Market ABC
Leisurely market shopping for foreign visitors
Do you know where tourists like to go most when they come to Taiwan? Do you know what their impression of Taiwan is? According to a survey by the Ministry of Transportation and Communication’s Tourism Bureau, the biggest favorite of most visitors (59 percent) to Taiwan is its night markets, making them even more popular than Taipei 101. In addition, their most favorable impressions of Taiwan are that the food is delicious and that people are very friendly. Both these opinions are the results of visits to Taiwan’s night markets!
The Ministry of Economic Affairs’ Department of Commerce wants to make it easy for tourists to experience Taiwan’s unique night market culture and enjoy its delicious food even though they may not understand Chinese. It has specially created a “Night Market English” handbook to teach tourists and night market stall owners how to say all the different kinds of food in Chinese and English. It is also working on aesthetic restorations for commercial areas and night markets throughout Taiwan to give visitors a comfortable and bilingual environment so that they can communicate in English.
So that’s what everyone says, but are Taiwan’s night markets actually friendly? Can foreign visitors really use English to order food? Let’s take some visitors to a bustling night market to find out!
“Oyster noodles!” calls out stall owner Yen Chen-jung in basic English as she beckons to our two foreign visitors. “Lots of international travelers come by, including Japanese, so I think employees have to speak a little bit of extremely simple English to boost business,” she says.
Watching as the two tourists easily finish every last morsel of the noodles, it is obvious that Taiwanese aren’t the only ones who love the flavor. Next, let’s try a traditional Taiwanese favorite, braised pork rice, to check out the owner’s English and see how friendly she is!
“Hi! Welcome! We have lots of different dishes, like braised pork rice!” she says, explaining the Taiwanese foods to our visitors in English with a Taiwanese accent. They nod their heads excitedly, so it seems communicating is no problem. But when it comes to traditional Taiwanese fare, sometimes a bit of misunderstanding is unavoidable. Nevertheless, the US tourist Scudder still gives the stall owners two thumbs up. “As far as friendliness is concerned, I think they score a perfect 100 percent!” he says.
Even though our visitors have given their approval to the night market English, it’s important not to start lowering our standards for creating an English-friendly environment. Wang Pai-por, director-general of the Department of Commerce, says, “In the future, we hope to have this sort of Chinese-English information and print pictures of Taiwanese foods alongside the information. But this isn’t just about night market food. Commercial areas all over Taiwan are also devoting themselves to improving their English environment so that foreign visitors will not just be able to enjoy the delicious food, but also take Taiwan’s unique culture home with them!”
2006 English Carnival
文章定位：
人氣(49) | 回應(0)| 推薦 (
0)| 收藏 (
0)|
轉寄
全站分類:
不分類
