in this installment on spineless foriegners, i wish to hit the two types: the weak- ass ones, and the evil ones.
a few months ago i was watching one of those singing contests on TV, and noticed that one of the contestants was an Anglo, a foriegner.
the guy was asked the usual dumb questions, but it sounded to me like he was explaining why he had entered their precious contest.
being courteous is one thing, but being a pussy is another!!
you DO NOT have to thank locals for letting you breathe their air. you have a visa in your pocket that says you can stay here. you have a love for their culture and hopefully for the people as well. that gives you the RIGHT to be here.
and if a contest is open to everyone (though taiwanese really fear foriegn competition at times, hence foriegner only singing contests), you have a RIGHT to enter and either lose gracefully or beat the competition into the MUD!!
you also don't have to take any shit from anyone. i don't. don't let people take your place in line. someone cuts in front of me, i cut back. i let them know if they want to go any further, the consequences will be THEIRS not mine.
i'm not trying to be a jerk. it's just that i REFUSE to live by the "it's their country so i should let them crap on me" mentality.
the other side of spineless-ness is the " i'm a real american, he's a loser" technique. this is where you are struggling at a bushiban, just trying to teach as best you can, when one guy spreads around that you are a loser but that he himself is a more standard example of a "healthy foriegner". and since a LOT of taiwanese can't think for themselves, he manages to get some response from these accusations.
he may be trying to do you in because you're a better teacher than him, or he feels threatened that his percieved "pussy harem" is not all for him anymore.
in any case, you have to just roll with this one. the people who believe him aren't worth your time, even if it's your supervisor.
there's a verse in proverbs " but against jealousy, who can stand?".
jealous foriegners will do you in unless the people around them are smart enough to see thru it.
be on time every day and prepare your lessons. that gives this kind of creep a much smaller target.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
And do you think anyone REALLY has a chance of *winning* (as in, they legitimately won per the rules) those singing contests?
ReplyDeleteI can't say if ALL of them are pre-determined, but I would venture to say that MOST of them are. (perhaps not pre-determined from the get-go, but definitely after a few episodes, when they can judge who will ultimately make them the most cash after the contest is over)
Just food for thought....
what i know is that ALL of the 'winners" were indeed picked ahead of time. there is a VERY famous american born chinese in taiwan who told me that the only reason he is famous is because his mom is best friends with a producer here.
ReplyDelete