Impatience In Chinese Culture

Impatience In Chinese Culture
hadleyj09 Apr 26, 2015 09:04

Impatience is bred in Chinese culture

 

If you looked at my other blogs, you will see that I am very positive about China. It’s a decent place. However, as I have stated in the past, there are things I like and don’t like about China. One thing in particular is the high amount of impatience that in bred within the Chinese culture. 

 

What do I mean by this? Well, there are a number of examples. The first would be the driving in China. When cars are on the road, they will basically do anything they can to get past you. When I was in Shanghai, a guy driving down a pretty narrow street, hit an old man on a bike because instead of honking, he tried to speed up and get past him. They ended arguing for awhile after that. Many drivers will see you, and still try to pass you while nearly hitting you.

 

Another example of this is people being in a hurry to get nowhere fast. When you’re waiting for a bus, a train, and even at the airport, people are rushing to get on as if they are going to miss their flight, or train, or whatever. The lack making lines and the amount of disregard for the people around you within Chinese culture is pretty crazy. People get trampled over, kicked, scratched, bruised, and it’s not usually anything too serious in terms of injuries, but it can get pretty bad at times. One Thai actress in Korea made a video on Youtube about how Mainland Chinese were the only people out of the Japanese, Thai, Hong Kong, Taiwanese and Koreans at the airport who didn’t know how to make a line. Within Asia, Mainland Chinese aren’t really looked to highly upon due to behavior like this. There are other stories such as a Chinese guy opening up an emergency exit on a plane just to get out quicker…lol. I mean it’s normal in the Mainland, but outside of that, people consider this very childish behavior. 

 

For this next example, here is a disclaimer:

 

THIS DOES NOT HAPPEN EVERYWHERE IN CHINA!!!  NOT ALL TEACHERS DO THIS!!!!

Get that straight before some of you get scared about coming here.

 

But it’s not uncommon

 

The last example, which is one that actually pisses me off is Chinese teachers beating the kids when they make mistakes in class. This actually happened this week where one of my co-teachers called students to her desk and if they did something wrong, she would punch them in the chest, back and with the boys, hit them in the face. The kids would go back to their desks, crying and try to toughen up really quickly. Then, when I tried to teach, they were too scared to speak. 

Some Chinese would argue that this is culture, but there is a reason why kids love and get excited for foreign teachers. We won’t hit, beat or talk down to the students. We are also very patient and understanding that kids are goofy, silly, annoying, weird, strange, awkward and crazy. We were all there at one point. It’s just that in Chinese culture, kids are rushed to be adults, and because it’s rushed, some teachers are very impatient and just want to cram information into the students. When the students don’t understand, some teachers get mad and physically express their anger onto their students.

 

Again, this is not at every school nor does it happen all the time, but it’s not uncommon. This usually happens in very traditional areas of China. I know that in Shanghai and places like it, this is probably illegal.

 

 

There are many more examples, but these are three that stuck out to me.

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4 Comments

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timjames

In case you haven't noticed Hadley, the average Chinese person is only concerned about themselves with no regard for anyone except maybe their parents. With a bloated population life is cheap here, they only care about money,rice, and face. Their culture is not complex, just different.

May 14, 2015 18:49 Report Abuse

rainiersales

Having lived in China for a long long time, and with my kids having the privilege in going to a Chinese local school, mind you it is free, like really free, it is NORMAL for teachers to hit kids now and then. You might wonder, how is that possible? The teacher can even hit the kids in front of their parents. And the answer is because it is normal because Chinese parents hit their kids as well in front of everybody, anybody, so it is a norm. My kids get away with it because they know that one parent is a foreigner so they know to stay away from trouble, but my kids have already been hit my a pencil or ruler now and then. Just imagine how other kids gets treated. They normally hit because the kids did something bad. But sometimes just not having finished homework a kid would get hit and their bags thrown out the window. This is real stuff Im telling you guys, first hand experience of my kids. So they are scarred for life, and does give them the perspective that it is a lot better abroad. The education system is changing, I've seen principals trying out new things, but you can't change something overnight like parents not hitting their kids. It will take a long long time.

May 12, 2015 13:17 Report Abuse

psiconauta_retro

I was curious about the example of the child being hit by the teacher so I asked to a Chinese colleague about it. He mentioned that when he was a child (he is 25 now) the teachers would hit him only if they made very terrible things that put them in danger, and that they would hit them to teach them a strong lesson. I am not a teacher so I don't have any experience about this matter, is it very common in China that the teachers will hit the students? It happens only with small children or at all level?

May 11, 2015 11:26 Report Abuse

Spiderboenz

What kind of gutless wonder are you to observe an authority figure abusing a child and not take steps to stop it? Your obligation to the children does not stop the minute that your class ends.

May 08, 2015 11:45 Report Abuse