Taiwan vs. American behavior

                                                                                                                    Winnie

Have you ever noticed that sometimes you can’t understand what others are doing when you visit in a foreign country? Sometimes you seem to behave in the wrong way but you don’t know where it went wrong. If you are an international student studying abroad, that might have happened in your life. For example, there are some interesting and different behaviors between Taiwanese and Americans. Like how they behave toward strangers , gestures and personalities.

     Compare the two groups’ attitudes to strangers. They have differences and similarities. Taiwanese people don’t easily talk to a stranger and most of the time they only care about themselves. Such as they won’t hold a door to let latter person to come in. But American people care more about strangers. They enter a door, they will hold the door open to let the next person enter the door. If a person sees you have a trouble, he/she will come and ask you “Do you need help?” This isn’t common in Taiwan.

     The second difference between Taiwan and America is how they express themselves with gestures. In Taiwan, people use gestures slightly, their gestures just help their language. Like when a Taiwanese want to show what’s going wrong, they just swing their hands. But in America, they do the gestures really exaggerated, an American will hit his forehead to show what’s going wrong. It’s very interesting.

     The last one, personalities, In Taiwan, most people are shy and introverted. They won’t greet with strangers and they won’t make friends quickly. But in America,

they are open and extroverted, they easily greet with strangers and they are active to make friends.

Every culture has their own behavior in how they behave toward strangers, gestures and personalities .We need to respect everyone’s culture so if you see a foreigner in your country, who shows they confused, you can help them. Let them adjust to this different environment quickly. Because if you go to another country, you might have some problems and you will want someone to help you. So be respectful to everyone’s culture.