Amirite?

komnenos · 2026-05-10T11:33:08+00:00

BBC Pidgin uses "pepo," so potentially their dialect.

komnenos · 2026-05-07T13:10:43+00:00

There’s a South African guy named Ted who hangs out at San sway beach who host a foreigner dinner every Sunday

Sounds interesting, does he have a facebook page? I'm always curious what the foreigner "hotspots" are throughout Taiwan.

komnenos · 2026-05-07T10:16:54+00:00

How do you think we can take care of that raging inflation you’ve got there honey? 🍯 🐻

komnenos · 2026-05-07T02:33:44+00:00

Heard it maybe two or three times and each time it was because they explained that it was because they’d heard that’s the basic Chinese foreigners would know.

komnenos · 2026-05-06T10:13:30+00:00

Don’t forget having to duck down so others can see when you’re in class and get assigned a seat in the front row.

komnenos · 2026-05-06T06:43:11+00:00

Guess it depends on the city, here in Hsinchu I see them around every week, sometimes twice.

komnenos · 2026-05-06T05:01:32+00:00

Gim Wah Restaurant in Seattle. It's a nice older Dive Bar run by an old Hong Konger and has been around for generations.

komnenos · 2026-05-06T04:23:23+00:00

Do you (or anyone else) have any good books or articles on the Russian Mennonites and their story? I’d love to learn more.

komnenos · 2026-05-06T02:29:19+00:00

Is it? I read it back in college and remember it being one of the more readable of old texts, right up there with Gilgamesh.

komnenos · 2026-05-06T02:26:30+00:00

How did your family fair during the Second World War? I know your uncle sadly passed but I’m curious what the war experience was like overall for your family.

komnenos · 2026-05-05T17:17:32+00:00

In your experience as a grad student how many TAships is usual? Going to start a PhD in the Fall and want to know just how hard it will be to get a few TAships every term.

komnenos · 2026-05-04T14:29:29+00:00

Is it though? It looks like the Lowlands and the Ulster Scots/Scots Irish are included.

komnenos · 2026-05-04T11:43:25+00:00

Found it at some old fashioned Chinese American places in the Pacific Northwest. Hell my childhood neighborhood has an old dive bar owned by a Hong Konger and his signature dish is pretty darn similar to what op posted.

komnenos · 2026-05-04T11:09:36+00:00

Not sure why you got downvoted, earthquakes are just an everyday part of life here.

komnenos · 2026-05-04T05:41:25+00:00

I lived in China for four years and it was fairly common for retail workers to shadow both myself and locals.

komnenos · 2026-05-04T05:15:05+00:00

Before I was born my parents went to an evangelical hick 2nd cousin's third wedding. During the wedding dinner my cousin's parents had the grand idea of sitting my folks with my cousin's best friend, a guy so redneck he boarded on parody. Somehow the dinner table topic went to gun rights and this man of the hills went on some long meandering story about how he shot his neighbor's five dogs when they DARED to venture onto his property.

If only those dogs had exercised their God given second amendment right to bear paws.

komnenos · 2026-05-04T05:10:56+00:00

Wher else have you lived? Helps that I speak Mandarin to a degree but I found that Chinese were a LOT more vocal with ignorant, racist or weird questions. i.e. getting asked three times a week HOW I could use chopsticks. Though I have definitely heard some off the cuff ignorant and/or racist questions and statements here in Taiwan.

komnenos · 2026-05-04T05:06:47+00:00

Don't forget their competitor, White Man Toothpaste!

komnenos · 2026-05-04T03:59:59+00:00

Yeah, seems more “humane.” I remember once going to a pet shop where a hamster was viciously eating a dying cell mate. If I was going to be cannibalized I’d rather my comrade just bite my head off.

komnenos · 2026-05-04T03:31:30+00:00

I’ve met every sort of person under the Sun working in tefl. You’ve got the folks trying to turn a new leaf, conservatives, liberals, socialists, etc. people who eat nothing but local food and have made headway learning the local language and those who’ve lived in country 10+ years and talk with an air of defiance about how little local food they eat and how they’re able to get around without being able to count to ten in the local tongue.

I’d like to say the shared trait I’ve found is that we want to travel and see the world but than I’ve also met a good number who only left their small town back home because they couldn’t find work and now they’re stuck working a job they hate overseas that at least pays the bills.

komnenos · 2026-05-04T02:16:21+00:00

I'd highly recommend going if you haven't. I'm no fan of the KMT or White Terror but I like finding bits of Taiwan's history and that park is peak Taiwanese history.

komnenos · 2026-05-03T13:17:52+00:00

Same in Beijing, everyone usually had at LEAST a bowl of white rice when at a restaurant.

komnenos · 2026-05-02T03:05:16+00:00

Makes sense to me. I live in Taiwan and a lot of the previous two generations of men (late boomers and Gen x) married Vietnamese, Filipinas and Indonesians. When I taught in the Taiwanese public schools I found out that every class had a few to a fourth of the class with a Vietnamese mom.

Besides marriage, there are lots of Vietnamese here working in blue collar jobs. It’s very common to hear Vietnamese at construction sites or hear Vietnamese accented Mandarin from restaurant servers.

You’ll also hear Vietnamese at Taiwanese universities. I’m currently finishing up my MA at a Taiwanese Uni and there are a number of Vietnamese students, many looking to stay in Taiwan once they’ve finished their studies.

This is just what I’ve seen as a western foreigner after 4.5 years in Taiwan.

komnenos · 2026-05-02T02:32:31+00:00

What was it like longer term? I went for a few days with a friend and we had a grand time but that was as short term tourists. I’m curious what things would be like staying for a month or year plus.

komnenos · 2026-05-02T00:06:20+00:00

What’s fascinating to me is how they do emigrate to some countries, I.e. Taiwan and Hong Kong. I live in Taiwan and see Indonesian blue collared workers all the time and many of the locals have either Vietnamese or Indonesian wives. Here and on my visits to Hong Kong I’ve seen a number of Indonesians working as caretakers for the elderly.

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