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Sign up with Google Sign up with FacebookQ: Has China turned you into a "cold" person?
Too many examples to list really. here's one:
Biking home last night, I passed by a woman sprawled out on the ground with two people beside her. She was having a seizure or a heart attack or something. I didn't really even bat an eye and just kept going. It didn't occur to me until just now, that that is probably not how I would have acted back home.
Does China make us more "cold" or is this just a personal problem?
No. I'm open and friendly. China just made me aware to watch people more closely. There are dishonest people at home and every where. I left a woodstove I bought outside last winter because I needed help to get it in my house. It vanished i the night. I don't know if China has more dishonest people per capita, but there are more people, alot more people.
Since that woman was being attended to, I would have kept going. I can't speak Chinese and my first aid isn't good. If she was alone I would stop. I stopped to check a crying girl one night, result: I thought I really was going to be killed for doing so,
No, i've always been a cold, unfeeling ba*****d. Drove straight by a woman having a seizure huh? That's hilarious. My brother has seizures. Straight up, but not from epilepsy, he's just abused his body with drugs all his life and now it's messed up. I don't even take any notice of 'him' when he has one. Maybe push him away from the telly, otherwise he plays havoc with the reception. His name's Ant, but now everyone just calls him Russell.
snowballeffect:
lol, hilarious Martian, loving the rustle ending. Keep the good work up.
When I move back to my home country a couple of months ago after five long years in China, my family and my friends said something really funny about my behavior : I am like a savage.
I presume this word means everything about what I have become staying too long here...
I am learning to return to civilization : saying hello to neighbours, saying good morning or good afternoon when I go shopping, respect the red light, etc....
Among all the words existing, they have to choose "savage".....that really made me laugh.
mArtiAn:
Yeh.....when 'idiot' or 'nob' would have been so much more fitting.
Yes. It's made me much more aggressive and combative. I used to be a chill guy but after living in China for so long I've that the best way to respond to Chinese people's rudeness is your own rudeness. Example: Yesterday a woman was pushing me into a full train. I pushed her back and she got angry but got the point.
yep. I am a lot colder now. truth is I say 'fk' most people. life is tuff in Asia,,, and I guess in other places too. so, I look out for #1.
fk it.
Only in winter, but agree with diverdude, here you gotta look out for no. 1. This is the wild west baby, and its dog eat dog.
mArtiAn:
More like 'wild east and people eat dog,' just doesn't have the same ring to it.
Nah, it isn't just you. When I was there I watched an old woman fall down the stairs on the bus, it never occurred to me to help her get up. The rest of the bus passengers stood and watched as well - at home there would have been a stampede to help her. At home, I would have been part of the stampede.
It was a real sign to me that I needed to get out.
Overall I'm the same but in certain situations I'm a lot more cold and agressive. Especially at crowded places. Like at the subway station, long gone are the days where I politely step aside and let someone get off the train or on the train or go get a sit. Soon as that door opens now I'm pushing and shoving like a mad man.
In my home country I have the habit of saying "Thank you" for nearly anything. In China I don't say thank you nearly as much anymore because of all the times the only response back was a cold face or simply ignoring me.
On the flip side, I've met a lot of people in China who randomly approach me and end up buying me food or drinks and hanging out. So in that regard i've become a lot more open to strangers. In my home country people aren't as open with complete strangers.
snowballeffect:
Whilst please, thanks, and sorry do appear to have equivalents in Chinese they seem to be very rarely used. Possibly a 'Face' issue, and culturally I think people just aren't that sympathetic to other peoples plight or feelings here, after all this is the Wild East baby and they eat dogs, sorry, its dog eat dog!
P.S. Wild East and they eat dogs quip is copyright of Martian, cheers dude! :)
Yep, I sit all winter without any heating on so I can afford a Samsung I-Phone like the Chinese do!
snowballeffect:
You're not cold enough dude if you cant afford an Apple! Chill!