Nowadays, the foreign spouses live in Taiwan is a common phenomenon and according to data provided by PTS, there are more than 390,000 foreign brides in Taiwan; a third are from Vietnam, Indonesia , the Philippines or Thailand and the other two-thirds are from China. Of all the problems the Southeast Asian spouses face in Taiwan, the most important one they have to overcome is the culture gaps, including the languages and the customs. "Some foreign spouses work as caregivers for the elderly and infirm. (Photo by Chang Su-ching)" The picture on the left is from "The Biggest Leap" in Taiwan Review.
As the foreign brides get married to Taiwanese husbands, they have to learn Chinese and Taiwanese. "The greatest difficulties a foreign spouse might have are the language barrier and adapting to the way of life," says Ke, one of the foreign spouses. It is true that sometimes they have difficulty communicating with their parents-in-law, who are the olds and mostly speaking Taiwanese. In the husband's side, they usually leave home and go to work, so their foreign spouses take charge of the house chores. And if husband's parents are at home, the foreign spouses take care of them too. However, the parents-in-law are not always satisfied with their foreign daughter-in-law. The misunderstanding between them causes from the language barrier; the elders are not easily understood by their daughter-in-law and aren't able to comprehend their poor Chinese. In my personal experience, I have once overheard an old woman complaining to her friends about her daughter-in-law who came from Indonesia, “Every time when I talked to my daughter-in-law, she just nodded her head as if she understood, but later I found she didn’t realize my words. Ah! What an annoyance!”
Besides, the custom is another problem between the foreign marriages. In Philippine, people do not eat rice porridge as a meal only when they deal with the funeral affairs. But here in Taiwan, cooking porridge is as usual as can be. Therefore, this misunderstanding always occurs when Taiwanese families are unaware of the custom of Philippine. As for Thai, they believe each person has an angel above his/her head, so it's really impolite to touch one's head, especially the children's heads. They regard this behavior as an insult. Moreover, they do not shake hands or leave the tips with the left hands for they think left hands are unclean. However, people in Taiwan are easily to touch a child's head due to the seduction of his/her adorable cute face. Hence, it irritates the foreign mother unknowingly. Another example in Indonesia is their belief. Since most of them are Muslim, they do not eat pork, and they obey the Koran, leading a religious life. But some Taiwanese families don't have such a rule, so the foreign spouses adjust themselves to the lifestyle here as well as sustain their religion.
Since there are two-thirds foreign spouses from China, I will introduce you the problems they encounter in the following essay.
Works cited:
“Image: LocationofVietnam.png.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. 19 January 2008. 17 June 2008. <
“Image: LocationIndonesia.svg.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. 26 December 2006. 18 June 2008. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:LocationIndonesia.svg
“Image: MapPhilppines2005.gif.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. 2 July 2005. 18 June 2008.
“Image: LocationThailand.svg.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. 26 December 2006. 18 June 2008. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:LocationThailand.svg
Cheng, Zoe. “The Biggest Leap.” Taiwan Review. 31 January 2007. 19 June 2008. http://taiwanreview.nat.gov.tw/ct.asp?CtNode=119&xItem=23746
Branch, Robb. “Vietnamese Brides.” OMF: Vietnamese Brides. 22 November 2007. 19 June 2008. http://www.omf.org/omf/taiwan/resources/stories__1/vietnamese_brides
“菲勞.雇主文化差異 相處常起誤會” 公視新聞網 15 June 2008. 19 June 2008. http://www.pts.org.tw/php/news/view_pda.php?TB=NEWS_V2&NEENO=87991
Written by Jane
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