Job Discussion Forums

[kev7161]

Okay, I'll weigh in:

1. In nearly 10 years of living in China, I have never, ever used a squatting toilet to poo. If there is an emergency, I'll find a modern looking hotel and ask to use their bathroom (or go into a shopping mall). I have offered to pay, but none have ever taken me up on this.

2. Until two years ago, my school only had the old-timey squatters. I suggested to our vice-principal that maybe some of their many foreign teachers would be uncomfortable using these types of toilets. There were western-style ones in the next week. They recently remodeled the building in which I teach and each bathroom has a sit-down toilet, available toilet paper, and hand soap. WTG school!

3. You can find some of the most modern apartments with bidets I'm sure as I've seen them being sold in home improvement stores as well as some hotels are equipped with them.

4. In Suzhou, most of the public toilets I've visited were generally kept rather clean. Not sterilized, chlorine bleach smell clean, but not too bad. Almost all have an attendant or two on duty.

5. In a large city, there are enough McDonald's, KFCs, shopping malls, etc. throughout the city where you will find clean bathrooms and many of those will have sit-down toilets

6. Not that I think I will ever have need of a squat-toilet, but why-oh-why don't they have handles on the stall walls for us old-timers with less flexibility to grab onto?

[doogsville]

My last apartment, provided by the school, had a squat toilet. I loved it. Squatting is much better for you apparently. Haemorrhoids are far less common in cultures where people squat than in the west since it puts much less strain on the blood vessels and you spend less time on the loo.

The word loo is indeed thought to come from the French l'eau, or more accurately from the word 'gardyloo', which was what the citizens of Edinburgh, the capital city of Scotland, would shout as they threw buckets of excrement and urine from the windows of their tenement homes into the middle of the street. They did this because until about a hundred and fifty years ago, the sewer system comprised a channel cut in to the middle of the street with running water which, when it was actually running, took it away. Gardyloo itself is thought to be a corruption of the phrase 'gare de l'eau', or 'beware of the water'.

It's job related because the OP was canvassing opinions and experiences in order to make a decision as to whether he would come to China to work.

[doogsville]

On the subject of grab handles, I find the extra push and accompanying grunt I need to get upright when there are no handles helps determine whether I really have finished or not. The faecal equivalent of that last little shake you give to make sure your underwear stays dry. Oh, the joys of ageing!

[Sumbo11]

Squatting is the way to go. It's the way the humans are designed to relieve themselves. From an evolutionary perspective, it is quite natural. It's proven that squatty potties reduce colon disease and issues related. The squatty potty is safer, cleaner, and more healthy. All hail the squat pot!

Assuming I am not ill, I will take the squat pot over the sit down pot any day.

In terms of balance, if you watch most Chinese (or another nationality) squat, they do not squat on the balls of their feet like how most westerners do. They squat with their entire foot on the ground and their shoulders back. This helps for balance, but it does take some time to build up strength in your shins.

[choudoufu]

[rogerwilco]

Just start drinking coffee every morning, leaving yourself enough time to use your toilet at home before going to class.

No worries

[NoBillyNO]

[rogerwilco]

[Ariadne]

Squat toilets are unacceptable. OP, hold out for a school that has Western style toilets in the apartments. With a little planning you can totally avoid needing to use squat toilets.

Phooey on anyone who suggests that being unwilling to use squat toilets somehow makes a person unfit for China. Hey, I don't like chicken feet either, and yet here I still am in China after all these years.


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[tin man]

I am glad that my post was able to generate some interesting discourse and agree with other posters that this is job related since an Asian Loo is a standard perk in the apartment/position offered. However, I will not be upset if the mod wishes to move the thread to another forum.

It is also nice to know that my aversion to having to retrain myself or take Yoga lessons to get fit to go would not consider me unfit for a teaching position in China according to some teachers. For what it is worth, I did spend a great deal of time camping in the wilderness as a young lad but I was in much better shape back then.

I have also well-traveled third world countries particularly in Latin America and see more soap provided in the public loo system today. I am from the Midwest and there was an incidence in a well-known restaurant several years ago resulting in a Hepatitis A outbreak from improper hand washing/food handling. Several customers got sick and some died. Food for thought when it comes to proper hygiene.

[Non Sequitur]

[Denim-Maniac]

[roadwalker]

[Ariadne]

Denim... a few comments...

Most 'fantastic' job offers will not come with a squat toilet.

You're a guy. Trust me, it's more complicated for a gal, and women do not have the option of standing for most visits.

I'm over 60, have never been an athlete, and do not intend to begin training at this point.

And, just to put things in perspective, you also think that sharing an apartment with strangers is a perfectly acceptable living arrangement. Lots of folks, me included, do not agree.

China has plenty to offer all of us.

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[rogerwilco]