Going abroad doesn’t mean you know the world.
White Prejudice or Discrimination
I attended my first comedy show held in Hualien, Taiwan. It was an open-mic stand-up. The performers are from America and England.
The first thing I noticed was the audience. All the girls are from Taiwan, tall, beautiful, model figures, and splendid makeup with foreign guys beside them, French, Sweden, British, or Americans. There was no Asian face, none, zilch.
I told a guy what I observed that night, who wanted to be a diplomat but expected when he reached the status that could directly talk to the U.S. President, he/she might still not listen to his suggestion. Therefore, he traveled around the world like a gypsy.
He got annoyed, “You know, as white people, we suffered from discrimination everywhere as well, but no one noticed. I grew up in a religious family and attended private schools, all people around me expected me to have some achievements when I grew up. It was unfair discrimination.”
I stayed silent, he continued,
“You know how hard for us to find a job here (in Taiwan)? Being white needs to stand a lot of mistreatment and prejudice. You are not white, so you don’t know anything about it.”
By the end, he concluded New York was the best place where welcome and love all races of people. There are over 200 languages…
Hung up. I wanted to laugh but also feel sad to delete his contact information.
In Taiwan, even you have pursued a master’s degree in Teaching English as a Second Language and obtained a teaching certificate. You can only teach limited classes and your hourly payment is half less than a foreigner.
They said foreigners could make a fortune to teach English in Taiwan without any degrees or certificates.
I need to work for two other jobs being an English teacher in the same cram school to barely afford the living expenses.
He complained he couldn’t teach in a college or higher education institution. Yeah, you know what? No matter how we admire everything from the West, we still have a boundary. He complained he couldn’t even work in 7–11. Yeah, you should have known better in Taiwan, if you wanted to interact with customers, knowing how to say ‘thank you’ wouldn’t get you anywhere.
You might be showered in praise for saying 謝謝 by Taiwanese flight attendants, but don’t feel upset about being discriminated against outside the airport when you can only say 謝謝 in Taiwan where the main language is Mandarin, not English.
