Ordinarily, I'm pretty leery about all-inclusive, blanket generalizations but I'm feeling a little hasty. I'm convinced that everyone in Taiwan is abnormally friendly and good-spirited. Everyone.
Taking out a map and looking around is like Taiwanese bait - works every time. And they don't just point down the street to dismiss me because I can't communicate. Teams are assembled, maps are drawn, and phone calls are made on my behalf. Ok, maybe this doesn't sound that impressive. Or, maybe it's just because I'm noticeably a tourist and everyone likes to help tourists. Nope. Today, on my way to get bubble tea, scooterists made a blockade to stop traffic while a convenience store employee helped a really old lady cross the street. I bet the idiots in the store didn't even steal anything while the clerk was gone.
Next, let's talk about exploitation, which would detract from helpful in the kindness equation. Exchanging money presents a pretty good opportunity for exploitation. Let's start with my most frequent purchase: food. I have been getting breakfast at a small place across the street from my hostel and lunch at a few nearby locations. Surely, I could be getting overcharged, at least slightly, but am not.
Being jaded, I realize choosing not to exploit me could be advantageous sans altruistic nice. Exploiting me at the breakfast place might not be an optimal strategy because the game is sequential. Thus, exploitation for higher profit in the present might prevent future payoffs from repeat business. When I get lunch, a manager type figure is eyeballing the bejeesus out of each employee. His tongue would touch the cashiers' ear if he stuck it out. Here, supervision is a barrier to exploitation.
We need a better example, and I think taxi drivers provide a nice indicator of exploitation. Repeat business is not likely in large cities. There is no direct oversight, and a fare meter is not an effective barrier to exploitation. Case in point: while studying abroad, I paid one hundred dollars for my first cab ride in Argentina. My host mom's jaw dropped before she explained the "idiot rate." Turned out, meters could be tampered with. Anyhow, you guessed it, no price gouging here in Taiwan.
Before my teaching demo, I found this on the table outside my room. It means big luck big profit.
I would have been content with, "Good luck."
I realize that I have only been in Taiwan a week but I'm still convinced everyone is nice. My inner skeptic beckons me to probe, though, so I'll probably start resorting to more desperate nice-sorting methods like leaving valuable things out in public, seeking out the more dubious types, and telling people I still use Windows Media Player.
