Taiwanese Life A-Z – English version
As I took some parts of the “Taiwanese Life A-Z”-Category in my final report, I had to translate it so here my impressions of Taiwanese life in English 
air conditioning: As most may know, Taiwan is lying at the tropic of the cancer and has therefore a subtropical climate – so air conditioning is really great, useful, and of course convenient and determines Taiwanese Life. I actually got the impression there is no life without air conditioning and I really wonder from time to time how life was 50 years ago. A problem was occurring nevertheless for me: I will never understand why it is necessary to put the air conditioning to temperatures which feel in shorts and T-Shirt like below zero. So don’t forget to put on long trousers and a jumper when taking the train – it will save you from getting a cold for sure.
bike parking: Bit strange to mention, I know, but a real surprise for me on the NTU campus was when my bike had just disappeared! So if you ever park your bike at the NTU campus, take care, as there are special designated spaces for parking for bikes – and they can even have a time limit! Anyone violating this regulation might find himself in the same situation as me – my bike was just towed off!
convenient: at least for me the most used English term in Taiwan. Never used it before myself, even had to look it up (dictionary saying „angenehm, bequem, guenstig, passend, praktisch, gelegen (..)“). It seems to be most important that a thing is convenient here, maybe it is even possible to reduce its meaning to “close by, not far to walk” as I heard the term mostly in connection with 7-11 (see later) and the MRT.
dorm: Student dormitories are generally known in Germany. A Taiwanese “dorm” seems a lot different to me nevertheless. First and most important thing about it: men and women sleep separately. This not only means that they don’t share a room, they usually don’t even share a building. And in my dorm, the strangest thing to me was that all visitors to the dorm have to register at the reception before they can enter the dorm – visiting is only permitted until 12 pm and no overnight stays! Furthermore, as maybe another important information, it is common to share a room with other students (though only the same sex and there are usually no kitchens in the dorms!
floor: The Taiwanese floor is dirty. It has to be dirty, otherwise I can’t find any other explanation why I was told a hundred times (at least it felt like that not to put my bag on the floor. Thanks to Allie and Eric for teaching me this cultural difference J – I’m pretty sure that back home I will be looked a bit strange at for always occupying someone else’s chair with a bag
HSR: High Speed Railway. Taiwanese Proud. Connects Taipei in the North with Kaoshiung in the South in only 90 minutes. Actually pretty convenient, close to a German ICE but luckily not as expensive, although for Taiwanese means it still costs some money. Very convenient is also that you always get a seat (in comparison to “normal trains”, I guess we spend half a day sitting on the floor) and that you can buy your ticket at a ticket machine that speaks English.
“Schnapsfreunde”: Although it might sound a bit strange at first, Schnapsfreunde is not only about liquor but about the Taiwanese hospitality in general. We especially experienced it in the mountains, where everyone was really happy about us being from “De guo” and we were often invited by Taiwanese hikers to join for food in the cabin or on a mountain – and for some liquor as well. But we were even once offered hot tea and coffee right on the top of a mountain and enjoyed lots of great traditional food in Taichung and Lukang – thanks again for this great hospitality!
MRT: abbreviation for Mass Rapid Transit, the Metro in Taipei. Very easy to use – with the so called Easy Card – and again, just really convenient. An Easy Card, a small magnetic card the size of a credit card, can be bought at the MRT stations and be topped up there as well and just used to get anywhere without having to care to buy a ticket. A system that should really be introduced in Germany as well!
rubbish bins: again a strange topic, but one of the things which is really missing in Taiwan are rubbish bins. Sometimes they seem to me even inexistent. As a lot of rubbish is produced in daily life with “daizi”s everywhere, plastic cups for tea and coffee and loads of other packing material for the food, there are definitely not enough rubbish bins around! One really gets used to carrying around one’s plastic cup for some hours. To my surprise, Taipei is still cleaner than many German cities.
nap: kind of a Taiwanese institution. For me at first a bit strange, it is perfectly okay to take a nap at work for some time – just let your head rest on the desk. A reason for this might be, that in general office times in Taiwan are much longer than I’m used to in Germany and a lot of life actually just takes places in the office.
7-11: a convenience (see „convenient“) store, no, not only one, but THE convenience store. There is literally one at every corner and even in the smallest village you can find one – no chance to start missing the great 7-11 bakery stuff (I’m still afraid of chocolate rolls with meat filling..). Convenient store means that you can buy there everything Taiwanese people find convenient. That doesn’t necessarily mean the same things I might find convenient, as sugar for my tea that I didn’t get there. So convenience store is not to be confused with supermarket, as I did in the beginning.
tea: One of the best things in Taiwan. Tea is drunken all the time and you can get it everywhere – in comparison with Germany mostly cold though. Best is the tea from the tea shops, which is often mixed with different fruit juices and just a great refreshment on a hot day. I will really miss the feeling walking around with a “bai shan lu cha” in a plastic cup in a bag at my wrist.
toilets: Some things about toilets are really great in Taiwan – namely the fact that you can nearly find them everywhere (and they are always for free!), even in the mountains along the highway. There are some funny things about them though. So it is more common to have squat toilets, so one might find himself standing in front of a “normal” toilet, facing a sign reading “Do not stand on the toilet”.
