carl.hops

That last part about the job ad's, haven't seen that one in the states yet but I did encounter it here in China when being interviewed by a fellow American in his English training school, he out right told me that he was only looking for people who looked older (than I look, I look rather young for my age). I'm not that clear on our laws but I'm pretty sure that wouldn't go over too well in the states?

Yes definitely, I've been past that for most of my life actually (the physical features thing) I grew up in an area with a lot of Asians so other than being a Minority it wasn't much of a shock to notice people looked different. My best friend back home is Cambodian and his family is like my own, but I understand what your saying about people from different regions. You can easily tell who is from Tianjin and who is not, Tianjin had far too many Migrant workers come in far too quickly compared to places like Beijing (or that's what I'm told). It seems to be true.

I don't think anyone is denying racism is in both country's, its everywhere. Its simply more blunt and open in China, and when your used to it being hidden from you it makes it harder to deal with now that its right in front of your face. So far I've spent much of my time wondering about what the person staring is thinking, lately, I've stopped caring and started smiling to any passerby who gives so much as a curious look or disgruntled face. Its the best way to handle it, not much else you can do other than move.

There are definitely different degrees of racism, some like to think that the less humiliating kind don't qualify, but they do. And yes, it exists everywhere, in varying degree's, I didn't plan to make this a racism post though, just a funny story.

I'm going to chime in here and say let him just do some travel first before Teaching. If he likes it, and finds a city he wants to stay in for a while and look around for the right lady, he can find a teaching job or maybe another tourist visa.

I guess all one can do is keep optimism at the forefront of their mind, I've always tried to stay positive when those little annoyances you experience here pop up, maybe its just someone arriving after you then cutting in line, or a scornful look on the train, but for every one of those moments I think of the smiles I get from time to time when I'm seen holding hands with Yakun or when I'm doing my best to speak with a local and they have a jovial laugh at my attempt. Overall I have a really good life, things in the past put that in perspective. I'll stay aware of the cynic in me and continue learning about this fascinating place.

I really cant say either way, from what I've seen on T.V. you've made a good point. But from where I've grown up (me not being Asian my self but having many Asian friends growing up) I can say that that ignorance is dead in the population save for the few maybe 3%? Based off my travels through China I can say with certainty that there is a lot more open racism that isn't even acknowledged as racism or even a problem (the hiring of white foreigners over Asian looking ones who can speak English just as well) maybe most Americans just know how to keep their bigotry to themselves because they are afraid of the backlash. Maybe my view is warped, now that I'm the minority, on the receiving end..

Why do you think this ? you mean racism and ignorance does not exist in "developed" countries? read the underlined word (fixed the spelling error), it answers your question unfortunately, these things wont be leaving any country any time soon. But I hope I'm proven wrong. To clarify a bit more, the more educated someone is the more understanding they are. There is a large population of people in large citys from rural areas who have no education, but of course even the well educated can be just as racist and idiotic, and an illiterate farmer can be more accepting and understanding. I definitely agree with knl, I don't hope to see the same cultural understanding through out most of the population during my life time, but I think it will slowly change as the education system gets better and more people join the middle class.

I remember reading a lot about this a few years ago, and one thing I remember clearly is that if you have bought your first home with the VA home loan the only way to use the VA home loan again is if you no longer own that property. I remember getting a certificate in the mail as well (I didn't ask for it) that said I was eligible for around 500,000. Not sure how that works, I'm pretty sure they still check your credit

If anyone knows the steps for this please do share, some XP instructions and or Vista instructions. Although I don't plan on leaving XP until windows 7 has seen its first service pack.

I've learned this the hard way, but pay attention to this guys. Confusing yes, but at least it doesn't change! I tried reading your post, but I still don't understand a lot of Characters, 我还是不能读汉字.

It wont matter what language the log in name is in, as long as you have installed the characters and the computer can display it, even if you haven't and the characters show up as blocks you know which account it is and simply type in the correct password.

