Taiwanese surveys

No chance in Taiwanese surveys to really complain about anything. Like butt-ugly towns, insane traffic or smelly unhealthy food stalls [chicken booth with chicken meat and living chickens right behind it, Jhongli, Taoyuan county].***

I came across many Taiwan government surveys made for foreigners while being here, all were steering you in the direction of saying:

* the food is good
* the people are friendly
* the temples are impressive
* the people are friendly, did I mention that?

And regarding not so good things:

* the traffic is a little too crowded
* maybe occasionally, in rush hours, when there is a full moon, a tiny wee bit of pollution, but it's not so bad, really!

This happens, because the selectable answers to the questions leave no other choice. The recent poll (http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2009/12/17/2003461159) was a little different, it asked endless questions about "websites for foreigners" which I do not even know, and, also made you say people are friendly in Taiwan. Hope you got the point now.

And, being a big fetish in Taiwan, the result has to be the English ability of people would be good or average. Everything else is not aloud as it would make them lose face.


OK here is my own:

What about the Taiwan people [note: do never say TaiwanESE people, that would be an ethnic expression and is disputed in Taiwan]?

(a) very friendly
(b) friendly
(c) oh my god, they are friendly!

What do you like in Taiwan?

(a) food
(b) people [they are friendly you know!]
(c) temples

What is not so good?

(a) traffic
(b) sometimes the air, but I don't really care and the good people of Taiwan are improving a lot every day!!!!!!!

How good do the Taiwanese speak English?

(a) very good
(b) vely good
(c) good
(d) much better than we lognoses speak Chinese because they are more clever anyway

How do you characterize Taiwan [choose 3]?

(a) friendly people
(b) good food
(c) impressive temples

Thank you for taking part in our survey!

OK, a little more serious, the survey from the link above did not give me the opportunity to express the information on the website would be superficial and generalized and thus useless.

A realistic question from a survey about foreigners, which I have encountered many times in a similar fashion is:

Choose what you like best about Taiwan: ()temples ()friendly people ()good infrastructure ()career opportunities.

No wonder the survey will have as a result that most foreigners here are satisfied.


*** wife says I am complaining too much today :-)