Things locals do that drive you insane.

I was kind of surprised to read this, Tom. Here in Dalian, people get up and leave the bus they way they're supposed to.

Maybe it's just the Changsha ways. If Stil's around, he'll either back me up or throw me to the lions.

What gets me about people's behaviour on crowded, over-crowded and you've-got-to-be-kidding,-no-I'm-not crowded busses is the habit some people here have of staking out personal turf right in front of the door and standing there for better than half the duration of the bus route. And of taking offense every time someone pushes past (or, heaven forbid, steps on their toes!) as they try to reach the door being blocked. Hey folks, didn't your fathers teach you how to use a door?

This too! Being on buses obviously grates me a lot. I think I let out a lot of (mental) rage on the bus. I'm usually pretty chilled out, but once I'm on a bus, my brain goes mental.

Amen about the buses. God forbid people should step out to let people pass. And I don't know if it's just here, but I could swear it's "chengshi gaofeng" all the time on those things.

Quote from: latefordinner on April 17, 2012, 05:26:23 AM

What gets me about people's behaviour on crowded, over-crowded and you've-got-to-be-kidding,-no-I'm-not crowded busses is the habit some people here have of staking out personal turf right in front of the door and standing there for better than half the duration of the bus route. And of taking offense every time someone pushes past (or, heaven forbid, steps on their toes!) as they try to reach the door being blocked. Hey folks, didn't your fathers teach you how to use a door?

This too! Being on buses obviously grates me a lot. I think I let out a lot of (mental) rage on the bus. I'm usually pretty chilled out, but once I'm on a bus, my brain goes mental.

Getting off a Shanghai subway and having idiots push in without regard for anyone trying to get off really gets my hackles up. I only rarely actually push anyone out of the way, but I'm tempted almost daily.

It's not just buses. Maybe with the volume of people I can try to understand. Maybe.

But even simple things like elevators. In my apartment block there is an elevator which services 3 floors. So I go to the 1st floor to leave and even if one person is waiting they will still try to get in first before I have even gotten out. I just don't understand! Drives me up the wall.

In the past month I have seen TWO actual honest to goodness fistfights on the bus. The last one was just Sunday and I had my 3 year old with me and I went nuts on those assholes, screaming at them that there was a child on the bus -- standing, because there were no seats -- literally like 2 feet away from where these nitwits were trying to kill each other. What's worse, the driver seemed totally oblivious, not even trying to stop them. I screamed at the driver to open the door so that those of us who wanted nothing to do with a bus-brawl could get off, took my son off the bus, and ran around to the front and yelled at the driver that it was a fight and he needed to break it up. He was all "oh, wo buzhidao."

I can understand, the bus is hot and crowded and it is easy to get irritated, but seriously, you're going to fight on a crowded bus, screw whoever gets caught in the crossfire, including small kids? Hells no, not on my bus.

Getting off a Shanghai subway and having idiots push in without regard for anyone trying to get off really gets my hackles up. I only rarely actually push anyone out of the way, but I'm tempted almost daily.

Haha, I adopted the strategy of making intimidating looking faces at the people as the train slowly stopped, sizing up my competition in the moments before the doors open. Then get the elbows out . I think they're being jerks for trying to get on before I get off, so I don't mind if I take a few down (side note: it's probably a good thing that the subway is not my primary form of transportation getting to work everyday).

Seriously folks, don't use your child in a stroller as a battering ram to force yourself onto a potentially available seat. Children are precious, not weapons.

Today (which is the inspiration of this post), I got a reply

Andrew, was the response promising? Are you going to interview with them?

Andrew, was the response promising? Are you going to interview with them?

Ahahaha, yeah, stop being such a linguistic imperialist asshole SBW and just change your name to something easier already.  My middle name on my passport is 'Jack', but my other two names are slightly less common and slightly less easy to pronounce (I'm Scottish), and therefore I am called 'Jack' or 'Mr Jack' a hell of a lot....

...

^ rest assured, there are many fora available, some even in English. A quick glance through the China Daily Forum though suggests it's hardly as xenophobic as it used to be. Perhaps we are much loved nowadays.

Yep, Isidnar, try going onto the China Daily forums and starting a thread "what do laowai do that pisses you off" and see how long it takes for the thread to reach 20 pages. I promise you too that what is written here is extremely tame in comparison to the kinds of complaints our Chinese friends have about us.

Quote from: Isidnar on April 17, 2012, 02:14:08 AM

I was kind of surprised to read this, Tom. Here in Dalian, people get up and leave the bus they way they're supposed to.

Maybe it's just the Changsha ways. If Stil's around, he'll either back me up or throw me to the lions.

Unfortunately I have to support Tom here.

But none of it bothers me at all. I just do the same. I also like it when no one lines up to get on the bus because that way I always get a seat.

 For the past ten years, countless people eithe in person or correspondence have called me ANDREW. People who call me Andrew speak English, have hired and worked with foreigners and should know that the first name is my name and the last name is the family name.

Chinese find names with more than three syllables difficult. In fact, anything non Chinese is essentially impossible. Chinese kids in my Australian school call all their teachers "teacher". If I ask their Science teacher's name, they never know.
BTW, my first name is Andrew. Only a tiny number of locals-usually with Western Ph.Ds realised this wasn't my family name, so the rest called me Mr Andrew. As you know, Andrew translates as An De Lu. My in-laws call me Lao An, convinced An is my family name. After 15 years, they're not going to change!

The shoe on the other foot, Westerners can't handle Chinese names, unless they are FTs in China, or have studied the language. That's why Chinese kids choose retarded "English" names - Figo, Ronaldo, Fanny - to make life easier. Australian teachers murder Chinese names to the extent a kid won't even know its her that is being talked to.

But really it's the pop and slap of open-mouthed mastication that I find endlessly unappealing.

This used to literally make me gag. I haven't thought about it much lately, so I'm not sure when I got used to it. There are still occasions where I notice it, but I have learned to look away and try not to listen to it.

I eat regularly with a group of uni students. About a year ago one of the girls said I'm so polite when I eat; they never see the food once it enters my mouth or hear me eating it. I have my mother to thank for that. ("Chew with your mouth closed" was a common directive at the table when I was small.) Last weekend they asked me how they can be polite like me when they eat. Without thinking I blurted out, "Chew with your mouth closed."  Either I was harsher than I meant to be with what I said, or it was a concept they'd never thought of before.

I'm working really hard at letting irritating things go, but one I haven't conquered yet is the honking. Along the stretch of road that is my neighborhood and commute to work, the cars don't honk too often. Motorcycles have been banned on the roads of Dongguan but the motorcycle taxis still operate in the city where I live (an amalgamated part of DG). The drivers of these motorcycles have no regard for traffic rules, which is one of the main reasons they were banned in the big city. They weave in and out between cars. They drive down the wrong side of the road. They scoot through red lights without even slowing down. These behaviors, while irritating, do not appear to be too disruptive to the general flow of traffic. Carry on with your life. What is irritating to me is that they honk constantly, even when there doesn't appear to be a reason to do so. The honks seem to mean, 'look out for me, I'm coming at you on your side of the road' or 'hold up on your green light because I'm coming through on the red' or 'I'm little, but I can make noise.' Sometimes they just cruise along honking. Maybe it's a form of soliciting business.    When it's late at night and I'm trying to sleep, these buggers are still out there honking. The roads are empty. Why is it necessary? I fantasize about a special place in hell for these guys. Constant honking for eternity. Or maybe that's their idea of heaven?

I don't like it when people yell 'f*** your mother' at me as they walk past. It seems excessive.