Only in China

[whome?]

 

this is an interesting discussion. it seems like southerners (and people used to the south) find the service better in the south, and northerners like the service in the north. i like the north.

 

but beyond "service," there is also the general issue of courtesy. my personal opinion is that people in south china are much less courteous than northerners. in the short time my wife and i were in guangzhou, i experienced a cab driver calling african people "black monsters", a man on the street remarked about the size of my (and other white males') genitalia, the shouting of two people from guangdong kept an entire train-car awake half the night, and my wife's backside became the prime attraction for any men we encountered on the street or subway.

 

I would say I like the south better than the north. I like them both, but my point is that there are some general differences.

 

Unfortunately even cab drivers in Beijing are rather intolerant of black people. There have been many times I have heard them make racist comments. It may seem more pervasive in the south because cab drivers in the south are generally more vocal and like to engage their customers in idle conversation.

 

Funny, but the only time in over a dozen years that anybody made a comment about genitalia to me was in Beijing. An unusually talkative cabbie suggested I would do better with a Chinese wife than an American one (I will not get into the sorid details). When I feigned ignorance, he was explicitly graphic.

 

My first couple of years ago I thought people speaking Cantonese were loud and abusive. Many, many times I would think people were fighting or arguing, but in the end they were just having a normal, friendly conversation about an exciting topic. That's just the nature of their language.

 

I like all of China and find it has the same general differences between the regions just as we experience in the US. I find that in south China they tend to appear more friendly and easy to make friends but usually they are looking for or hoping to get something out of it. That beinjg said, I have made good friends everywhere I have been even though my Chinese is still at a 3rd grade level.

[canrun]

Actually, I prefer Cantonese to Mandarin.

 

Man, I gotta say...if sheep have a language it is indeed Cantonese! Watch a Stephen Chow movie and you'll understand exactly what I mean...

[GZBILL]

Actually, I prefer Cantonese to Mandarin.

 

Man, I gotta say...if sheep have a language it is indeed Cantonese! Watch a Stephen Chow movie and you'll understand exactly what I mean...

 

 

Gotta admit, with all the "ah" and "la" they put at the end of virtually every word it does sound like sheep bleating.

[Guest Pommey]

interseting discussion about just the south and north, ever been to the west ? different to both north and south. Yunnan 3 tones, and in my experience more honest and friendly than the other regions, as long as you are straight too.

 

But then we (together) only have been to BEI, Shanghai, Nanning, GUZ, shenhzen and HK. Jin of course in her job went everywhere.

 

Jin says cantonese is like "bird talk"