The China Megathread III: It is not a happy everyday

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Tourism & Travel > The China Megathread III: It is not a happy everyday

«‹›5 »

LentThem: Aug 31, 2004; 90% Retractible

Longanimitas posted:

A tip: don't get a VPN as soon as you get here. Don't even worry about it. Instead, explore the native Chinese alternatives to the websites that you think you need a VPN for. These include:

www.youku.com Their version of youtube which often has the same stuff as youtube.
www.weibo.com China's Twitter/Facebook hybrid. Not nearly as useless as Twitter, because you can say a lot more with 140 Chinese characters than you can with 140 letters.
v.360.cn Pretty much any TV show in the world, quickly streamed and at your fingertips.
mp3.baidu.com Stream just about any song in the world for free.

If you need help, ask one of your students or a friend to help you figure these out. They will usually be overjoyed to help you understand the Chinese internet, which is becoming more and more integral to understanding Chinese culture and language. If you just want a VPN to torrent videogames, cut that poo poo out and go outside.

These are good websites, and I have a few to add:

www.xiami.com and www.1ting.com are streaming music sites with a pretty surprising selection. These are also great if I want to show a certain song to a coworker.

www.verycd.com Originally I used this site for eMule downloads, but now the site is pretty great for streaming both Chinese and foreign TV shows and movies, since the linked videos will usually have Chinese subtitles so you can watch with your friends! Another trick is to use this site to find the Chinese name of a show or movie, which you can then paste into video.baidu.com to watch.

club.pchome.net If SA is down for updates or something, you can check out KDS for your forum needs. It has a lot of goony Shanghai dudes and an overwhelming number of boards, but some of the posts are pretty funny and you can learn slang to impress your students or something (for example, this old HOLY CRAP I SAW NICHOLAS CAGE IN SHANGHAI thread http://club.pchome.net/thread_1_15_7618466.html).

Even with these websites, I'd suggest finding a VPN option. Certain news websites, blogs, and imgur links won't be available without one. It can also make Google searches slow or impossible. You'll also need it if you want to access Google-cached pages.

# ¿ Jun 20, 2013 08:44

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ May 5, 2024 02:21

LentThem: Aug 31, 2004; 90% Retractible

BadAstronaut posted:

So with those holidays, if I understand correctly you'll be getting the Monday to Wednesday off, and if your company was mellow with it you could take proper leave for the Thursday and Friday and get a full week off, if they are, as you mentioned, the kind to not expect you to come in and make up the time on weekends?

The holiday thing is more like this: Imagine that a holiday (1 day) falls on a Wednesday. The government will shift your weekend, giving you Monday and Tuesday off as well, but expecting you to work Saturday and Sunday prior to the holiday. If you're lucky, you might have some energy to do something fun on your 3-day weekend after a 7-day work week! If you work at a foreign company who doesn't put up with this stuff, then you'll have your standard weekend off, work Monday and Tuesday, and then have a 1-day holiday on Wednesday.

As for the Netflix thing, unless you're into old/obscure stuff, you could probably watch the same shows for free on Chinese video streaming sites (at higher speeds since you wont need a VPN for it).

# ¿ Jul 25, 2013 06:52

LentThem: Aug 31, 2004; 90% Retractible

goldboilermark posted:

Tianjin has everything I need...nice gym with a pool, good metro and bus system, Starbucks and legit Papa John's and nice western malls for my bad days but hutongs and hole in the wall Chinese family restaurants for the good days. I live in a two story penthouse for 6,000 RMB/month with two other roommates right downtown. You simply can't complain about any of that.

Are you saying that it's 6k/month before being split with two roommates (and therefore costs you 2k/month), or are you saying that your split is 6k/month for a bedroom and shared kitchen/living room/bathroom?

I mean based on the "You simply can't complain about any of that" quote I'm assuming it's the first one, since I'd be pissed about paying 6k and still having roommates.

# ¿ Jul 29, 2013 02:39

LentThem: Aug 31, 2004; 90% Retractible

BadAstronaut posted:

Can anyone recommend a good site to browse property listings/apartment rentals in Shanghai, beyond just what one finds in the top results in a Google search?
Second interview set up for Thursday afternoon, in person, with the Brand Manager coming here to London. I think barring catastrophe this thing is going ahead.

