I met this retired Swedish lady on the bus from the Stockholm airport to Stockholm Central. The bus ride was about one hour and twenty minutes. It was surprising that she knew Taiwan.
She asked carefully, “Is there some kind of problem between you Taiwan and China?” I wanted to avoid unpleasant topics and talk about something fun, so I changed the subject to her tourist trip to China.
"Oh, what scared me the most was the traffic there. When I was in Bejing, I didn't even know how to cross the road," she said.
How come that doesn't surprise me? The traffic in most of the Asian cities are chaotic like that. Traffic in Taipei, Bangkok, and Kuala Lumpur, it is all the same, classically frantic. You know how my foreigner friends in Taiwan put it? One of them put it this way, "Whenever I try to cross the road, people try to run me over."I told her the story and assured her that she was not alone. She burst into laugh, saying that it is so to the point. I have been telling this joke to people I met in Canada or travelers I met on the road, and so far haven't met anyone who doesn't like it.
The thurth is, I also drive. Here I have a confession to make. Every time when I am behind the steering wheel, I lose my patience just like others. This is embarrassing. But I have to say, there is some kind of chemical that makes drivers crazy. I remember that when I just started to drive, I was too polite. I always gave ways to others. But then I realized I would never go anywhere if I was not aggressive enough.
Now her complaints turned into an understanding to cultural differences after me joking around. Isn't that the reason why we need to travel around and talk to people from different cultures?
No comments:
Post a Comment