Things other expats do that drive you insane

FTs who try to undermine their colleagues, telling the students "their" particular accent, pronunciation and wacky grammar is more correct than the variant spoken by FTs from different countries, and that the students are lucky to have him/her teaching them. I won't go into specifics regarding main offenders here. I won't even identify Larry Orenstein from NY City who is probably still hanging around hairdressing joints trying to assert his flagging virility.

And echoing previous comments, the Zhongwen expert who either corrected other people's Chinese, or laughed outright, despite the fact that his [i.e. Larry's] pronunciation was so RS locals often couldn't understand him. Of course, this was put down to said locals being from backward provinces where they didn't speak the language properly.

FTs who try to undermine their colleagues, telling the students "their" particular accent, pronunciation and wacky grammar is more correct than the variant spoken by FTs from different countries, and that the students are lucky to have him/her teaching them.

Yeah, you know what, I'd like to include all forms of laowai-laowai competition for praise from Chinese people. It's like the presence of other laowai dims the buzz they get from Chinese adulation/attention, on which the long ago got hooked. (again, have been guilty of this in the past... present...  )

Actually, I'd like to take it all back about EL, I love the idea of him living in a Chinese village, wearing Chinese outfits, growing weed on his roof, drinking baijiu and racing dragon boats. This isn't pretentious 'I'm an old China hand' behaviour, he's actually living the 19th century orientalist dream! I doff my hat to you sir!  

Quote from: Fozzwaldus on May 08, 2012, 11:55:50 PM

I'm sorry, but let's get this thread back on to things that EL does that drive us insane. 

Shall I dress up in my Chinese clothes and start trying to sound "More Chinese than thou"?

Actually, I kind of think the whole culture and architecture thing deserves a thread somewhere outside the BS wrestling pit.  If someone wants to start one, I'll be happy to participate.

You do it EL! Come on now, starting a serious thread Big Issues won't hurt your reputation as a loveable lunatic, I promise. Move the relevant threads from this discussion (or Copy/Paste, that way they can stay here too) if you need something to kick it off. 

Instead of copy/pasting the posts themselves, I started a totally new topic.

http://raoulschinasaloon.com/index.php?topic=7507.0

A lot of the replies in this one covered more area than this and I'm too lazy to go through and edit them all.

FTs who try to undermine their colleagues, telling the students "their" particular accent, pronunciation and wacky grammar is more correct than the variant spoken by FTs from different countries, and that the students are lucky to have him/her teaching them.

This would be so much simpler if all FTs would just learn to speak World Standard English^TM.  Raoul is the living avatar of World Standard English^TM and I'm the self-proclaimed Emergency Backup Avatar of World Standard English^TM.  Follow our lead and your grammar and diction will be flawless.

Actually, I'd like to take it all back about EL, I love the idea of him living in a Chinese village, wearing Chinese outfits, growing weed on his roof, drinking baijiu and racing dragon boats. This isn't pretentious 'I'm an old China hand' behaviour, he's actually living the 19th century orientalist dream! I doff my hat to you sir! 

Not quite 19th century.  Someone wired this place for electricity and there are tiny little factories all over the village.

Fts who actually seem to like, and encourage, that scourge of foreign teachers, English Cornered. I'm sure Krashen didn't have this in mind with his Comprehensible Input Hypothesis. Unless he meant dickheads shouting barely comprehensible impertinent questions.

Fts who actually seem to like, and encourage, that scourge of foreign teachers, English Cornered. I'm sure Krashen didn't have this in mind with his Comprehensible Input Hypothesis. Unless he meant dickheads shouting barely comprehensible impertinent questions.

This one like my singing one goes into my 'it's always f**king 'mericans' unfair prejudice

I hate having a new class or student because I will always have to tell them about where I am from and why I came to China and if I have a girlfriend etc etc etc but some people just love reeling off their little speech about themselves....

