It seems that ever since I got to this country there is one constant, everyone wants to show you that they can say "Hello". In fact i have been said hello to more times just in the year being here then I ever was back in the US, when you try to take the conversation farther it more or less goes nowhere because the only thing they can say is hello. Often i think we feel that they may know how to say more, but the fact that we speak back to them and ask them questions in english really throws them off. There are also a ton of people who are very persistant about asking things about you, usually not in english. They literally want to know everything there is to know about you, but they are all programmed questions. How old are you?, where are you from?, are you married?, do you like chinese food?, do you like spicy food?, do you have a girlfriend, oh you do have a girlfriend? is she chinese?, how long have you been in china?, why did you come to china? The funnier thing is they are almost always in the same order, and they almos have the same line of thinking. If you have to teach the same class twice a day you can almost bet that the first answer in the first class is going to be the first answer in the second class. They also have a really bad habbit of talkign while your trying to eat.
"Like when we we were eating our BBQ tonight those people were asking us questions left and right, all we wanna do is eat our fucking food and have a beer after work. I mean how many times did you hear me say in both english and chinese that we don't speak chinese? Sometimes I feel like if people want to talk we should be charging 100 kuai an hour. I eventually told them we were aliens and we live on a UFO, because that's what we are to them. Sometimes people seem like nice people but they just don't understand. Everything they know is filtered, it's not like they are going to know about vietnam or any of the things western countries did to try and get rid of communism, their just not going to understand. I mean if you have a girlfriend, or your on a more intimate relationship with someone you can broach certain topics, but are we really going to do that with our students? No fucking way mate" WORKMATE
There is also an issue with noise and privacy, the hotel we are staying at is nice, nice rooms and such. But there is a serious problem with noise, it's like they are in their own little world and don't realize that there are 100's of other people in the building, they shut their doors loud, they argue in the hall outside of other peoples doors all times of the night.
"There are a lot of cliches coming to our respective countries. Don't trust Chinese people, don't trust chinese women, uncivilized. Some of these comments may be a little mean but they are based in fact, your walking down the street and people are spitting all over the place, peoples babies (not even babies all the time) piss and shit in the street. And what do you do? You just say Fucking China, turn up the MP3 player and Jog on. I mean if i was going to hang a bog in public it would have to be a pretty serious night. Go to their public toilets that will answer about 10 questions for you." WORKMATE
Certainly negotiating a contract here always has some loop holes in it as well, you can't really ever trust the people you work for or with. Most westerners are cool, but other chinese people are very difficult to work with. Our work ethics and ideals are very different usually.
"It's like doged right wing america 35 years ago don't you reckon?" WORKMATE
No one questions anything, they simply do what they are told, there is a very grin and bear it sort of mentallity, most chinese people see the recent youtube block as "Oh well, life goes on." where as there are westerners prepared to leave the country over it. And in many ways the govt expects everyone to just take what they are given, and most people seem very satisfied with doing that. In return it's as though every expat in the country has to put up with people being crude to say the least, now some places that are a bit higher in the food chain, Hong Kong for example and even WuHan to some extent are a bit less crude. it's really hard to describe it all in many ways.
In "Chinese peoples Eyes" westerners are lazy, wealthy, and have to much freedom. In many ways perhaps they are correct, but they seem to think the jobs that we come here and do are easy and they aren't. Teaching people a language is hard, even if you speak it well. There are the few odd foreigners who want to come here and have zero responsibillity, or take themselves way to seriously as far as their own work goes. I for one get really tired of these people being in this country representing my country. I think many chinese people feel this way about us, it's a stigma really in the end we are all the same with a few cultural differences. In some people's eyes I am a real shit person. Chinese people seem to feel that if your the type of person who loves freedom and not working your worthless, quid pro quo we aren't welcome all the time regardless of how "Backwater" this country is in some ways. They like to think they are becoming more western and developing and of course in many ways they are, at the same time they have a long long long long long long way to go. It's not so much the economy that needs to develop (Trust me they will gouge a westerner for all they can get), but it's really the mindset of the people that needs to change. learning is almost handed down, many of the things people learn are just archaic old tired ideas, not to mention all the crudeness that still exists. Traditions usually need to evolve but this isn't so in china
"I've met women who are 28 29 that have to be home by 10:00, they seem interested in you at times, but with a 30 minute ride home ...You really can't be an individual here, you have to do what your told." WORKMATE
My girlfriend as wonderful as she is :), does have to be home by 9:30 or so. She is a 22 year old woman, yet has a hard time understanding that she is grown up. it's hard to have a relationship when i get done with work at 9, she has travelled half an hour to come see me, and we can only spend half an hour together. Creativity is one of those things that is stiffled a well, there are a certain set of things that are accepted in china for people to do and anything out of the norm is well ... not accepted :(. If your fine with that then china is a great place to stay all your life, but right now there are so many young people trying to learn english in 6 months or less so they can flee the country and never come back, in general these people will not learn enough about western culture to get rid of their chinese ideals and be more than a student in a foreighn country, but what the hell 4 years in a different place is better than nothing at all, and who knows they just might have the fortune to get lucky and do something great with their lives in the process if they can learn and grow and ... er ... ummm ... evolve in some ways while they are away. Sadly many people I meet here fit the first catagory. "Oh i studied in the US for 4 years, but then my partents asked me to come back home because they needed me, or missed me." Again not really being able to loose the eastern ideals. I will continue this post and spell check tomorrow.
Sorry a day lat and a dollar short, to the guy who keeps posting comments about going to Korea. Your waisting your breath, I love my girl and I am staying here for now. If i go anywhere else it will prolly be Mexico as it would be close to home for me. Also stop talking bad about WuHan, Zhengzhou is a far shittier place and I would do anything to get back to WuHan. In fact I am spending 320 RMB just to go home for a day or so on the speed train. I mean you talk about Scumbags bedding women down and then have the balls to say the only reason your there is because your getting money and pussy. It makes you sound like a real hypocrit, it seems as though we may be looking for different things in our adventures abroad. I am glad that you have finally found your all important "Pussy and Money" but there are a few more things on the horrizon for me I would like to shoot for. With that said, I get what your trying to say man, it's just i've heard it all before. Your starting to sound like the kinda expat I would never wanna meet twice, preaching his ideals to everyone else instead of allowing them to make their own decisions, telling them they are wasting their time rather than allowing them to contemplate and think about a situation. You have said your piece more than once, comment about something else in the future.
One thing our mystery poster is correct about is the fact that most people are just discourteous out of shear ignorance. And yes many of them do have a dandruff/Lice problem especially those Shinjun BBQ guys who sell their meat during the day in WuHan. They seem to think it's funny to put their hat on you, never let them do that, you'll get lice without a doubt. Since many of them have a bad rep of being thieves and dope dealers it's best to just keep your distance until your meat is cooked. To me with the way the system works here it just seems as though there is no way these people can become westernized enough. I don't think many of them know that excessive spitting, or shitting or pissing in the street child or otherwise is considered uncouth. Hell i have even had to piss in the street here. All of thsi said many of these people seem quite happy, especially in a more civillized city like ＷuHan
"Hey doug you want some attitudes on the Chinese ."
