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The Great Wall of Whiner
Joined: 29 Jan 2003
Posts: 4946
Location: Blabbing
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 Posted: Mon Jul 02, 2012 7:52 am Post subject: |
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Less than a month and I am out of here. You should leave China when you become fluent in Chinese, live in a real backwards (culturally speaking) area and there is a large number of non-local young men who drink too much. Maybe I am too sensitive to all the comments, but living with a billion nice Chinese is not worth living around several hundred million A-holes. No matter how much money I am making now, simply not worth it. The pollution, the manners (or lack thereof) the fact that I can't even take my daughter to the park without people bothering us...
I won't let the door hit me on the way out, either. |
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colonel
Joined: 19 Jul 2005
Posts: 89
Location: Nanyang and Cha-Am
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| Posted: Tue Jul 03, 2012 12:58 am Post subject: |
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I agree, though my mission was for my kids to speak Chinese.
I have fond memories of trying to get a few vegetables priced in a busy supermarket. |
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SoulTourist
Joined: 23 Feb 2012
Posts: 9
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| Posted: Tue Jul 03, 2012 3:03 am Post subject: My Z -Visa Expired within two days after my contract |
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When I taught two years ago, my z-visa expiration was two days after school ended. It didn't leave much time for exploration. One of the other teachers took a quick flight to Hong Kong and back and renewed his visa - (not the z) so he could stay and travel a little longer. If you renew your contract, the school will assist you in making sure the z is extended, at least mine did.
Read: "Teaching in China - Seven Dog Years" |
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Lobster
Joined: 20 Jun 2006
Posts: 2040
Location: Somewhere under the Sea
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| Posted: Tue Jul 03, 2012 5:39 am Post subject: |
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| I won't let the door hit me on the way out, either. |
It's really a sad story, and one that can serve as a lesson to all prospective teachers. For the overly sensitive and intolerant, China can be a tragedy.
RED  |
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Ariadne
Joined: 16 Jul 2004
Posts: 960
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| Posted: Tue Jul 03, 2012 9:16 am Post subject: |
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That was rather catty... and don't say you were just trying to warm the newbies.
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Javelin of Radiance
Joined: 01 Jul 2009
Posts: 1187
Location: The West
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| Posted: Tue Jul 03, 2012 11:06 am Post subject: |
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| It is sad that there are people who are negative all the time. It really must be a miserable way to go through life and they must be a pain to work with. I've met a couple of people who fit this description and I steer well clear of them because I don't need their negativity bringing me down. |
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Lobster
Joined: 20 Jun 2006
Posts: 2040
Location: Somewhere under the Sea
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| Posted: Tue Jul 03, 2012 12:48 pm Post subject: |
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Meow! I hope that when it comes time for me to go, I will have good memories to take back home and not a satchel full of bitterness and regret.
RED |
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Miles Smiles
Joined: 07 Jun 2010
Posts: 1294
Location: Heebee Jeebee
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| Posted: Tue Jul 03, 2012 2:15 pm Post subject: |
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| Lobster wrote: |
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| I won't let the door hit me on the way out, either. |
It's really a sad story, and one that can serve as a lesson to all prospective teachers. For the overly sensitive and intolerant, China can be a tragedy.
RED |
C'mon, Red,
I really hope that you are being ironic here. I've followed GWoW's posts for years (and yours too). He doesn't come across as overly sensitive and intolerant. It seems more like he's both suddenly and simultaneously enlightened and disillusioned. Maybe we can call it a rude awakening. When I talk to some of my neighbors in the States, I am sickened by their narrow, redneck ways.
To get back on topic: there's a difference between the time when one is obligated to leave and when one should leave. One is a legal matter; the other is (in GWoW's case) a philosophical matter.
Can't we just get along?  |
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Javelin of Radiance
Joined: 01 Jul 2009
Posts: 1187
Location: The West
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| Posted: Tue Jul 03, 2012 3:00 pm Post subject: |
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| haha |
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Lobster
Joined: 20 Jun 2006
Posts: 2040
Location: Somewhere under the Sea
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| Posted: Tue Jul 03, 2012 3:55 pm Post subject: |
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Of course, I think everyone reaches a tipping point sooner or later. For some it may be weeks, for others it may be decades. Eventually 99.9% of us will leave China forever. Before, we've talked about living in China as a death by 1000 cuts. We just try to avoid getting sliced up too quickly, but in the end we'll have to admit that we'll always be outsiders here, no matter how happy our lives.
