?
i went to a maid cafe for a laugh a while ago
it was a weird depressing place
Because some people enjoy the idea that they will be attacked and murdered by the PRC any second now?
The Pussies' Republic will never do it. It's bad for business.
Is Taipei area worth visiting around new years? Why are the hotels so expensive, id rather just go to thailand.
Is it true Taiwan has the last designated smoking area in an international airport on the planet?
I haven’t felt such freedom in a long time
Taiwan sucks ass, and I didn't think I could hate a group of white people more than the weebs who love Japan. But yeah, it's the group of white people who love Taiwan. Fricking embarrassing.
Of course you couldn't, Zhang.
leave it to the weeb gays to completely shit up a good thread.
The taiwanese are weebs. Did you get lost on your way to reddit?
>DURRR DIS DAH ANIME SITE DOOD DURRR
can always spot the normie redditor who discovered SighSee from r/greentexts when they parrot this shit.
>DAH DOOD EVERY BOARD MUST BE ABOUT ANIME. DURRRR IDK WHY WE HAVE BOARDS WITH DIFFERENT TOPICS IF ITS ALL ANIME DURRR
>normie
Protip: next time you're trying to call someone a redditor, you may want to pick your words more carefully so as to not out yourself - and by extension everyone who doesn't understand SighSee is and has always been an anime website - as one.