I used to use SouFun for this (sh.soufun.com), but it's not going to help much until after you arrive so you can check places out. I seriously think you can find a small place (without roommates) for like 4k. A coworker just changed apartments last month and is paying 3k-3.5k for a place in Xujiahui.

Maybe you can find something in this 3k-5k list for JingAn district: http://zu.sh.soufun.com/house-a021/c23000-d25000-n31/

Edit： Oh wait you want a pool, I have no idea on prices for that. Could just use any of the public pools where they charge like 25rmb/single entry or get a cheap gym membership.

# ¿ Jul 30, 2013 02:41

LentThem: Aug 31, 2004; 90% Retractible

BadAstronaut posted:

Looking at places to stay in Shanghai now that this is all going ahead. I need to travel to Changping Rd, on Line 7 and keen to keep the commute to a minimum. Anyone able to recommend a good area? I've even been looking at some spots within walking distance to the office, to avoid a commute entirely, and while I am sure it's pricier than what I could be getting elsewhere, there are some decent options going.

How is the area near Houtan or Middle Longhua metro stations? Or is that likely to be exorbitantly expensive due to it being on the river?

I don't know much about line 7 specifically, but if you live in either of those areas your train will pass through the interchange areas of the most crowded subway lines in Shanghai (2, 1, 4 in that order according to this announcement http://shmetro.com/node78/node80/201204/con111480.htm). Depending on what time your workday starts, this could suck. Maybe if you just hold on REALLY TIGHTLY to something whenever the doors open, it won't be as bad.

# ¿ Aug 12, 2013 14:03

LentThem: Aug 31, 2004; 90% Retractible

El_Matarife posted:

I'm thinking about moving to Shenyang, Liaoning with my girlfriend (soon to be fiance, shh) for a few months at some point in the next year. I'm senior level systems engineer in the states with a ton of experience in Microsoft and VMware. How can I find an IT job in China? I'd like to pick up some IT focused Mandarin which I figure could be good for my career.

If you're only here for a few months, I'm not sure if companies will go through the effort of getting a work visa for you, since those are 1 year (maybe 6 months in some cases?) and take a month to process anyway. If you were here for longer, there's a chance you could be the white IT manager who bosses around the Chinese sysadmins at a multinational.

I'm not sure what the career opportunities are like in Shenyang, Wikipedia makes it sound like there are mostly Japanese/Korean expats. Your chances might be better in Dalian, but I'm not sure how flexible you are about where in Liaoning you'll be staying.

As for IT-focused Mandarin, I don't really hear much of it in Microsoft. A lot of specific English technical terms and corporate jargon are just dropped directly into the sentences, and then maybe Mandarin is used to explain the concepts behind those terms (as non-technical analogies).

# ¿ Sep 26, 2013 02:55

LentThem: Aug 31, 2004; 90% Retractible

VideoTapir posted:

While we're on bug chat: mosquitoes. I'm from AK, so I THOUGHT I knew mosquitoes, and while
The ones they have here, they're quiet. You can barely hear them above a fan. And they don't fly when you're most likely to find them. They wait until the lights go out, and they don't come up immediately. If you go for one and you miss, you won't see it again for hours. And they are quick. Quick as houseflies. Swatting a mosquito on a wall or limb is trivial in Alaska. Here, if you don't approach from their blind spot, or with enough speed to cause nerve damage if you're hitting concrete, you might as well not try.

About the blind spot: imagine a plane that bisects the mosquito laterally. If that mosquito is on a flat surface, imagine a line perpendicular to that surface going about through the middle of the mosquito. Now on that plane take an arc going from that line down towards the surface the mosquito is standing on, backwards along the mosquito, about 60 or 70 degrees. You can strike from anywhere within about 30 or 40 degrees to the left or right of that arc. Basically, come at them from above and to the rear, not too far to either side. Go outside that zone and you'll miss.

