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Posts: 5156

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Q: Chinese etiquette when doing work in someone's home?

Chinese etiquette, Yeah I know. When workers came to my home to do work in the states they were on their best behavior and careful (i'm not talking about the mess left behind.). They didn't nosey around your apartment, they didn't spit out your window constantly, keep looking at you because they wanted so badly to spit on your floors, touch your shit that has nothing to do with their work or work area, WTF?

It seems that when workers come to my apartment in China they go out of their way to be disgusting.

7 years 12 weeks ago in  Teaching & Learning - China

 
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I've had similar negative experiences, although in a few cases they're ok. The last guy who came to "fix" my internet (making it slower in the process, somehow) asked my assistant why i had a beard. Teachers shouldn't have beards, after all. He said this while pointing at me and not looking me in the eyes, thinking i couldn't understand what he was saying. Experiences like this just help to reinforce my impression of Chinese, i.e. that a few of them are nice but most are not people i want to be around.

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7 years 12 weeks ago
 
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Englteachted:

Care to elaborate?

7 years 12 weeks ago
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7 years 12 weeks ago
 
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Depends, I get a mixed bag. 

 

I have had some super polite ones that clean up and behave themselves quite well while others are just very poorly mannered. 

 

Seems to be getting better overall as they learn more about global etiquette. 

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7 years 12 weeks ago
 
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A friend of mine made the mistake of leaving her purse on the table .
the washing machine repair man cleaned her out

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7 years 12 weeks ago
 
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I've had mixed results but mostly they were nice people who respected my home and were friendly and efficient.. then there were 4 guys (don't know why it needed 4) the landlord sent to fix the fridge who were revolting. They all chain smoked and spat all over the floor.

The worst though were some guys who had a contract to replace the heating in every apartment in the community I lived in. I had work and couldn't be there so my girlfriend stayed to watch the place. Every time she turned around one of them would be opening cupboards or drawers and going through them..she would catch him at it and while she was telling him to just do his job and stay out of our stuff one of the others would be sneaking into another room and doing the same thing. They basically just ignored her.

They were also smokers and spitters and the job they did was shite, when the water was turned on a lot of the apartments in the community were flooded and there were a lot of complaints from residents about things been stolen.

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7 years 12 weeks ago
 
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I've had similar negative experiences, although in a few cases they're ok. The last guy who came to "fix" my internet (making it slower in the process, somehow) asked my assistant why i had a beard. Teachers shouldn't have beards, after all. He said this while pointing at me and not looking me in the eyes, thinking i couldn't understand what he was saying. Experiences like this just help to reinforce my impression of Chinese, i.e. that a few of them are nice but most are not people i want to be around.

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7 years 12 weeks ago
 
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I've only ever lived on campus, I think it has to do with people who got their jobs simply from knowing someone. ie Contract to do the entire complex.. If they're independent and you contact them, they'll probably be ok.

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7 years 12 weeks ago
 
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Same as above (fortunately, without the spitting!) The main repair guy isn't too bad (but he does like to make money!!! me and the landlord (whom I get along fairly well with - over 5 years now) do suspect he's doing things to make more money). He also leaves the mess that we all know about.

 

When the police came to my place, they were very polite! (granted, it was G20, so perhaps that had something to do with it!)

 

But I've had to tell off a few here and there about smoking in my home... (not to mention, completely ignoring me when I've tried to tell them what the problem is.... hopefully they got the hint when we refused to sign off on about 5000RMB worth of work that was done - that's done absolutely nothing to fix the problem!)

 

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7 years 12 weeks ago
 
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I've got one general Mr Fix-it type guy who I'm best buds with. He's friends with my boss and no one else that goes to the end of year parties can drink baijiu so he thinks I'm cool. I am also reasonably proficient at handyman type stuff as well, which is an asset in a country where everything breaks all the time.

 

My internet guy is also really nice, someone that I know.

 

If anyone lit up a smoke in my house they'd be asked politely to put it out or ho outside. If anyone spat on my floor they'd be politely smashed in the gob.

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7 years 12 weeks ago
 
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The filthy mindset of many poor is, if I don't have their beautiful clothes, I steal their scissors and cut their clothes into pieces, at the very least.  To do this on a grand scale, you need a better excuse, so Red Semantics comes into play ---- we are redistributing wealth to achieve a class-less society, we are comrades.  

 

If you notice, commies always use "we", it is never an "I"....... they rely on quantity, not quality. This is also one reason why these psychopathic criminals always rely on patriotism and nationalism as a cover to conceal their ugly face.  All part of Red Semantics, twisting interpretations when logic, conscience, ethics......is against them.

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7 years 12 weeks ago
 
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There are two greater categories of people in China, the city-dwellers and the nongs.

 

The city-dwellers are the only ones worthy of your time, they make up less than 2% of the population, as their name suggest they were born and raised in large cities, they usually are educated and civilized, they rightly consider themselves as superior to the rest of the population.

 

The nongs, they come from the countryside of smaller inland cities, there is hardly any difference between someone who comes from a tier-3 or a town, they make up 98% of the population, they are poorly educated, rude, pushy and angry, they were mostly left behind in China's development and the government has no intention to change this, they have no morals and/or values, they know that their life sucks and they resent anyone who is more successful, especially if that person is a Foreigner.

 

You will never get a 2% to fix your washing machine or do repair in your apartment, so the best is to learn how to do it yourself.

dom87:

actually the 2% citydwellers are usually snobs and think they are better because they have now 10 apartments in shanghai.

Not quite sure were you get that these 2% are useful... they actually cant even replace a light bulb

7 years 11 weeks ago
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RandomGuy:

dom87 -> You are mistaken, actually the cocky type with money and no education that makes up the tuhao and fuerdai are almost never city dwellers, many are nongs who got some money after selling their land to some developers and then moved to the big city. I can tell you for a fact that, in Guangzhou at least, the native people are anything but snobs. All the rich uneducated and arrogant people you meet here moved from Zhejiang or dumbfuck Hunan and they are the worst type that humanity can ever spawn. Whenever I see rude, arrogant, cocky or snob behavior in Guangzhou, it's never local people, it's never a Cantonese speaker, it's always those people who moved in from another province with their money and think that they somehow own the place. Check your reality mate.

7 years 11 weeks ago
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7 years 12 weeks ago
 
Posts: 1072

Shifu

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when i needed a plumber recently for a kitchen problem, he did what he needed to as i kept a close eye on him.

it is the local 'friends' i would be more concerned about.

Apparently my handbag is fair game when i am out of the room, so i take care to remove all 'temptation' if anyone arrives.

 

 

Englteachted:

FUCK YEAH! I don't have any friends over anymore. As soon as they come by they start rummaging through your shit like dumb spies.

7 years 11 weeks ago
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7 years 11 weeks ago
 
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