I always had this urge to show up for English corner and hand out a sheet that said something like:

1.  America.

2.  Yes, I like Chinese food.  I'd have starved long ago if I didn't.

3.  I've been using chopsticks longer than you've been alive.  I'd have starved long ago if I couldn't use them.

4.  I don't follow basketball.  Your next questions is going to be about Yao Ming.  Yes, I am aware of Yao Ming.

5.  Bandits forced me to watch as my entire family was eaten by a pack of gerbils.  I prefer not to discuss my family.

6.  No.  Are you/your sister looking for a date?

Here in Suzhou we have plenty of expats who work at companies here. I hate the guys who look down upon us teachers like we are one step up from dung beetles

Here in Suzhou we have plenty of expats who work at companies here. I hate the guys who look down upon us teachers like we are one step up from dung beetles

Ooh, that one irritates me too. You get a lot of those types in the big cities. I hear Shanghai is worse than Beijing for this, but the expat package expats here can be pretty snooty too. Yes, I'm "just" a teacher, no driver, no fancy house, no paid for tuition for my kids, but I'm not a loser or a drunk or someone who couldn't get a job back home (well, in this econony I'm not so sure about that one, but once upon a time, I could've gotten a job back home).

Related to this are the self-loathing teachers. I have a few real life friends like this, who really are down on themselves for being lowly teachers and who are constantly talking about getting out of teaching. I don't think there's anything wrong with teaching but most of my friends who fall into this category have no real experience doing anything else but they have these grandiose ideas that they should be able to get a job at a company and that when that happens they'll be, as my one friend used to (constantly!) say, "sorted." It is fine to have aspirations and if you hate teaching you probably shouldn't be doing it, but teaching is not a shameful profession unless you make it one! 

I totally agree with LD.

Of course my company friends probably hate when they invite me out to these incredibly expensive restaurants (like 2000 yuan for king crab) and I look at them and point at myself and simply say "teacher" 

Quote from: zero on May 08, 2012, 08:39:07 AM

I know this is a hard fact to face, and it took me a long time to come to grips with it. But there's pretty much know way for a foreigner to use Chinese, in any amount or any situation, without looking like a big douche. There, I said it.

I don't get this.... What do you mean?

If you speak it poorly, it sounds bad. If you speak it well, it sounds like you are trying awfully hard, because that kind of thing doesn't happen naturally. It's hard to come across as cool, calm and genuine when you are a whitey speaking Chinese. Even if you are humble, which most are not, it looks affected.

Understand what you hear around you, especially in class, but don't necessarily let on. Speak when you have to, but never in class. They're not paying for you to practice their language or to show off.

If you speak it poorly, it sounds bad. If you speak it well, it sounds like you are trying awfully hard, because that kind of thing doesn't happen naturally. It's hard to come across as cool, calm and genuine when you are a whitey speaking Chinese. Even if you are humble, which most are not, it looks affected.

Is that only for the chinese language? When people speak other languages as a second language do they also sound like douches? Is it only white foreigners? Is it a foreigner on foreigner view or is this a Chinese persons view as well?

I've not noticed this. Oh, I've met a few people that sounded like douches when the spoke Chinese but they also sounded like douches when they spoke English. I just assumed they were natural douches.

Understand what you hear around you, especially in class, but don't necessarily let on. Speak when you have to, but never in class. They're not paying for you to practice their language or to show off.

I never speak Chinese in class (people really do that?) and students assume I can neither speak nor understand, so they speak to each other in front of me about anything. You can learn a lot this way.

Quote from: gonzo on May 10, 2012, 12:11:41 PM

Understand what you hear around you, especially in class, but don't necessarily let on. Speak when you have to, but never in class. They're not paying for you to practice their language or to show off.

I never speak Chinese in class (people really do that?) and students assume I can neither speak nor understand, so they speak to each other in front of me about anything. You can learn a lot this way.

It might be sensible to use some Chinese with utter beginners, I suppose.

I took French in first-year university, though you'd never know it from the way I speak it now. The prof was multi-lingual; he taught one grad course that involved reading Cervantes & Goethe in the original languages. He was also young, handsome and well-dressed; the girls in the class were quite obviously impressed.

In class, he spoke no English and claimed to know none. At one point, though, I ran into him at a party. He was speaking English to a knockout girl. His level was at least IELTS 7.

Is that only for the chinese language? When people speak other languages as a second language do they also sound like douches? Is it only white foreigners? Is it a foreigner on foreigner view or is this a Chinese persons view as well?

I don't know. Probably Chinese more than other languages, because it is more discordant with people's expectations. As to whose view, it is my view. I don't know about other people. I speak passable Chinese, though most likely not as well as many here, and I feel douchy when I do so. I like to, as stated above, just sit back and listen.