Bejing olympics

[aphrodite]

News article

Here we have a news article on what the people of Bejing are being schooled in what NOT to ask foreign visitors for fear of being rude (ie, idle smalltalk with strangers)

So I'm going to do a poll on the 8 "don't asks" to find out if all these subjects are considered no-go

Poll Rude questions

Comments

[smeged]

I think we have to remember that by and large the Chinese are a very polite and private race of people.

Granted, the best way to blind one is to put a windscreen in front of him, but all that aside the impression I've gotten about the average Chinaman is this:

Please, thankyou, how much... - Chinese people are usually very polite in conversation, I think I've only ever heard one use profanity which if it wasn't so shocking, I would have found hilarious. Being a phone call, work based and all my warnings about phone conduct had already been issued, I terminated the call.

A very private people, bordering on paranoidI 'hacked' the code out of an Asian's alarm system for testing purposes today. Although I'm justice cleared to do this sort of work, he still felt it neccessary to change his code afterwards. I had no problem telling him how to do this, feeling embarrassed that I'd made a bit of a social faux pas - Kiwis ask about it as well

[aphrodite]

This article makes it sound like they ask these sort of questions to strangers on a regular basis and they don't consider it rude. I thought it was strange myself, I always thought they were a private people as well!

[stringy]

Dave said he got asked a lot of questions when he was in Beijing (super crowded, maybe they're just used to being in each others faces). I think it comes down to how it's asked, like if it's a two-way thing where you can compare answers, or if they're just being nosy but wouldn't answer if the situation were reversed.

I'm guessing Aussies and Kiwis don't care so much about this stuff as maybe some Americans or the British might do.

[aphrodite]

Yes, the article made it seem that the idea was not to offend Americans!

And yes, there are a lot of variables too!!