The Student Room Group

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Reply 1
Chinese people are the cleverest people you will meet. They study very hard and are rewarded with some of the best grades. Of all groups in this country in order its CHinese, Indians, Asian-White Mixed, Whites and then the other groups. So clearly they are quite a successful group of people :smile:
Reply 2
london_1
Chinese people are the cleverest people you will meet. They study very hard and are rewarded with some of the best grades. Of all groups in this country in order its CHinese, Indians, Asian-White Mixed, Whites and then the other groups. So clearly they are quite a successful group of people :smile:

I agree. It is due to the pressure that is exerted on them by their families.
london_1
Chinese people are the cleverest people you will meet. They study very hard and are rewarded with some of the best grades.


I thought that South Korea were 'cleverer' than the Chinese. What about the Japanese?
haha

i've lived in hk all my life and have been brought up in a pretty much traditional chinese family. chinese can be clever, but i think honestly that people tend to think chinese are successful cos we work harder than most other people. yes...it's a lot due to pressure from family to excel and usually to pursue a "professional" career. in a way you can also call us "nerds" cos chinese society don't tend to put muuch emphasis on sports / arts etc...and esp. in hk where children are expected to just excel in the acadamic studies and a lot of parents ban their children from other activities. it's unhealthy i admit, and a lot of children's talents who lie in other areas outside books aren't usually recognised and are seen as stupid and failures. quite sad really. that's why i'm rather glad i study in an international school. yes being in hk does affect the school to push the students to achieve good grades in studies, but int'l schools also place a lot of emphasis on sports / other activities to try and give a "balance".

yes most chinese i know are very successful, but there are also amny who i've seen who are on the opposite end of the scale. in fact, those westerners who are REALLY REALLY hardworking and smart tend to do better than chinese. it's rare i'd have to say, cos most westerners i know tend to slack off more, but those who do put effort in their work and are really smart end up much more successful than hardworking chinese. i mean look at eistein and bill gates...they're westerners...but they're rare.
Reply 5
Chinese in China can be very friendly to foreigners or they try to take advantage of them. It depends. Most of the Chinese I've seen are very poor and work hard. Fashion in China is really awful just as luxury items are kind of rare (hardly anyone has a dryer and many people do they're laundry by hand for example) I have yet to have a bad experience with any Chinese people after living here for 4 months. They're mostly pretty helpful and nice. However, I HATE how they are always spitting on the ground. It's revolting and my main complaint.
katiesado
Chinese in China can be very friendly to foreigners or they try to take advantage of them. It depends. Most of the Chinese I've seen are very poor and work hard. Fashion in China is really awful just as luxury items are kind of rare (hardly anyone has a dryer and many people do they're laundry by hand for example) I have yet to have a bad experience with any Chinese people after living here for 4 months. They're mostly pretty helpful and nice. However, I HATE how they are always spitting on the ground. It's revolting and my main complaint.


yea i hate the spitting bit too. hk has a fine for spitting ever since SARS but i don't see it being implemented very well... :hmpf:

you've only met the really poor class of chinese people. if you go to other places it can be very different. like hk, i assure you almost every one uses a washing machine. :wink: ok only time we still ahndwash stuff is when the clothes HAVE to be handwashed if we want to wear them more than once haha. fashion in hk is...ummm..depends on who. most hk local people follow the japanese fashion which i find really ridiculous-looking. but me and my friends, who are more exposed to the western culture cos we study in int'l schools, we wear wat we'd like to call "normal clothes". some chinese people can be very mean and nasty. to be honest, i think westerners tend to actually be nicer...i guess it's cos most westerners in hk are really nice and i find it easier to get along with them...same as my friends. chinese are not neccasarily those who live in china. you can find many different groups of chinese all over the world and very different cos we're exposed to so many different cultures. even big cities in china are very different from rural areas.
Reply 7
I suppose Chinese 'culture' is something that most westerners are not used to. I went to China on a school trip in October and I was quite shocked by my fellow pupils' attitudes and misconceptions. I do not claim to know a lot about Chinese culture, but when we were presented with chopsticks, there was a huge uproar...

"OMG why are there no knives and forks!?"

"EEEEEW what is THAT???"
"It's beef.."
"Oh, are you sure it's not DOG MEAT???" :rolleyes:

"Urgh, what are you eating???"
"It's called 'mantou' - a type of bun/bread."
"Oh right coz it looks like MONKEY BRAINS!!" :rolleyes:

Watermelon is brought out at the end of the meal...
<whilst eating the fruit>...
"Where's the dessert?"
"WHAT? You mean that WAS our dessert?? I thought we were going to get a proper pudding like apple crumble!! What? Not even CHOCOLATE? OMG!"

