Recently i’ve noticed that more people have been trying to engage with me in English. It’s probably because the schools are on holiday, and the youngsters that are usually stuck in a classroom for 8 hours a day, can actually get outside and meet other people！
Of course many college students also want to practise their English with the foreigner, and I understand that most students seldom have the opportunity to converse with a native speaker. So I try to be friendly, but sometimes i’m not in the mood.

I have become particularly hardened to this over the last few months and my attitude has begun to change.

They say the environment in which one lives has an effect on how one thinks and acts, and this is what has happened to me.

My attitude is now this: I now generally ignore people that try to speak to me in English.

This is because (outside the classroom) I’m just fed up of listening to bad english, and trying to understand someones meaning when I don’t have either the time or energy to think about it. This is a bit of a selfish attitude, it’s just that too many times i’ve been harangued by people wanting no more than a free English lesson – and the fact is, I really don’t have time to help everyone all of the time.

But I think the real issue here is one of complete ignorance. It seems that most Chinese beleive all foreign people understand English, especially that all White people in the world speak English. This claim annoys me, and so If anyone assumes I speak English without first asking ‘Do you speak English’ I stare back giving them a look as if they are a total moron.

This technique works for most, but it fails to deter the real hardcore element, who will keep asking and asking. For them it is necessary to reply with the simple and succinct ‘我听不动英语’ ‘I don’t understand English’. This results in a confused look ‘but you’re foreign you MUST understand english, don’t you all understand english?! you must be stupid!’

Indeed I have met many people who despite being told ‘我听不动英语’ persist to ask questions in English – it is at which point I tell them I am from Iceland , and to please shut up. Another tactic I have recently employed is to speak complete gibberish back to someone, makes me laugh anyway.

I don’t often eat at McDonalds, but I went there yesterday, and before I reached the counter the lady behind the counter said ‘Hello. How can I help you’
I gave her a confused look and said ‘ 什么?’ ‘What?’ , she repeated the English and I said ‘ 请说汉语，我听不动英语’ ‘please speak Chinese, I don’t understand English’. So I ordered, and she said in in English ‘wait 2 minutes’ I gave that blank stare again and said ‘不动’, she stuck two fingers up at me as if to emphasize the two minutes, which only made me laugh, unfortunately she didn’t get the joke! 🙂
It seems logical to me, to first use the language of the country that we are in (i.e. Chinese), then if the customer doesn’t understand to revert to another language, but to assume this is quite offensive. It’s like seeing someone in the UK who looks asian and immediatly speaking Chinese to them.
Probably some bright spark in the Mcdonalds managment has told their employess to always speak English to foreigners – seemingly even if they don’t understand…

It still astounds me that in the year 2006, how people can remain so insular looking, lacking such basic common sense, afterall Changchun is only 300 miles from Russia and last time I checked they don’t speak English.
I can only imagine how difficult it must be for a Western born Asian who speaks English but no Chinese.

The weather has got really damn hot over the last few days, and for the first time this year It’s uncomfortably hot and i’m finding it hard to sleep at night.  I have finished my job and are now free to do whatever I want, which is great as last month I didn’t have one day off.

I have now moved to another place – and with the help of a few friends – it was surprisingly easy.  My new place is cheap, very cheap. For only 500元/30pounds a month it’s a decent place – I don’t plan to stay there long it’s primarily for storage.   and so I have no net access at home, which is a bummer as I’ve become so reliant upon it over the last few months and I hate the smoke in the internet cafes.  Here’s the rest of the post:

Written in the heat of the moment, might annoy some people.

Almost finished the semster, just one more day left.  Been busy marking exams and getting all the final grades sorted out, ready to hand to my boss in exchange for my last salary. 

So I arranged to meet the landlord on Saturday, for him to give me back my deposit and to sort out exactly when I will leave etc… 

This proved to be troublesome, and  soon bacame a shouting match – well more of one sided match, I wasn’t going to stoop to his pathetic level. As a race the Chinese are loud (just go to any busy restaurant), and when they get angry they shout even louder and the the Chinese language is a great argueing language.

Essentially he wanted ME to give him the remainder of the deposit (2100yuan); in what could only be considered an attempt to steal the money from me.  Of course this shocked me, afterall I was expecting him to pay me back what I am owed since –  the contract is about to end. 

  The problem is that I am forgetting where I am, and that I am gageing things from a Western perspective. I must remember that whether a persons actions are right or wrong is not important; I should have been more cynical in dealing with the landlord, as the more he said, the more clear it became that he is not going to see 1 fen of my deposit back. 

What can I do? 

Nothing, zero, nil, zilch.

However I have a plan.

 I will take measures into my own hands, by siezing assets roughly equlavent to the value of 900yuan.  Unfortunatly there isn’t much worth taking, most of the stuff here is a few years old or too big or heavy to move.  So to recoup my losses the only thing woth taking is the washing machine, worth 1500yuan new (now worth 200yuan second hand re-sale value).  I believe this tactic will give me leverage – I don’t want a washing machine anyway – and the landlord will have no choice to give me the deposit back.       

This keeps on happening to me here.  Maybe it’s my own fault , maybe I’m just unlucky.  But whatever the reason, there have been three constants to all of my troubles: 

1. I am in China
2. I am a foreigner
3. Money

 It is now clear to me that some Chinese believe it is their duty to cheat the foreigner.    Many exercise double standards – one for us one for them – sadly,  of course, this is still being propogated through mis-education and furthermore,  is perpetuated by the government. This does work both ways, sometimes the foreigner is given unwarrented special treatment – it should be a level playing field.
I also beleive that many Chinese think from the assertion that foreigners are plain stupid and don’t understand. (i’m not just talking about language).   That we are incapable of doing things for ourselves, without (Chinese) assistance – hense the shock from my students when I actually tell them that I don’t have a translator and that I can do things for myself. University students – not uneducated people unexposed to other influences – I’ve lost track of the amount of times i’ve been asked ‘ when you go out how do you buy things?’ ‘what do you do?’ People asking me if ‘I know how to get home’ after i’ve told them i’ve lived here for over a year – the list goes on. Maybe it’s a lack of a way of thinking, not joining the right dots together to get a complete picture…

Furthermore, I have come to the rather stark conclusion that China is a nation of  many racists.  I am not usually a fan of such sweeping statements, but I believe this is the only explanation.  I used to think it was a question of curiosity, interest, and nosiness.  I think I was misguided (too considerate, too naive) it’s not about interest or curiosity, it’s about mockery, sneering,  to make fun of, and maybe even disdain or contempt.  This does not apply to everything, but i think if money is involved then it is safe to assume such.  In the western sense of the meaning, there is much discrimination or prejudice based on race, in transactions that involve money.

Another thing I have learnt is that being the nice guy here gets you nowhere.  If you are polite and honest the Chinese think you are weak and so will try to screw you; unless they are a good friend or family. You will be taken advantage of.
On the other hand, if you are firm, loud and obnoxious, and insulting (by western standards) people will pay respect to you, because they think you are tough, and strong willed. 

As much as this may seem difficult to believe,  It is the conclusion I have come to.  One may say it’s a cultural difference, I used to think this too, but I don’t buy it anymore.