Job Discussion Forums

[Anne-Marie Gregory]

I asked 'Why is it good that China has joined the WTO?' as an oral exam question in the final exam for my Business English diploma students. They saw the questions a day in advance so came out with some good answers. Next year I'll ask the first years that so I don't have to listen to 'China has joined in WTO so I am learn English'.

This seems weird, but my students love getting their homework returned covered in red ink because it 'shows that I care'....but not enough to develop legible handwriting.

[Roger]

ROberto,
to make Chinese students actually find out what some of us think about THEIR birth place, hometown or backwater might backfire horribly!
Years ago, I purchased a T-shirt with the imprint "I survived Hong Kong", with a number of pictures showing catastrophes in progress as are likely to befall tourists to HK.
Well, my local friends seemed rather miffed!
On the mainland people feel obliged to defend the "honour" of their country.

[Minhang Oz]

Which reminds me of a story from a local news site. In Yangshuo you may have seen a T shirt which carries "Ten Commandments for Chinese".....don't spit, don't stare, don't say "mei you" or "change marney" and so on. There's also a Hanzi version especially for local consumption, given that the Chinese find Westerners quite amusing.
Not so in Nanjing, where an unsuspecting backpacker was hauled into the police station, grilled over his insulting attire, and let of with a warning but sans shirt.

If the reverse happened in Australia, the police wouldn't get involved. The local Nazi skinheads would beat the crap out of said tourist instead. So let's count our blessings.

[beerdang]

Believe it or not, that story in Nanjing was on some chinese news website (www.sina.com.cn). It basically said the freigner wore a T-shirt that had some insulting words. Poeple in the resturant demanded him to take it off and apologize. He refused and cop came.....

[Chairman Roberto]

If that T-shirt story is true...oh, the irony, the irony...God forbid anyone point out the spitting, the staring, and the lovely state of toilets in this country. Still, I would like to know the WHOLE contents of that T-Shirt.
There may have been something genuinely insulting on that shirt. But, yeah, I know...what I think is "genuinely insulting" and what the Chinese find "genuinely insulting" are two utterly different creatures. For example, I thinking spitting in a classroom, screaming "Hello" to someone's back, and staring at someone is genuinely insulting, but only to human beings. Foreigners are not human beings. They're monkeys (dancing monkeys to be exact), so it's okay to do that to them.

Roger--
The website about Jishou that I plan to use in class is mostly positive...the writer doesn't bash Jishou, but rather gives very accurate and even affectionate descriptions of the town. But you and the other posters are right...given the hyper-sensitivity of some of the folks around here, I should be careful what I assign. I guess my goal is to give a narrative from a non-Chinese perspective, which is something I find utterly lacking in most of the stuff they read. And the non-Chinese stuff they do read is heavily footnoted with politically correct pronouncements. Ugh.

thanks for the heads-up,
Roberto

[Minhang Oz]

Yes Sunaru, an interesting point. A Chinese language T shirt wouldn't attract too much attention in the West, unless it was in Chinatown.
Saw a student wearing one at a recruiting fair that said "What are you f...ing looking at?".... without the periods. I'm pretty sure she knew what it said. A young teacher here wears one with "cannabis" written on it, and a picture of a big plant. I asked her if she knew what it was; she just thought it looked pretty.

The remainder of the 10 commandments shirt had the predictable; don't charge foreigners higher prices, etc - nothing that isn't common knowledge.

[Debalky]

Ya, the kids in my town are all starting to wear the cannabis shirt that you mentioned. They think it's a maple leaf. I love setting them straight, it really freaks them out.

[woza17]

When I first went to the summer camp last year one of the 12 year old girls was wearing a T-shirt with "I would like to do you" in big letters and beside that was in smaller letters suggesting 13 different ways. I held one class where I just went around the classroom asking the students to read their pencil cases, spot the spelling mistakes, what does it mean ect.
I mean come on when I was 19 I bought my first "happy coat" Chinese writing I wanted to be assured what it actually meant.
No Excuse
Regards Carol

[Kurochan]

Woza/Carol --

I sumbitted an article about t-shirts to 21st Century (that English-language magazine for students published by the People's Daily) a couple weeks ago called "If You Can't Understand It, Don't Wear It." I included translations of slogans on some of the popular t-shirts I've seen around Shenzhen. But, as far as I know, it hasn't been printed. If it were, I'm sure it would be the first time the words w*nk and h*mo were ever published in an organ of the CCP!

[Ricepaddy]

I've seen some crackers on students' T-shirts.

In addition to the "Cannabis" one, one young lad had a T-shirt proudly declaring "Sex Doggie Style" (and who can argue with that?). Another had a T-shirt that simply said "I Fart".

Laugh? I almost passed my smokes around....

[Kurochan]

I've also seen Sodami 2001 and Country Homos. I send my friend one with a big paragraph that started something like, "Ofall the booksinmy colleection the yellowpages is the holiestofholies I swear to god."

I have one that says W@NK!

[bobo the clown]

I was teaching a class of first graders when I glanced quickly at a shirt that had the Nike logo and Just in large print. Didn't think much of it until the end of class. He was the class leader, stood in front of the class to start his "pai dui" chant when I noticed the whole shirt.

Just Do Me

In small print on the side it had the following statements:
Just spank me!
Just slap me!
Just hump me!
Etc.

I have a picture of this if any of you want to send it to close friends or family members abroad. The file is titled, "Why we need English Teachers in China!"

BoboTC