"Eeeew, that cheese is gross!"
"It's not cheese...It's tofu..."
"WTF? What's tofu?? WHAT do you mean it's not cheese??"
"The Chinese don't traditionally eat much dairy..."
"OMG WTF?"

And yes, every meal was like that. For breakfast we had bacon, eggs etc and people complained about how they wanted a 'proper English' breakfast. When we went to a different hotel where there were no Chinese foods for breakfast, with the same bacon, eggs etc they said, "OMG finally, a REAL English breakfast...I was getting so sick of Chinese food for breakfast..." :rolleyes:

At the end...
"Omg I am so proud of myself, I tried REAL Chinese food!!!"
Yes, so authentic, the stuff you get in takeaways back home. Meals were sweet and sour, rice, CHIPS (!!), beef stir fry etc.

:rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:
No Future
I suppose Chinese 'culture' is something that most westerners are not used to. I went to China on a school trip in October and I was quite shocked by my fellow pupils' attitudes and misconceptions. I do not claim to know a lot about Chinese culture, but when we were presented with chopsticks, there was a huge uproar...

"OMG why are there no knives and forks!?"

"EEEEEW what is THAT???"
"It's beef.."
"Oh, are you sure it's not DOG MEAT???" :rolleyes:

"Urgh, what are you eating???"
"It's called 'mantou' - a type of bun/bread."
"Oh right coz it looks like MONKEY BRAINS!!" :rolleyes:

Watermelon is brought out at the end of the meal...
<whilst eating the fruit>...
"Where's the dessert?"
"WHAT? You mean that WAS our dessert?? I thought we were going to get a proper pudding like apple crumble!! What? Not even CHOCOLATE? OMG!"

"Eeeew, that cheese is gross!"
"It's not cheese...It's tofu..."
"WTF? What's tofu?? WHAT do you mean it's not cheese??"
"The Chinese don't traditionally eat much dairy..."
"OMG WTF?"

And yes, every meal was like that. For breakfast we had bacon, eggs etc and people complained about how they wanted a 'proper English' breakfast. When we went to a different hotel where there were no Chinese foods for breakfast, with the same bacon, eggs etc they said, "OMG finally, a REAL English breakfast...I was getting so sick of Chinese food for breakfast..." :rolleyes:

At the end...
"Omg I am so proud of myself, I tried REAL Chinese food!!!"
Yes, so authentic, the stuff you get in takeaways back home. Meals were sweet and sour, rice, CHIPS (!!), beef stir fry etc.

:rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:


no offence...but your mates sound really spoiled. and they need some culture lessons. i mean we don't act the same when we go abroad.
Reply 9
Moncal
I agree. It is due to the pressure that is exerted on them by their families.


Hey, well, being Chinese, I haven't had any pressure exerted on me by my family, but I have been brought up to believe that my family is the most important thing, and so I work very hard to try and make myself and my parents proud. Whenever I do badly, I feel as if I've let them down, so I try and avoid that.
I think Chinese people are different in different places. In China, some seemed friendly and happy to see foreigners, but there were some pickpockets and some girls had a lot of money taken. I was trying to watch out all the time. However, I don't think it's possible to generalise - people are different. Just like you get some good English people and some bad English people. It's hard to make assumptions about a whole race. Surprisingly even in a touristy city like Beijing, there were many Chinese who took photos of us, especially blondes. :biggrin:

Orientals in general seem to be very hard working, take education very seriously and don't like to be taken advantage of. Having plenty to eat was an important thing to the older generation, and trying to make money. The importance of family is very strong too.

In Hong Kong, nobody would take photos like they do in China of tourists. People are quite used to seeing white people and are most likely too busy rushing around anyway. Time is money and people are efficient. Unlike in the UK where in a shop, one person will be at the till, with a huge queue of people to serve whilst another shop assistant stands behind the counter fiddling with things that they could be doing when the shop is less busy...In HK they try to serve people as fast as possible. The more customers they can get served, the more money the can make etc. Whenever I ordered stuff in takeways, the food was in front of me before I could get my money out.

I have a friend in HK who seems to be constantly busy. She takes studying very seriously and uses all her spare time doing sports, learning languages etc I was amazed by her dedication.
eurasianfeline
no offence...but your mates sound really spoiled. and they need some culture lessons. i mean we don't act the same when we go abroad.


