Watching my HK colleagues become expats in Taiwan

[MABinPengChau]

Priceless...

People facing discrimination- we were trying to rent a flat together (since we won't all be there at the same time) and the landlord wanted an illegal three months' deposit. Because we are foreigners...

Complaints about food...

Complaints about locals...

The kind of stuff I have dealt with as a serial expat, they are experiencing for the first time- for at least one woman in her mid-30's it's the first time she has lived away from home at all.

Culture shock! I had one person tell me how she thought it would just be the same but...it wasn't. (Even in the US moving from one region to another is a culture shock so we know moving from one country to another is a HUGE culture shock).

Even though people are generally happy to be in Taiwan, it is fascinating to watch them become first-time expats...

[Skyhook]

Priceless...

People facing discrimination- we were trying to rent a flat together (since we won't all be there at the same time) and the landlord wanted an illegal three months' deposit. Because we are foreigners...

Complaints about food...

Complaints about locals...

The kind of stuff I have dealt with as a serial expat, they are experiencing for the first time- for at least one woman in her mid-30's it's the first time she has lived away from home at all.

Culture shock! I had one person tell me how she thought it would just be the same but...it wasn't. (Even in the US moving from one region to another is a culture shock so we know moving from one country to another is a HUGE culture shock).

Even though people are generally happy to be in Taiwan, it is fascinating to watch them become first-time expats...

May I ask what they are complaining about in regard to the food in Taiwan ? I always found the food to be a bit of an improvement in Taipei and the coffee culture was great. A bit like why I loved Xiamen ( also ) on the China mainland ( close to Taiwan ) was just so very good food/coffee wise in both cases.

So yeah, what are they complaining about ?

[huja]

So yeah, what are they complaining about ?

Complaining is part of the expat experience for many. For others it's just how they communicate. They don't even realize it.

[Sage]

Yeah, give us some specifics about their complaints please. Would be genuinely interesting to hear.

[hannah01]

I think, for as long as I remember, I've always complained wherever I've moved to (with my parents then, and thereafter, on my own) .


In Singapore I complained about it being a li'l bit too quite; in the UK - the same, plus the bonus complaints would be the weather; and so goes on a list of countries that were unfortunate enough to bear with my whining. Taiwan - I have nothing against it but then I have nothing to say for it either. Just complaints about finding nothing to grudge about.

HK, so far, has the least of my complaints. Congratulations HK!

[shri]

Issues with discrimination, food, locals ... sounds like GeoExpat.

[MABinPengChau]

Locals are too slow, don't get the job done the way HK people do..
No HK milk tea, dim sum...just being treated like an outsider, all standard expat stuff, as Shri pointed out...
This is the first time most of them have lived outside HK so it's definitely a culture shock. HK is a pretty damn small "country " so living your whole lives in a tiny place where your whole family and extended family are 20 minutes away, well Taipei is a very different experience. Even experiences for the better take some getting used to...

[huja]

Issues with discrimination, food, locals ... sounds like GeoExpat.

Don't despair @shri. GXP still has the market cornered on frozen chapati critiques.

[huja]

Locals are too slow, don't get the job done the way HK people do..
No HK milk tea, dim sum...just being treated like an outsider, all standard expat stuff, as Shri pointed out

Move away from home. Shocked it's not like home. Complain that it's not like home.

Lather. Rinse Repeat.

[MABinPengChau]

Best complaint yet was that a local restaurant was not that clean when some of the places that I have eaten at in HK with said coworker were on the appalling side of the cleanliness spectrum...