dearshuaiguy

so I met this new yorker chef last weekend at a dinner with friends. a really nice guy, born chinese but could really say one complete sentences in Chinese.

so far so good, as I love food i thought it was interesting to talk to him until he started to bug me a bit with his "new yorker" attitude.

He started off by saying that "soccer" used to be so unpopular, but is becoming more and more known.

I was a bit confused and asked him what he means; soccer has been around forever and has always been one of the most popular sports. His answer: "Oh, I mean in the US it is not."

Ah, right but we are currently not in the US and outside of the US it is a very popular sports, so you might want to adjust your view a bit.

Then he went on complaining about service standards in China and that ALL people are rude. Now he started to irritate me a little. Ok, yes things are different here, but I tried to make a point that the not everyone has the same degree of education here than in the US and that for a very long time there was no need for a service standard, because it did not matter.

I asked him if he has ever been to Europe. Quite suprisingly for me he has never been there. Really? As a chef you don't want to go and check out France and Italy?

Well, he said he did not get around to do that yet but he would love to go one day, fair enough..travelling is expensive so I assume that has been the reason and not that he thinks his country is the center of the world so there is not need to see anything else.

I told him that he might be quite suprised if he would go to Germany or France and that he might actually think service staff in China is amazingly friendly in comparision. When I went to Berlin last time I was happy to be served within half an hour after my arrival. But he did not ever hear that i was telling him stories about other countries, he kept referring every negative story to China.

Compared to the US he thought things in China are horrible and he went on and on about it.

That is when I lost my patience with him. Yes, things are not perfect, but things never are wherever you go.

And yes I complain all the time about everything, but then again I try to stick around for long enough to see the reason behind things and work on accepting things for the way they are and appreciate the progress.

New York man you need to get out and see more of the world and you will know things are different but not necessarily worse...

dear shuai guy,

i know i have not been around for a very long time, but that is only because of work. I had to travel quite a bit and did not get to write anything.

I am sorry....i will try to make up for it....