Feeling the urge to follow the small flag?!
You know you've been in China for too long when...
This list has been floating around the web for years, but it's still always a hilarious read. Have anything new to add? Some things I would suggest are...
Upon entering an elevator, you position yourself directly in front of the doors, regardless of how many people are getting on/off before you.
When using an ATM, you feel the need to only withdraw small sums of money, no matter how large an amount you really need. There is also the need to check the balance of your account at the end and beginning of each withdrawl, no matter how many people are waiting in line behind you.
Napping on the bus, on the subway, in a taxi or at the office no longer seems strange to you.
You no longer need a tissue to blow your nose.
You draw characters on your hand to make yourself understood, even if the person you're talking to clearly doesn't speak Chinese, let alone read or write.
You no longer wonder why the hoards of people fast asleep on tables at the Mcdonalds at 2am don't just go home to bed.
Here's the real list!!
- A few shots of Bai jiu don't even give you a buzz.
- A June 2001 Great Wall Cabernet (mixed with Sprite) is your vintage of choice
- The China Daily is your source for hard hitting, fast breaking, investigative journalism.
- You throw your used toilet paper in the basket (as a courtesy to the next person).
- You think a 30 year old woman who carries a Hello Kitty lunch box is cute.
- You believe that pressing the lift button 63 times will make it move faster.
- Your colleagues eat sun-dried cuttlefish coated in sugar and you don't bat an eyelid.
- You use the word "Ayyiieeaaahh" every few sentences to convey surprise, pleasure, pain or anger.
- You think that a $7 shirt is a rip-off.
- Walking across the street, against the light, in and out of traffic is a piece of cake.
- Your definition of going home "early" or not staying out too late is around midnight.
- When you take a cab, you give play-by-play driving directions to the driver.
- The footprints on the toilet seat are your own.
-
You no longer wait in line, but go immediately to the head of the queue.
- You stop at the top or bottom of an escalator to plan your day.
- It becomes exciting to see if you can get on the lift before anyone can get off.
- You no longer wonder how someone who earns US$ 400.00 per month can drive a Mercedes.
- You accept the fact that you have to queue to get a number for the next queue.
- You find that it saves time to stand and retrieve your hand luggage while the plane is on final approach.
- You have developed an uncontrollable urge to follow people carrying small flags.
- When listening to the pilot prove he cannot speak English, you no longer wonder if he can understand the air traffic controller.
- You regard it as part of the adventure when the waiter correctly repeats your order and the cook makes something completely different.
- You are not surprised when three men with a ladder show up to change a light bulb.
- You throw your trash out the window of your house, your car or bus you are on.
- You wear nylons when it is 30 degrees outside.
- You honk your horn at people because they are in your way as you drive down the sidewalk.
- You ride around on your bicycle ringing a bell for some unknown f*ing reason.
- When shopping at Carrefour some laowai stares you down for catching you looking into his basket while you wonder to yourself what laowai's eat.
- You have a pinky fingernail an inch long.
- You forget that the other person needs to finish speaking before you can start.
- You burp in any situation and don't care.
- You see one foreign person eating Pineapple (or whatever) and say "Yes, all foreign people like Pineapple.
- When you are able to jump the queue because the idiot laowai left 2 centimeters between themself and the person in front of them.
- You talk louder than is necessary.
- You get used to having a before dinner, during dinner, and after dinner cigarette.
- You go to the local shop in pyjamas.
- When looking out the window, you think "Wow, so many trees!" instead of "Wow, so much concrete!"
- Pollution, what pollution?
- You think "English literature major" is a polite way to say peanut brained bimbo.
- Someone doesn't stare at you and you wonder why.
- You (male) wear white socks with your business suits.
- You don't bother to take the sticker off the lenses of your fake Ray-Bans.
- Forks feel funny.
- 250cc is a REALLY BIG motorcycle. (You think moving from a 125cc to a 150cc makes you more macho.)
- Eating at "Western" restaurants, you wait until after dessert to drink your soup.
- You salt your fruit.
- You think of "salad" as diced apples in mayonnaise.
- You eat at exactly the same time every day, whether you are hungry or not. Then eat again later when you ARE hungry.
- You go to the hospital at the first signs of a cold.
- You start recognising the chinese songs on the radio and sing along to them with the taxi driver.
Comments Add a public comment
-
-
-
-
Whoops, looks like forgot the link: http://www.raccoltaonline.com/?p=647 (that's my own blog, by the way).
"You Know You're Swiss When..."
-
-
haha. that's a great list, david. i have a friend studying in geneva right now and his emails have chronicled some of the things your list mentions!!
here's one for canadians...
you know you're canadian when...
You stand in "line-ups" at the movie, not lines.
You're not offended by the term "Homo Milk".
You understand the sentence, "Could you please pass me a serviette, I just spilled my poutine."
You eat chocolate bars instead of candy bars.
You drink pop, not soda.
You know what it means to be on pogey.
You know that a mickey and 2-4's mean "Party at the camp, eh!"
You can drink legally while still a teen.
You talk about the weather with strangers and friends alike.
You don't know or care about the fuss with Cuba, it's just a cheap place to travel with good cigars and no Americans.
When there is a social problem, you turn to your government to fix it instead of telling them to stay out of it.
You're not sure if the leader of your nation has EVER had sex and you really don't want to know if he has!
You get milk in bags as well as cartons and plastic jugs.
Pike is a type of fish, not some part of a highway.
You drive on a highway, not a freeway.
You know what a Robertson screwdriver is.
You have Canadian Tire money in your kitchen drawers.
You know that Thrills are something to chew and "taste like soap."
You know that Mounties "don't always look like that."
You dismiss all beers under 6% as "for children and the elderly."
You know that the Friendly Giant isn't a vegetable product line.
You know that Casey and Finnegan are not a Celtic musical group.
You participated in "Participaction."
You have an Inuit carving by your bedside with the rationale, "What's good enough protection for the Prime Minister is good enough for me."
You wonder why there isn't a 5 dollar coin yet.
Unlike any international assasin/terrorist/spy in the world, you don't possess a Canadian passport.
You use a red pen on your non-Canadian textbooks and fill in the missing 'u's from labor, honor, and color.
You know the French equivalents of "free", "prize", and "no sugar added", thanks to your extensive education in bilingual cereal packaging.
You are excited whenever an American television show mentions Canada.
You make a mental note to talk about it at work the next day.
You can do all the hand actions to Sharon, Lois and Bram's "Skin-a-ma-rinky-dinky-doo" opus.
You can eat more than one maple sugar candy without feeling nauseous.
You were mad when "The Beachcombers" were taken off the air.
You know what a toque is.
You have some memento of Doug and Bob.
You know Toronto is not a province.
You never miss "Coaches Corner."
Back bacon and Kraft Dinner are two of your favorites food groups.
-
-
Added a bit more to the Swiss list this lunchtime... here goes... ;-)
- You ask everyone, including your girlfriend, to fasten their seat belts. Including those in the back seat
- You enjoy mattinee or before-lunchtime lunches
- Your passport is covered with PRC residence permits — and only stamps from a few select “foreign countries”
- You can tell the difference between Frutiger and Segoe UI, and between Arial and Helvetica
- You fall in love with Beijing road signs because they use Univers, a Swiss font…


Wow!
I've another list. This is how I live, day in, day out. Have yet to be fully converted to Beijing Ren manners, but am doing quite a bit.
Having been in Switzerland for twelve years, and Beijing for a total of thirteen, I can seriously say that I'm a mix of the two. This governs your more-Swiss-than-local Beijingologist...
Number 18 holds true to me, though. I'm used to queueing...