Things locals do that drive you insane.

The megaphones in front of street stalls yelling the same five words over and over ALL day long.

It's a hypnotic command to buy something.  The only reason I don't follow the command is that I can't tell what they are saying.

Grab a Chinese guy and drop him somewhere in one of those silly English speaking countries that most of us come from and he'll have his own share of WTF?!? moments, some of which will be accompanied by the urge to smack some sense into the locals.

As one who works extensively with Chinese students, and the broader Chinese community in Australia, I don't agree with this. Chinese here tend to work hard, mind their own business and keep their opinions to themselves. Maybe they're too busy to gripe about trivialities which help establish and perpetuate stereotypes. Please note I am talking about people who have made huge lifestyle decisions, and very expensive ones too. Most have burned their bridges and are committed to a new life in a new country. Not many posters on expat forums are in that boat: sorry about the mix of metaphors.

Anyhow, that was not the main point of my previous post. People are not looking at what they are criticising or ridiculing in a full social context.

Perhaps the ones you work with are more accepting of what might seem like strange local customs because the are more committed, or perhaps they just know better than to complain too loudly about perceived local silliness in front of local people.

I'm sure there are a lot of things posted in this thread that the people posting wouldn't loudly proclaim on a busy Chinese street corner (especially with a translator handy to make sure that everyone understood every word).

As you pointed out previously, there are Chinese people who are less than pleased with the actions of some of their fellow countrymen.  I've seen plenty of things done by westerners, both here and in the west that made me cringe too.  Every country has its share of people who seem determined to give their nation a bad name.

Every country also has its share of accepted local customs that leave outsiders wondering just what the locals have been smoking.  If everything seemed absolutely normal and made perfect sense no matter where you go, traveling would be a lot less popular.

All the usual suspects from me,
loud explosions in the morning.
Not being able to cycle in a straight line. 
Urinating anywhere.
Not speaking slowly when I ask them to speak slower.

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What are you, like 12? It's okay for adults to express negative impressions. What have the local people done to justify this level of protection from... you?

omg...


Isdinar, have you been having the bad thoughts again?

...

Thread over!

Isindar doesn't like it.

Sometimes some 'Western' people's sense of humour is so different than my sense of humour.

I've often thought that holding a discussion with students of English, about this very topic, would be very helpful. I expect that many of you guys may do this, especially with the folk who are planning on going to a foreign Country. It is something I think about after every visit to the Casino. My observations are that most of the people I speak with are rapidly becoming sick and tired of Multiculturalism because of a perceived failure of foreigners to try to assimilate. Before I get howled down, may I just give an example of what happened to me yesterday at the "den". I was standing squarely in front of a money changing machine and had two $50 notes to change to smaller notes. Notes can only be changed ONE AT A TIME and the money can only be removed, once ALL of the notes,from the one transaction, have been dispensed. I removed my notes and put them in my purse and was about to insert my second $50 note when something happened. A very small Asian bloke who spends every day at the Casino, slid in between me and the machine. He then inserted a note into the machine. I got a surprise because I thought he might have had something else on his mind; I could feel his body heat on my private parts. I was SO annoyed at this rudeness that I'm afraid that I responded in kind, and said "Only an Asian" a few times. I suspect he got the message as he slunk off. I try to understand that this is often a cultural thing, but it annoys the hell out of me and most Anglo Aussies. If I lived in China, I would have to expect it and accept it. I think that the most important thing is to understand the culture of the people of the host nation. For folk like me, this type of topic is really great as it helps me to better understand what makes the different cultures tick.

My Chinese girlfriend complains about a lot of this stuff as well, I call people who let their babies piss on the street and things countryside rather than put it down to Chineseness. Hangzhou is a big city and there is a lot less of that sort of thing than when you go to a small city, Shanghai is the same, people are much less likely to shout hello or hock on the street


There are also plenty of things that people do in England that makes me shake my head and go 'idiots' so it would be weird if that didn't happen in China after living here for years, I did have a phase of not minding the antisocial behaviour because it was a novelty for me

Quote from: Calach Pfeffer on May 04, 2012, 04:03:52 AM

What are you, like 12? It's okay for adults to express negative impressions. What have the local people done to justify this level of protection from... you?

omg...


Isdinar, have you been having the bad thoughts again?

They have been incredibly kind and welcoming to a foreigner, that's what they have done.

The "negative impressions" have become a broken record.

Hmmm, you seem to be suggesting that where I have formed negative impressions I have been in error in some way. And perhaps I could correct these impressions if only I would realise the truth that Isdinar has had a happy time?

Iz, you're obviously hiding something very unpleasant. Who else puts up such relentless positivity? And your propaganda chief-like commitment to having other people reflect that positivity is a really bad sign. "The Chinese" must be holding something very, very dark for you, that you've had to turn them into such avatars for goodness and light.

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Wrong answer, Iz. You're preaching an alteration of focus. The people voicing negativity are to stop. But you haven't said why beyond noting your own pleasant experiences. This would imply that negative talk is harmful not to Chinese but to you.

Or is there some altruism going on here? You urge change in other foreigner perspectives the better for those foreigners to... what? Come to terms with the horror?

It always comes back to that, doesn't it? The hidden horrors.


Let the poison out, Iz. To deny negativity now is to see it burst out later, bigger and stronger and far uglier. You'll be getting swastika tattoos and walking about with your shirt off daring people to fight you. PLEASE, FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THINGS INTERNATIONAL, TELL US TRULY NOW THAT YOU DON'T ADMIRE SPITTING!!!! DO IT FOR THE TEAM!

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A lot of this comes from the fact that they were in the countryside less than a generation ago where spitting on the street and lighting up wherever doesn't matter.

Something I found interesting was that my grandmother in law was talking about how badly behaved her kids (my uncles) were when they were small. Swearing at elders, fighting etc. Many kids were like this because at the time of the Great Leap Forward and other Projects, the parents had to be out working otherwise they would be classed as counter-revolutionary or as a bad egg and thus couldn't look after the kids and teach them decentness.

I wonder if this explains a lot of the 'uncivilised' behaviour of many of that generation (50-60ish now)