RED |
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NoBillyNO
Joined: 11 Jun 2012
Posts: 1762
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| Posted: Wed Jul 04, 2012 1:07 am Post subject: |
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| but in the end we'll have to admit that we'll always be outsiders here, no matter how happy our lives. |
Some of us may count of this aspect of living in China and wish no inclusion into their society. |
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Lobster
Joined: 20 Jun 2006
Posts: 2040
Location: Somewhere under the Sea
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| Posted: Wed Jul 04, 2012 3:50 am Post subject: |
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| Some of us may count of this aspect of living in China and wish no inclusion into their society. |
Very true. I have no desire to become Chinesified. Maybe others prefer some social isolation too.
RED |
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Ariadne
Joined: 16 Jul 2004
Posts: 960
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| Posted: Wed Jul 04, 2012 3:11 pm Post subject: |
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NoBillyNO and Lobster... you've raised an interesting point. Hadn't thought of it from that angle before. Does it apply to me as well? I'm not sure. I have a very nice life back home, but it's been fun creating a new one here in China. It's a little bit like wearing different clothes... you can't really do it at home without everyone noticing and commenting. Here in China we are whoever we want to be because we're starting from scratch at each school... and we are foreigners. I'm not suggesting dishonesty, just about folks having the freedom to live in a slightly different way because no one here has known you for your whole life.
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Miles Smiles
Joined: 07 Jun 2010
Posts: 1294
Location: Heebee Jeebee
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| Posted: Wed Jul 04, 2012 4:50 pm Post subject: |
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| Ariadne wrote: |
Here in China we are whoever we want to be because we're starting from scratch at each school... and we are foreigners. I'm not suggesting dishonesty, just about folks having the freedom to live in a slightly different way because no one here has known you for your whole life.
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There are two sides to this coin. The good side allows people to ACTUALLY develop in ways for which they had no time or freedom to develop back home. I've met people who became excellent writers, artists and musicians after arriving in China and living and working for a few years.
The bad side is one which anyone who has been in China for a few years become well-aware of.
Back home, I consider myself an open, honest, friendly, generous, and creative person. I believe that people who know me well (a few of which are in China) share that opinion. In China, I find myself being very guarded about even insignificant personal information, because I know that as soon as I reveal almost anything about myself that might be of any interest to others, it makes the rounds of the Chinese teachers and the local expats. By the time the boomerang returns, it is twisted, bent, and chipped. When the info crosses from Chinese to expat, that boomerang is sometimes completely unrecognizable (if it even comes back to me).
I almost threw in the towel after an idiot expat got hold of my cell phone and took note of the names and phone numbers and began connecting dots that weren't there. It didn't help at all after my FAO entered my apartment on the ONE DAY that I left my laptop on and running to defragment it while I was in class. She opened my skype phone book and looked at my Word documents. God only knows what she thought she learned from that. She didn't even bother to close the applications to cover her tracks.
When I can no longer deal with the behavior of people around me, I think I have an obligation to myself (and others) to go home. I think forum members know about this sort of thing. It is good when an individual knows when he has reached this point. When Bad China Days become Bad China Weeks and Months (and even Bad China Years), one owes it to himself and others to leave. Leaving under those circumstances is not retreat or defeat. It is merely the end of a cycle, just as the rings on a tree trunk indicate the beginning and end of a cycle.
But the on-topic response remains: one is obligated to leave China on or before the date designated as the expiration of one's residence. My experience has been that it is understood that if my residence permit expires on July 7th, I am no longer maintaining a residence in China, and I am enroute to some other place. I've NEVER been questioned at the airport about the expiration of my residence permit when the expiration date happens to coincide with the date of my flight. |
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Lord Bafford
Joined: 29 May 2012
Posts: 58
Location: China
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| Posted: Thu Jul 05, 2012 9:56 am Post subject: |
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Just to let people know, I had no issue leaving on the day of expiration.
I really wish people wouldn't generate needless uncertainty by speculating when they clearly don't have a clue what they're blabbing on about.  |
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