I can never, ever slap a mosquito that's on a wall (grabbing them out of the sky is okay in a crowded place with bright lights), but using a flyswatter works really well. The one I have at home is transparent plastic, and mosquitoes don't seem to be able to see/sense it.

# ¿ Sep 29, 2013 02:50

LentThem: Aug 31, 2004; 90% Retractible

caberham posted:

Man Chinese wedding drama I kind of want to go on a rant but don't want to under this account. If someone get me a parachute account I can spill all the beans and of course, awesome lines of amusing Chinese dialogue

Some examples:

四個人之中，他是特別平凡。可能在年小的時候，他燒了太多。

Out of all 4 siblings, he's the most simple minded. Perhaps his head got a bit too hot when he was young.

How to say "your relatives are trash":

Well I see you have a lively crowd and lots of relatives. Isn't that nice, but your newly wed husband is like an innocent rabbit. If you throw him to the den of lions, he's going to get mauled so you better protect him

When the other family has already tipped and but are very stingy

"Well the other family were gracious enough to tip. This family is happy for the marriage too so will tip separately. We enjoyed the hospitality of the restaurant and wish everyone to be happy"

Underhanded comment:

I'm drinking real alcohol, how about you guys
I'm always the real deal, I'm never a small fry

I may be fluent in English, but sometimes I wish my English is as sharp as my Cantonese. To me, higher level of Chinese culture is to be as underhanded passively aggressive as possible without other people knowing you are being passive aggressive. Just acting all snarky and all the way when everyone else is oblivious.

I don't know what's wrong with me, but I have no idea what's going on in these examples. I'm not really getting why the sentences are offensive, but also I'm not seeing subtlety.

For the quote "I'm always the real deal, I'm never a small fry" is it underhanded? It doesn't even seem to relate to what the previous person said.

# ¿ Oct 5, 2013 06:38

LentThem: Aug 31, 2004; 90% Retractible

Magna Kaser posted:

New office will be in Jingan, but I don't know if I'll be there 'cause I'm cheap. This is the third time my boss has wanted me to transfer to Shanghai this year so everyone is thinking it might happen for real now. I don't mind having a commute, I'm used to an hour-ish both ways. I've already accepted the fact I'm going to have to live with people, but I want to know roughly how much more it's going to cost me.

Foreign coworker of mine pays ~3,200rmb/month for a small first-floor apartment that is 10-15 minutes walk from the Xujiahui metro station, no roommates necessary. I think it just takes a little more time to hunt around for a place.

Edit: He started renting the place in late April, I think.

danse macabre posted:

I work as a consultant a big 4 professional services (accounting) firm and I'm thinking about working in China. Currently the China offices don't do the work that my division does, which makes a secondment/internal transfer very difficult.

I saw on linkedin that a competitor had a position open that would suit me perfectly. It got me thinking about potentially leaving my firm. However, I'm not sure of the best way to go about finding jobs in China for professionals. Google searches get flooded with teaching jobs. What's the best way to go about finding non-ESL jobs in China?

If you're looking for finance jobs, you might be able to find something at eFinancialCareers.cn

LentThem fucked around with this message at 12:14 on Nov 2, 2013

# ¿ Nov 2, 2013 12:01

LentThem: Aug 31, 2004; 90% Retractible

MeramJert posted:

I've used Astrill for 2 or 3 years and it works fine?

Same

# ¿ Jan 10, 2014 14:20

LentThem: Aug 31, 2004; 90% Retractible

Jesus christ, does this sort of thing happen in non-teaching jobs? I remember hearing similar stories from people working at Kai En English before the owners abruptly closed all of the branches and fled the country with customer money.

# ¿ Jan 22, 2014 02:05

LentThem: Aug 31, 2004; 90% Retractible

White people in China (mainly Americans and Brits) have a reputation for complaining about their work/living situations, causing it to often be dismissed outright since the proper (Chinese) thing to do is to suffer silently. Combine this with the fact that the person making complaints is getting 2x-4x the salary of their Chinese peers, and now they just look like an ungrateful dickbag to the boss.

# ¿ Feb 3, 2014 06:52

LentThem: Aug 31, 2004; 90% Retractible

Sogol posted:

In much of the urban job market employers struggle with retention of employees. This is because one of the most common ways to get promoted or increase salary is to move laterally or diagonally between companies. This was simply common practice and companies with high retention were the exception.

