°µÍø½ûÇø

As I live with my Chinese wife here in China I have had to embrace many new customs. Perhaps one of the strangest is washing the pottery and chopsticks with tea before eating in a restaurant.

Chinese is a very difficult language to learn but I have mastered enough to "get by"...... I'm fine as long as no one asks me a question    Luckily my wife is fluent in English.

As I am a fairly laid back kind of person I tend to "go with the flow" and simply "fit in" but one thing I do find hard to accept is the lack of consideration for others. This includes of course pushing on to trains, elevators before people exit. Butting into conversations, badly parked cars, and thinking any form of transport takes precedence on pavements/sidewalks. Electric bikes are silent but deadly. 

***


I am still struggling with Chinese language but have many friends who can help me to get around.

Generally speaking, people in China don't care about moral in many bad ways and many good ways.

The bad one is they know how to make a line but some people always cut, ignore the line or pretend it doesn't.

Many people use cell phone and watch TV with loud sound during public transportations. Ironically nobody says anything to them. It could be a bad thing, but I decided to take advantage of this. As a jazz musician, I started practicing in public transportations such as busses, speed trains and taxies. 

I even video-tape these events/practices and upload them for me to review my practice.

Hideaki

Like in every country or culture, some things are good, and some bad. However the language is very difficult and I wish i could have learned more.