I have been to Taiwan ten times.
I visited customers in Taipei, Taichu, Tainan, Kaoshung..., etc in the past.

Every time I go on a business trip to foreign countries, I cherish "one thing".

That is "talking (chatting) with the person from our local representative in the car to build relationships with him. I put a small size note book and pen in my cloth's pocket to take notes. The topics of the conversation are followings...

・Topics that my boss would like to explain and ask.

・Collecting information about the customers in advance.

・The latest status of the projects that I am in charge of.

・Chatting for building relationships with the person from the local representative.

・Asking about what he likes. (favorite food and hobbies.

・Asking about Taiwan. (personally)

・Chatting with him to know about myself as a sales and a person. (in case we have enough time.)

Of course, I talk with our local rep. during the meeting and lunch (or dinner) meeting.
In addition to such opportunities, I wanted to take advantage of them becuse we can talk with him for a long time facing each other.

As for the small notebook, I used it to avoid misunderstandings at the beginning. I know I have Japanese accent while speaking English as well as his English including Taiwanese accent.
Therefore, when I couldn't understand what he said, I asked him to write down what he said to me after saying "I am sorry" or "I am very sorry, but I couldn't catch your words and I want to understand what you said to me perfectly, (100%) so...".
By doing that, I learned his accent tendency and came to understand what he saids and enjoy talking with them. FYI, I also wrote what I said to him several times...

As for lunch or dinner time, we were always excited to talk about food.

My boss and I love Chinese spinach and fried rice and once he has known the facts, he took us to restaurants that serve those dishes.

As for languages, I learned very simple Chinese or Taiwanese words every time I visited Taiwan and tried to use them. Even if they were super simple, they smiled to us. When people from other countries are interested in the cultures or the languages there, the local people feel happy, which I learned through my visits.

I also know the importance of the word, "ありがとう" and when saying good bye to people there, I say "ありがとうございました" in Japanese and in the local language.

That means a lot and brings our hearts closer together, I believe.