Mark and I were back in Shanghai taking the subway when this conversation happened with a young Chinese man.
Chinese dude: "Do you have 200 USD I can have?"
Mark and I: "No"
Chinese dude: "Do you have 20 USD I can have?"
Mark and I: "No"
Awhile later
Chinese dude: "Do you think this is beautiful?" ( A sticker on the subway that's been ripped)
Mark: "Sure.." (bewildered look on his face)
Chinese dude: "Really? You think this is beautiful?"
Mark: "No"
Few minutes pass
Chinese dude: "Can you give me a job? Here's my resume."
Tina: "Sorry, can't help you, I'm a tourist"
Chinese dude: "You are a tourist? Oh"
And he was sober.
Welcome back to China!
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Ah, you know you are back in China when....
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3 comments:
Funny story... I'm reading a book right now by a guy who taught in China and am beginning to see how extraordinarily different Chinese culture is from the US/Canadian experience. The book is from the 90s, so things might be quite different now. In the book the guy found you shouldn't try to compliment people living in China on their freckles... I guess it's pretty rude, like saying "nice birthmark!"
Wish you guys were in town again this weekend! It was great to see you!
-Em
Ah Em - it was good seeing you too and we would have been able to get together earlier had you not thought that going to Cabo with family was more important then friends in from China...
Yeah, the differences are part of what makes it all fun, and without them we wouldn't be able to keep the blog going. I don't imagine that the culture has changed that much from the 90's and the book that you're reading.
Are freckles ever something that you would compliment people on?
Haha - funny story. I wish I had conversations like that when I was in China. They would have totally made my day.
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