lease read this list carefully and ask yourself what already applies to you. It is a list of observations by me and other expats. Actually this list is around on the Shanghai expat webpages quite a long time, with erverybody adding items or modifying them according to their own experiences. It reflects some differences in Chinese and Western behaviour, and in no way it is intended to be offending to our Chinese friends, colleagues and family members (if any).<br /><br />So, you know you're too long in China if... <br /><br /><br />--------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /><br />...you no longer need a handkerchief to clean your nose.<br /><br />...you think going to karaoke on Friday nights is fun.<br /><br />...you eat noodle soup or baozi for breakfast.<br /><br />...your body no more needs any dairy products.<br /><br />...you go to the local market in pyjamas.<br /><br />...you always try to be the first in a line and do not understand why other people are properly lining up.<br /><br />...you always eat family style, even at the restaurant.<br /><br />...you can sleep everywhere in any position.<br /><br />...you go to the zoo and think "good food". Then you ask the staff "How much is the monkey?"<br /><br />...you wonder why nobody back home owns a VCD player.<br /><br />...you do not ask for somebody's age, but for his year sign.<br /><br />...you eat from somebody's plate before being invited to do so.<br /><br />...you open the window to let some hot air inside when the air condition is cooling too much.<br /><br />...you have no feeling for traffic rules at all.<br /><br />...you think the narrow sidewalk is the ideal place to park your car.<br /><br />...you invite friends for dinner and serve them Stinky Tofu.<br /><br />...you start calling other foreigners laowai.<br /><br />...you stop directly at the end of an escalator to do your daily planning.<br /><br />...you think its fun to enter the subway before the other people got out.<br /><br />...you no longer wonder how somebody with a yearly income of US$ 4,800 can own a Mercedes-Benz 500.<br /><br />...you accept the fact it's necessary to stand in line to get a number for the next line.<br /><br />...you think the best time to stand up and get your hand luggage is directly after the airplane leaves the runway.<br /><br />...you believe everything written in local newspapers.<br /><br />...you would not consider entering a restaurant that's not already overcrowded.<br /><br />...other foreigners seem strange to you.<br /><br />...you think Chinese fashion is hip.<br /><br />...you invite people to dinner at PizzaHut, McDonald's or Kentucky Fried Chicken.<br /><br />...you apruptly and with no reason stop in the middle of a road, regardless of the traffic.<br /><br />...you ask for somebody's income and excpect an answer.<br /><br />...you always talk louder than really necessary.<br /><br />...you are the last of your first expat friends.<br /><br />...you prefer kuaizi (chopsticks).<br /><br />...you start to cut off large vehicles on your bicycle.<br /><br />...you gave your mother your business card last time you visited her.<br /><br />...you think a tyre nearly out of air but not really flat is not worth considering.<br /><br />...you let one fingernail grow long (loooong!) to show you are no longer physically working.<br /><br />...you smoke a cigarette before, during and after dinner.<br /><br />...asked for the way, you explain how to go, even if you do not know the place you've been asked for.<br /><br />...you wonder why the folks at home do not buy 10 DVD's per week.<br /><br />...you look out of the window and think "so many trees", not "so much concrete".<br /><br />...you think air pollution - what air pollution?<br /><br />...you leave the house and immediately forget how to be considerate.<br /><br />...you buy sunglasses and leave the brand stickers on, because you think they belong there.<br /><br />...you avoid the sun to stay nice and pale.<br /><br />...you forgot what it means to spend some time alone.<br /><br />...you ask every foreigner you see if he wants to buy a (fake) Rolex watch.<br /><br />...you think a flat tyre every 5000 km is part of the normal driving experience.<br /><br />...you think it's cool to attach flashy lights to your mobile phone's aerial and carry the phone on a coloured strap around your neck.<br /><br />...you ask western tourists to take a picture of you and them together.<br /><br />...you drive a car and certainly always have the right of way.<br /><br />...you do not need diapers for your baby, as the open-seat pants are so much more handy.<br /><br />...a photo not showing you and your companions in the foreground is uninteresting.<br /><br />...you leave the protecting plastic covers on the furniture at home, as the factory put them on they must be part of it.<br /><br />...you always and everywhere are in the way of others.<br /><br />...a jammed intersection is just too many drivers showing they all have the right of way.<br /><br />...you take your fishing rod when going to the park.<br /><br />...you are able to squat for hours without your heels ever leaving the ground.<br /><br />...the footprints on the toilet seat are your own.<br /><br />...you have the insatiable desire to join a large group of people following one person carrying a small flag.<br /><br />...on the way home you no longer wonder how the pilot, showing by his pronounciation that he can not speak English, is able to communicate with tower controllers outside China.<br /><br />...you think it's normal when the house management sends 3 (three) people with a ladder to change a lightbulb.<br /><br />...you talk as loud as possible on the telephone because the person you're calling is so far away.<br /><br />...you go to Ikea's bedroom department to take a nice Sunday afternoon nap.<br /><br />...you settle on the next available seat in an airplane and wonder when somebody asks you to move because you took his seat.<br /><br />...you dress up in pyjamas and home slippers after work, then take your folding chair, shuffle through the alley to the next main street and settle there to watch the nightly show pass by.<br /><br />...you park your old auntie in her wheelchair on the driving lane of the main road to watch the nightly show, as the sidewalk is already crowded with parked cars.<br /><br />...you always carry an old jam jar filled with water and some green tea leaves with you.<br /><br />...you understand all of the above!<br /><br />| 欢迎光临 德国开元华人社区 开元周游 (https://forum.kaiyuan.de/) | Powered by Discuz! 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