Since I do plan to stay in China for a long time, I wont give my self any illusions of the possibility I can be accepted by all but you cant let that put you down, not even the minority's here have that luxury or at current times the Arabic's in our own home. I'm glad that I can at least blend in fairly well, maybe the down right racist and ignorance that has some Chinese saying things like that to your wife will lesson as more and more people become educated as China develops into first world. I love it when I go into a place and hear someone say laowai, I think its pretty funny how a lot of Chinese will state something out loud like that. They say it not really out of spite but surprise, I'll usually turn my head their way and kind of chuckle which results in us all smiling or them becoming embarrassed. But after a few trips to Beijing I've noticed a lot of these little foreigner adventures we have to go through every day don't happen on the same scale because of the large foreign population, its your little home away from home if you're getting tired.

After living here for about 7 months I've been told by Yakun that people are telling her I look like I'm Chinese. Now... I didn't pay much attention to it before, until today when I was sitting at a bus stop waiting for the usual 835 to take me home from work when a young Chinese man sat down next to me and looked at me like I was a normal every day shmo, He asked me something rather simple. "does 835 come by here" I answered him in Mandarin, it was at that point I realized something was up, because I didn't get the stares, the "ni shi na ge ren?" and he wasn't afraid to sit next to me and curl up his pant leg. That's when he started a conversation, and I had to stop him and say "wo ting bu dong" (I don't understand) it was after a couple of these that he said "my Putonghua is bad, I'm from Shandong" at this point I think he thought I simply didn't understand him because his accent was crap? Suddenly he realized his mistake and looked at me in the "your a foreigner" eyes, and asked "ni shi na ge ren?" after I answered he told me my pronunciation was pretty good. Hah, I think I will dye my hair black and keep my sunglasses on all the time.

Yeah those little "e-bikes" or if you've been in China long enough you've come to know them as Ninja Bikes, because they stealthily sneak up on you from behind when your walking down the road and almost take your arm off. I would like to get one of those, but you guys are definitely right, the distances from work, food and home are too vast in America. China still has a lot of developing to do but its definitely more convenient in the fact that I don't need to commute nearly as much as I did in Oregon.

I just bought a green shirt with the red star on it in biejing, I was thinking about painting a white star on the back.

That he does, that's why our plans still haven't changed. Should be seeing us in roughly 4 or so years once were done in Beijing! Maybe a little sooner for a trip to see what its like ;-)

Thanks for the list, I can definitely use this as discussion material. Its a little difficult to find the right things to teach for my class, I have some who are advanced and others who are at a very basic level, one lady is easily in her 60's and my youngest is a primary school student.

I'm teaching a class here in Tianjin on Sunday, we will role-play a cross cultural couple encountering their differences. I'm looking for your experiences when living together that may have been funny or hard to deal with to help me write this Role-Play. So far I've got: Role-play: Just married… to a foreigner. You just got married to a foreigner, and they don’t have the same habits or customs so living with them is sometimes strange and difficult. You cooked dinner for your loving partner, after eating she/he starts licking her fingers and sucking on them… Loving Wife: Can you please____your____? Loving Husband: Why___I___fingers? What's_____with it? Loving Wife: Its _____. Why ____ you ____ that anyways? Loving Husband: That's what I was ______ back home. *update based off whome?'s post* <<Loving wife starts sucking meat off of a piece of bone and spits it out of her mouth on to the table>> Loving Husband: Ewww, that's _______! Why ____ you use your _____ to set it on ____ table? Loving Wife: Because _____.

Thanks, this looks good with all the pictures I can decide what I'll see first when I make the move to Beijing from Tianjin this summer.

I'm not sure this will give you the detail your looking for but my iphone pulls weather forecasts (not sure from where) and they have been right on since I've been living in Tianjin last year. I can only think of one day it wasn't. BTW... is there a technical term for dust/sand haze storm? If not we should make one.

This is identical to what my wife does with the exception of pouring it through a filter. I like the pulp. The pulp/fiber is real good for you, keep on drinking ;-) I bought one of these for Yakun, same Joy brand. We often use it with brown rice or corn and millet. We've even used pumpkin and black beans, we have a mid-priced model and its worked flawlessly for about 3 months now. Just make sure to keep the round metal tube over the blade otherwise you get some splash back!

I've given up on trying to get past it, I use vadilla and the Tor button with Firefox, loads the website but not the video. Hope they end the censorship soon, I just want to post more video's of China. Their kind of shooting themselves in the foot with this.

As long as shes around I wouldn't worry about them becoming greedy and taking advantage, she will put it right

I have something I made I think you all might enjoy, you can go to my blog (check my sig) or simply go and learn how to make flower noodles.