Yeah, I know...I was really shocked. It wasn't just my friends, it was the whole group. Even some of the teachers made odd comments sometimes. I found it so amusing that they were calling me the "cultured one" because I could use chopsticks and had tried to learn some Mandarin before I went.
No Future
I think Chinese people are different in different places. In China, some seemed friendly and happy to see foreigners, but there were some pickpockets and some girls had a lot of money taken. I was trying to watch out all the time. However, I don't think it's possible to generalise - people are different. Just like you get some good English people and some bad English people. It's hard to make assumptions about a whole race. Surprisingly even in a touristy city like Beijing, there were many Chinese who took photos of us, especially blondes. :biggrin:

Orientals in general seem to be very hard working, take education very seriously and don't like to be taken advantage of. Having plenty to eat was an important thing to the older generation, and trying to make money. The importance of family is very strong too.

In Hong Kong, nobody would take photos like they do in China of tourists. People are quite used to seeing white people and are most likely too busy rushing around anyway. Time is money and people are efficient. Unlike in the UK where in a shop, one person will be at the till, with a huge queue of people to serve whilst another shop assistant stands behind the counter fiddling with things that they could be doing when the shop is less busy...In HK they try to serve people as fast as possible. The more customers they can get served, the more money the can make etc. Whenever I ordered stuff in takeways, the food was in front of me before I could get my money out.


yup.

that's why when i go to western countries...i find it hard to do things SO SLOWLY. even my western friends in my school hate the speed people in UK work in. meals take HOURS to serve and we just sit there staring at the ceiling. we're too used to efficiency.

hey tell me when u're in hk next time and we can meet up. :wink:
eurasianfeline
yup.

that's why when i go to western countries...i find it hard to do things SO SLOWLY. even my western friends in my school hate the speed people in UK work in. meals take HOURS to serve and we just sit there staring at the ceiling. we're too used to efficiency.

hey tell me when u're in hk next time and we can meet up. :wink:


Oh definately!! :biggrin:
Yes, when I go back to the UK, I have to get used to slow people again. Lol! It's really annoying.
No Future
Oh definately!! :biggrin:
Yes, when I go back to the UK, I have to get used to slow people again. Lol! It's really annoying.


totally get it.

and when i try and ask they to speed things up they think i'm going to burn down the shop. so annoying.
Reply 15
Hong Kong seems like it's pretty different than mainland China. I haven't been there yet. Here people are not very efficient and aren't in a hurry (except the cab drivers who will drive on the sidewalks to get around traffic). I get my picture taken pretty often maybe once a week if I'm out and about downtown. I definitely get stared at wherever I go. I'm not in rural China though: Hangzhou is near Shanghai and is the same size population wise as London. You can get Prada, Nike, Lacoste, Louis Vuitton etc almost all well known western products but the majority of people here are shockingly poor. Western clothing can cost an entire months salary. I walk by shops that sell what is basically no better than trash. There are also not very many English speakers here and very few people have ever been outside of China or have encountered many Westerners. Most of my Chinese friends are always quick to point out that Hong Kong is not China. For example we were talking about Chinese film and all the films I could name were Hong Kong films and according to my friends there is a big difference. I thought Hong Kongese didn't like to be associated with China. The Chinese don't seem to consider them "Chinese" either.
Reply 16
its been pointed out to me and its true...chinese people come over here and work hard..

you wont see them flunking school...or in a dole queue...those who run takeaways also make nice food :biggrin:

i quite like the chinese
Reply 17
I learnt Chinese in school in year 5, its a v interesting language from what I remember. Japanese and Chinese borrow parts from each other.

They succeed because work hard, which is what some people in England should take note of... There food is great, the relious beliefs are interesting to hear about.

Overall it's a great culture, I'd love to live in Hong Kong for a few years like my parents did actually :biggrin:
eurasianfeline
no offence...but your mates sound really spoiled. and they need some culture lessons. i mean we don't act the same when we go abroad.

Well depends, chinese people brought up in the UK - alright.
Chinese (or most orientals for that matter) brought up in the orient...

Its the eating that really annoys me. Whereas in Britain it is considered very bad manners to chew food noisely or with your mouth open, the same can't be said for the far east. And it is the most annoying habit ever! Even more annoying if they are always eating whilst you wanna watch neighbours like my falt mate does!!!

Other than that, I can't speak for 1 billion+ people!
Why do you askl?
jmz635
I learnt Chinese in school in year 5, its a v interesting language from what I remember. Japanese and Chinese borrow parts from each other.

They succeed because work hard, which is what some people in England should take note of... There food is great, the relious beliefs are interesting to hear about.

Overall it's a great culture, I'd love to live in Hong Kong for a few years like my parents did actually :biggrin:

I always found it fascinating that cantonese and mandarin are the same written language, but a different spoken language.