hi, i am a chinese. i heard of some funny stories from my customers, one customer is from Azerbaijan and he told me that : "in azerbaijan ,russia, turkey...some countries , when a man is walking on the street and if a girl is smiling to him, that means she wants him, when i was the first time in china, i saw some beautiful girls looking at me and i also thought they were interested in me,,,,then i said HELLO to them, but they felt very shy... " so his meaning is :he felt embarrassment when he made the girls shy. because in chinese eyes, he is a foreigner, maybe he is handsome, the girls are just curious with foreigners... but if in most countries, when a girl smiling to u on the street, then means sth might happen... lol ...

When foreigners try to sleaze on girls in the bars the normal way they would back home. It looks completely out of place here...

When foreigners complain that Chinese don't act in a way that THEY WOULD LIKE.

People getting angry in restaurants. Drives me nuts, if you can speak Chinese it's more acceptable, but if you don't please don't sit there speaking loudly in English in some condescending tone about how your noodles are too cold. Just shut up and eat them.

Or the attitude that Chinese people are mere peasants here to serve you. I heard a kid the other night explaining Chinese to a visiting friend of their parent at a restaurant. The kid said "The smart ones will understand you, but the dumb ones may not."

WTF is that? That's the attitude you're teaching your child living in a foreign country?!

dharma86, a bar is a place to lure whores, and foreigners get angry when Chinese don't act the way anyone should act... Now that's out of the way...

I hate when some foreigners go WAY over the top freaking out in a restaurant... Sure it took 45 minutes for your food to get there and it's not what you ordered but come on already... You're surprised??!? It's China man, chill!!!

Some embarrassing things that foreigners do include, but are not limited to:

1. Yelling at a bus attendant in public.
2. Going into the Guangzhou metro drunk and yelling at bystanders until they beat you down.
3. Being blackout drunk in public and hanging all over a cop.
4. Walking around with your girlfriend who is 20+ years younger than you.
5. Starting a fight over a fender bender.
6. China bashing in front of Chinese people.
7. Thinking that other foreigners you see are your friends.

Can't think of any more right now.

Sell outs? How do you mean?

I think that foreigners in another country should be on their best behavior. After all, we are ambassadors for our homelands, right? That's what everyone keeps telling me. Of course, I'm still young and idealistic so maybe I'll just stop caring about how Chinese people perceive me after a few years.

1) Having a new girlfriend every month. Loudly talking about divorce in the case of older men.

2) Young tourist teachers who always show up late to work, or miss days at a time because they are sight-seeing (usually without advanced notice). For the Chinese co-employees making 2000/month or less it is infuriating, and for the other foreigners it means more overtime for us. For the locals, who have practically no experience with foreigners, it makes us all look awful, and gives a distorted impression of how a western workplace actually functions. Doesn't happen often, but when it does, man...

I dont agree with the comments about foreigners complaining in resturants. From my experience as an Australian I get a little embarrased at the way some of my Chinese friends and many of the customers talk to and treat the staff. They seem at times to be a little rude and mostly I think it is uncalled for. I have told my friends that as well when they are being rude. I have not been to so many tourist places, but I have seen good and bad in those from most countries and I can only speak for myself that I try to be polite both at home and abroad and I never look down on anyone reguardless of what job they do.

At a university requesting to only teach students who already spoke english very well