bad behavior of two foreign students at Hainan University

[jbradfor]

I certainly do not condone such behavior, but having been a university foreign exchange student myself, I can somewhat understand the first one. [The second is just bad sportsmanship -- which you see everywhere.]

There are certainly rude behaviors that I am tempted to do near daily. [And I don't think I'm alone in this....] For the most part, I stop myself. However, there is something about being in a foreign country that seems to reduce the inhibitions. Maybe it's something about knowing it is temporary, so your bad behavior doesn't count against one for long. Maybe it's the apparent anonymity, where you don't know anyone and no one knows you. And not only does no one know you, but the it's pretty likely that this random stranger doesn't know someone that knows someone that knows you.... So the social costs to bad behavior is much reduced.

Further, there is something about being in an Asian country (e.g. China, Taiwan, Japan) that at least for me diminishes the inhibitions even further. Frankly, I blame this effect fully on Asian's racism towards whites. Since Chinese (and I'll stick with China for now, since that was the original location) consider whites to be inferior (oh, yes they do!) and so don't expect us to behave as well, they already treat us as such. And people by and large behave how they are treated. Ideally, one would be on extra good behavior in China to prove the Chinese wrong, but that's not how human nature works.

[889]

Seems to me the OP's trolling with a bit of foreigner-bashing as bait.

This board's been generally free of foreigners whining on about Chinese, and Chinese whining on about foreigners.

I hope it can stay that way.

[jbradfor]

The OP currently has more posts than you do. He's not a troll.

[imron]

And 889 has been around since almost the beginning of the forums and knows what sort of threads generally degenerate into the situation he describes, so getting into a pissing match about who has the most posts or who is the oldest member is stupid, because then Roddy just comes in and shuts everyone up

That said, having seen his other posts, I don't think Kenny is trolling, at least not on purpose, but is perhaps not fully aware of how these threads tend to progress.

Anyway, this board is generally free of foreigners whining on about Chinese, and Chinese whining on about foreigners because Admin actively try to keep it that way. Threads get closed, posts deleted and reprimands given if things get too out of hand, so remember to keep things nice

[jbradfor]

Oh I agree that these posts tend to degenerate, no doubt about that, and even worse tend to degenerate in ways that scare off Chinese posters. And I'm really not sure what answers the OP was looking for, especially as there was no question in the OP. But calling it a troll? No.

I don't know how long 889 has been posting, as I haven't been here too long myself. But if he has been posting as long as you say, he should know to be more careful with insults.

[stoney]

May I digress even further?

I don't think 889 was insulting kenny or meaning to call him a full out "TROLL" , but perhaps kenny was trying to entice us with some slow moving bait.

[Guest realmayo]

kenny2006woo: every day at my university in China I am still surprised by how dangerously fast cars are driven on campus when there are loads of pedestrians about, and I am still surprised by how common it is to cheat in university exams. So I don't think your two examples of foreigner misbehaviour are particularly well-chosen.

[Artem]

While I will agree that the swimming behavior incident is just terrible sportsmanship all around, regardless of what race the person is.

But how is the driving example not like the rest of the driving on a school campus or in China in general? Last time I visited a college campus in China, even buses zoomed past students unannounced. I think that's a problem that should be addressed on the fact that regulations need to be put in and enforced where and when cars, motorcycles, buses can drive.

On a side note, while there are people who behave poorly everywhere, regardless of the race, culture, nationality, or whatever else, as an exchange/foreign student in a foreign country, one should behave properly because he(or she) is representing his(or hers) own country/school/culture. That's just my opinion.

[Kenny同志]

I agree with the idea that there’re always a small number of rotten apples amid the majority everywhere.

It was not my intention to troll as some one’s put it. What motivated me to post was my curiosity to know your opinions on such things. And it’s good to see so many objective comments. As some have suggested, it is not fair to treat a person or a couple of persons as the whole of a larger group. We should treat persons, no matter where he comes from, individually.

Thank you all for your replies.

Edited December 29, 2009 at 09:36 AM by kenny2006woo

[Kenny同志]

Let the thread rest here.

[Don_Horhe]

I think we can all agree one thing: Idiots come in all shapes, sizes and colors, with said features having nothing to do their behavior.

[md1101]

I reckon foreigners behaving badly comes from the superstar treatment a lot of us get. Most of us (the smart ones such as those that use this forum) don't let it get to us. We also realise later that we're not as great as we think in the Chinese eyes and a lot of it is just over politeness.

But there are those very few that it let it get to them and they start to genuinely believe they are something special and they are smart and they do speak chinese amazingly well and they are exceedingly handsome etc. I'm sure the two guys on that bike fall into this group.

[imron]

I wonder if they have motorbike licenses. If they're anything like a lot of foreigners, probably not. That might be an avenue to teach them a lesson.