Job Discussion Forums

[mike w]

[Opiate]

[sistercream]

I stand by he second sentence in my previous post.

Your first post certainly indicates that you consider that your way is the *only* correct way to do things, but if you seriously want some comments, here are some from someone with a mere quarter of a century in the greater China area, who has only worked in state schools, private language mills and NGOs (so I obviously don't know nuffink).
1,2. Tommyrot. "Laowai" simply means "outsider", and can be used with just as wide a range of meaning as Australians use "b*stard" - that includes as a genuine term of friendship. Paranoid political correctness is a western disease; please don't export it.

3. Chinese people have perfectly acceptable Chinese manners. They have just as many problems coping with westerners' "poor behaviour" when they move to Europe or Canada.

4. Extraordinary as it seems, this is happening just about everywhere around the world (except maybe some oil-producing nations).

5. Have only suffered one year in a place where this was the attitude (a private language centre in Hong Kong). Otherwise I can honestly say that I acted professionally, and was treated as a professional (and generally rather better than I ever was in Australia).

6. 您为什么没有学汉语？？It's not as if Chinese is a difficult language, at least compared with European ones. Yes, I did have to buy my shoes over the internet while I was in remote areas, but I always figured that the shops were stocked with the locals in mind.

7. What Chou doufu said. Maybe I'm weird, but I found that asking people nicely for assistance when required normally produces at least as much help as I have ever received in a "western" country. Maybe using a language the locals understand helps.


8. Fair enough.

9. Can be true, but my experience is that if you use local etiquette (i.e. use a go-between) it is normally possible to Just Say No.

10. Definitely a shocker at first, but you get inured as you just follow the locals.

11. See 1, 2, & 3.

12. True that many historical monuments have been destroyed, but part of Chinese (and many other orientals') thinking is that culture has a lot more to do with people than buildings. Learn the language, and you can find the culture: it might not be blindingly obvious with all youngsters madly imitating Koreans & Japanese, and with the increased mobility of the general populace, but if you seek, you shall find.

I rest my case, Your Honour.

[GMark]

The OP makes China sound attractive to me.

They don't speak English, so I can get a job there, and they won't know what a lousy teacher I am. The place stinks, so no one else will want my job. They won't like me because I'm a foreigner, so I'm not obliged to socialise with them.

Pretty sweet.

[the lowlander]

Mark W....."Be Told"......Who do you think you are talking to? Get a grip on your wig matey!! You sound like your head is going to explode!!

[the lowlander]

Opiate.....I didn't say that I'm currently working in China, nor did I say it took me four and a half years to notice that people drive on the sidewalk.

You sound just like an apologist who wants to attack anyone who doesn't share your rose-tinted view of the "Middle Kingdom".

[the lowlander]

Mike. Mark.....whatever.

If you only want to deal in personal insults, I couldn't really care less what your name is.