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Q: Asked for directions very much here?
I thought this was a little bizarre, but after talking and chatting with other foreigners, it's more common than I thought.
So I am out without the misses enjoying a draft red ale and a tuna on rye bread and upon leaving a lost Chinese lady with her daughter and grandmother, males not present, ask me in Chinese for directions to somewhere. I try to imagine me in Hollywood as an American or Hamburg as a German asking a Japanese tourist for directions while he is balancing 3 cameras and it does not compute. This has happened many times, a Chinese tourist asking me for directions instead of the thousands around them that are their local comrades and citizens.
Has this happened to you before? Do they trust a foreigner more their own people? Are people so self absorbed that they know they want help and just don't bother to ask?
I usually know where they need to go because I always check out an area before I travel there anyway.
7 years 37 weeks ago in Transport & Travel - China
im never lost .Someone is always to willing to tell me where to go.
im never lost .Someone is always to willing to tell me where to go.
In my experience Chinese people aren't very good at specifics, especially directions. It's always (that way somewhere" or "over there"!
The Chinese are notorious at giving bad directions. It's the face thing. If they don't know, they will fake it. They can't bear to be seen as someone who doesn't know where it is, so they tell you something to save face. Most Chinese can't tell you where north south east and west is. When I first came to China, one of my first lessons was never ask a Chinese for directions. I learned to download maps and find my own way. Now, I know my way around Chinese cities better than most locals.
retiredinchina:
It does make you wonder if they really invented the compass or knocked someone over the head and stole the idea.
You again prove your ignorance. You live and work here? So you're not a tourist, therefore it is reasonable to think you might know how to get somewhere. I show my friends around all the time, I typically do more exploring in their city than they do.
retiredinchina:
So all the locals that live and work here and speak the language get a pass and ask the foreigner instead because he or she does not give a shit about face. Also, I am retired, don't work, the wife works, tired of the sexist world, it is my turn to leech off some one else's productivity, have a nice day at work dear, I will be drinking beer all day, but I'll have dinner cooked and give you a foot massage tonight.
Englteachted:
You're too simple minded to see things in a sensible way. An intelligent Chinese person (there are some) will know Chinese give bad directions so rather than risk getting bad directions if I see a foreigner who seems he knows where he's going, why not ask him? If he knows he'll tell me, if he doesn't he will say so.
See, your thinking is way too simple.
In my experience, local people only know a (very) few landmarks. No one knows street names or actual locations except for foreigners and some taxi drivers.
As mentioned; it is usually: blahblahblah, na bian/fu jin
true, some hv askd me. felt bcause i happend to b nearest to thm at that point.
No.
But, I've heard Chinese tell others they don't know.
I've also intervened when I've seen someone lost, and given them directions or suggestions.
