In every culture, you are going to find those things that just really irk you. The other day at Cup of Joe, a Chinese man walked in and he pretty much embodied every pet peeve that I have about Chinese culture.
1. I'm sitting by the fireplace, reading my own book, minding my own business ... when this guy opens the door, strolls right up to the counter, and never looks back. That's right. It's 35-40 degrees outside and he LEFT THE DOOR OPEN! Really dude? Brrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!
2. The guy orders his food, takes a step back, and starts waiting ... when his phone rings. In Mandarin, the way to answer a phone is to say, "wei". But most Chinese don't say, "wei". They say, "WWEEEEEEEEEIIIIIIIIIII?!" Yup, they YELL it. Doesn't matter if they're at home, school, on the bus, in a public place .. All phone conversations are held at a yell.
3. After he hangs up the phone, he's still waiting for his order. Then he starts making obnoxious spitting sounds like he's about to hawk a lougie. Of course, inside Cup of Joe, there is no place to spit .. and so I am left to ponder what he did with all that phlegm.
Now, being a guest in this culture, I could spend my time fuming about how rude, inconsiderate, and disgusting some of these Chinese habits are. And I do know many foreigners that absolutely can't stand being in China. I could be like that, and just spend my entire time in China very angry. Or ... I could look past that.
1. As many of you know, the Chinese don't typically heat or air condition establishments. Cup of Joe is a rarity in that sense. It has to do with the belief of maintaining the same body temperature. If people are constantly going between 35 degrees and 70 degrees, they believe you will get sick. And it's just a pain to pile on layers, take them off, and put them all back on again. It's much simpler and healthier to simply dress for the weather, and stay like that all day, whether you're inside or out. And if the restaurant is the same temp inside as it is out, there is no reason to close the door. So in a way, I can understand this one.
3. The spitting. I'm not sure why the average Chinese person has absorbent amounts more phlegm than any other nationality, but I imagine that if I were Chinese, and I were dealing with that, that I would also have the desire to spit it out as opposed to swallowing it.
2. Now this one, I can't quite explain away. Maybe they believe that since the phone covers such a great distance, somehow they will have to yell in order to be heard by their friend in BeiJing. I don't quite understand the need to yell all phone conversations, but it does make it SUPER easy to eavesdrop, since I can always hear the person on the other line as they are always yelling back as well.
When I was describing this guy to my friends here, they found it uproariously funny. Because all who live here just understand that you have to laugh it off. And they in fact made a game of guessing what pet peeve of mine that he would do next. We can't change the annoying things they do. And even though we secretly hope that they will follow our example of courteously closing the door, silencing our phones in public places, or just refraining from exposing all our bodily fluids to the world ... They in fact stare at us just as much when we make the extra effort to throw our trash in the trash bin, as we stare at them for throwing it on the sidewalk.
Because of some of these cultural customs, the average Chinese person that you don't get to know seems totally heartless and inconsiderate. But if you do stop to get to know them, you will be pleasantly surprised by how considerate they can be. After the Christmas break, this was y first coffee back at Cup of Joe, made especially for me by Joy (her English name I think is the most appropriate).
And so this week as we started school, it came to no surprise that our Chinese staff was not concerned when the heaters didn't work. Now I don't prefer teaching while wearing earmuffs, nor with my toes numb all day, but we took it in stride. And I got to teach my 2nd graders some swing dance lessons, just to keep the bodies moving and stay warm :)
1. I'm sitting by the fireplace, reading my own book, minding my own business ... when this guy opens the door, strolls right up to the counter, and never looks back. That's right. It's 35-40 degrees outside and he LEFT THE DOOR OPEN! Really dude? Brrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!
2. The guy orders his food, takes a step back, and starts waiting ... when his phone rings. In Mandarin, the way to answer a phone is to say, "wei". But most Chinese don't say, "wei". They say, "WWEEEEEEEEEIIIIIIIIIII?!" Yup, they YELL it. Doesn't matter if they're at home, school, on the bus, in a public place .. All phone conversations are held at a yell.
3. After he hangs up the phone, he's still waiting for his order. Then he starts making obnoxious spitting sounds like he's about to hawk a lougie. Of course, inside Cup of Joe, there is no place to spit .. and so I am left to ponder what he did with all that phlegm.
Now, being a guest in this culture, I could spend my time fuming about how rude, inconsiderate, and disgusting some of these Chinese habits are. And I do know many foreigners that absolutely can't stand being in China. I could be like that, and just spend my entire time in China very angry. Or ... I could look past that.
1. As many of you know, the Chinese don't typically heat or air condition establishments. Cup of Joe is a rarity in that sense. It has to do with the belief of maintaining the same body temperature. If people are constantly going between 35 degrees and 70 degrees, they believe you will get sick. And it's just a pain to pile on layers, take them off, and put them all back on again. It's much simpler and healthier to simply dress for the weather, and stay like that all day, whether you're inside or out. And if the restaurant is the same temp inside as it is out, there is no reason to close the door. So in a way, I can understand this one.
3. The spitting. I'm not sure why the average Chinese person has absorbent amounts more phlegm than any other nationality, but I imagine that if I were Chinese, and I were dealing with that, that I would also have the desire to spit it out as opposed to swallowing it.
2. Now this one, I can't quite explain away. Maybe they believe that since the phone covers such a great distance, somehow they will have to yell in order to be heard by their friend in BeiJing. I don't quite understand the need to yell all phone conversations, but it does make it SUPER easy to eavesdrop, since I can always hear the person on the other line as they are always yelling back as well.
When I was describing this guy to my friends here, they found it uproariously funny. Because all who live here just understand that you have to laugh it off. And they in fact made a game of guessing what pet peeve of mine that he would do next. We can't change the annoying things they do. And even though we secretly hope that they will follow our example of courteously closing the door, silencing our phones in public places, or just refraining from exposing all our bodily fluids to the world ... They in fact stare at us just as much when we make the extra effort to throw our trash in the trash bin, as we stare at them for throwing it on the sidewalk.
Because of some of these cultural customs, the average Chinese person that you don't get to know seems totally heartless and inconsiderate. But if you do stop to get to know them, you will be pleasantly surprised by how considerate they can be. After the Christmas break, this was y first coffee back at Cup of Joe, made especially for me by Joy (her English name I think is the most appropriate).
And so this week as we started school, it came to no surprise that our Chinese staff was not concerned when the heaters didn't work. Now I don't prefer teaching while wearing earmuffs, nor with my toes numb all day, but we took it in stride. And I got to teach my 2nd graders some swing dance lessons, just to keep the bodies moving and stay warm :)
That's a great attitude, thank you for sharing it. It's good to remember that just because people don't do things our way, it doesn't mean they're doing it the wrong way. Not that it's technically a foreign country, but I'm going to try to remember this attitude when we move to Florida as they are certainly going to do things differently than us. And we'll be the outsiders, so they'll probably think that we're strange.
ReplyDeleteThanks Em! Congrats to Eli on the promotion!!! I hope you enjoy your new culture also :)
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