Foreign Brides (revised)

Recently, I watched a Taiwanese soap opera named“Don’t Call Me Foreign Bride.” It’s a story about the problems which foreign brides face in Taiwan, and how they try to solve them. According to a research, there are more and more foreign brides are coming to Taiwan during these years. Some of them adjust to their new lives soon after they get married and have no problems; however, some of them can’t adapt to the Taiwanese society. They often come across a lot of difficulties, such as language, barriers, cultural differences, and discriminations.

First, the most common problem is language. After coming to Taiwan, they have to learn
Chinese. It’s not an easy job because what they should learn are not only listening and speaking but also reading and writing. In order to communicate with the elder in their husbands’ family, they even have to learn Taiwanese. By going to schools, many foreign brides improve their languages a lot. However, there are many foreign brides who don’t go to school can’t learn Chinese well, and it causes communication problems. For example, when their children grow up, they may have some difficulties in their studies. If foreign brides can’t understand the contents in textbooks, how can they educate their children? Or if they can’t speak Chinese fluently, how can they communicate with their children’s teachers? In the end, maybe their children won’t have interest in studies because nobody can help them with the homework. It’s really a bad situation.

Second, cultural differences also cause adaptation problems. We usually have many different customs from them, such as food and religions. For instance, if they have specific religions, they may follow the rules that we have never heard of before. For some Taiwanese, it is hard to accept new religions and rules, so they will have conflicts. Also, because of the unique surroundings, they have their special concepts. In particular, Phillipine brides are much more open than Taiwanese brides. They enjoy drinking, singing, and dancing in everyday life. Even after getting married, they still have the same interest. However, Taiwanese people have different concepts. They think foreign brides shouldn’t go out all day. Instead, they should stay at home like traditional women and take care of children. Consequently, they may argue
because of the differences.

Third, they may be discriminated. For some foreign brides, the reason why they marry Taiwanese man is because they are poor. When they know that Taiwanese men are willing to marry them, they all want to take such opportunities to get rid of poor lives. Therefore, they come to Taiwan happily but find out that they are too naive. Many Taiwanese men think that they “buy” the foreign brides, so they can force them to do everything, such as looking after children and doing all the housework. They treat foreign brides as people they don’t need to treasure. What’s more, foreign brides are not allowed to go out to make friends. What they can do is stay at home and do the housework, and that’s why they become more and more lonely. As a result, many foreign brides can’t tolerate their lives anymore and flee to their own countries.

To sum up, there are three problems that foreign brides face in Taiwan: languages, customs, and discriminations. I think that after they marry to Taiwanese, they have already become part of us. Therefore, we should respect them. We should not discriminate against them but appreciate them and treat them as our families. In that way, our society will be better.