This is still true in IT and Finance industries. Everyone just does the Ninja Gaiden wall-jumping move, but with salaries.

GuestBob posted:

I'd like to think that goons are (on average) slightly more socially functional than your average backpacking ESL teacher.

Aaaaaaaaahahahahahahahahahaha
haha
etc.

GuestBob posted:

It's weird, but a small college in Henan has given me more power to make connections and develop programs than I ever had in the comparable university admin role I held in the UK. And that's only because of the people who are managing operations (which now includes me, thanks to the same principle).

Being inconsequential may be why you and the college have this much freedom.

# ¿ Feb 4, 2014 11:19

LentThem: Aug 31, 2004; 90% Retractible

RocknRollaAyatollah posted:

The water thing is taken to an extreme though. People believe it's a magical cure all and it has more to do with traditional Chinese medicine, yang levels, and Mao era propaganda.

I always assumed the thought process was more like this (for the average person, not a doctor):

"My entire life, everyone told me to drink hot water when I was sick. Therefore, if you are sick, I will tell you to drink hot water, because drinking hot water is what people are supposed to do when they are sick. If drinking hot water didn't do anything, I would not have had literally everyone telling me to drink it when I was sick. Therefore, drinking hot water must be helpful."

# ¿ Feb 12, 2014 02:48

LentThem: Aug 31, 2004; 90% Retractible

GuestBob posted:

Speaking on behalf of British people everywhere, please don't do this.

You have no idea of the horror we feel when this sort of thing happens.

Unless I'm chatting someone up, I'm pretty sure a queue is just a place to quietly contemplate on my life decisions leading up to that moment.

# ¿ Feb 25, 2014 06:00

LentThem: Aug 31, 2004; 90% Retractible

sexy stuff posted:

Do you love to connect with people, are you confident in speaking English, do you have a gift of showing compassion and reaching out to people in China with the love of Christ? Join this mission trip together with other people from Crossroads in an unique experience to help teach the English language to Chinese students from the poorer areas from China.

Last year we went with a team of 24 people from Crossroads to China. It was a great experience to teach the Chinese people, connect with them and to show the gospel to them.

"I saw the faces of china in my 150 teacher/students. They were from all over China and 19 of the 26 ethnic groups were represented. Those faces needed an encounter with God and my mission was to shine the light graciously given to me. They appreciated our efforts of coming there as volunteers and being real inspirations to them."

I've never met a Mormon missionary in China, but the Christian ones are pretty memorable.

# ¿ Mar 17, 2014 05:44

LentThem: Aug 31, 2004; 90% Retractible

Facepalm Ranger posted:

She's not sleeping with the boss.

Facepalm Ranger posted:

so gf has arrived back from the 3 and a half hour unpaid company meeting she goes to every Saturday.

You're making me really nervous here...

# ¿ Apr 5, 2014 10:48

LentThem: Aug 31, 2004; 90% Retractible

So we ended up getting a big stack of candidate CVs from the ShanghaiExpat job fair a couple of days ago, but out of that list HR said only four are really qualified for Tech Editing. Of that four, only two of them have the relevant industry experience necessary to get a work visa approved, while the other two are iffy.

Question for you guys who are handling the hiring of teachers (I think there are at least three of you): Have you had any similar difficulty with this "2 years of experience in same industry" requirement? Maybe it's different for Foreign Expert Certificates compared to Alien Employment Permits, or maybe since most candidates are teachers applying for teaching positions it never becomes an issue.

I've had situations previously where a candidate refused the offer because of the risk that they may have their visa rejected after quitting their current job.

# ¿ May 12, 2014 03:08

LentThem: Aug 31, 2004; 90% Retractible

blinkyzero posted:

On the Beijing subway: "Oh my God! That guy is picking his nose. Do you see him picking his nose!? He just flicked it on the ground! Nobody would ever do that in Japan!"

In a Beijing taxi: "Holy poo poo, this is filthy. Like, really filthy. Look at all the rips in this seat! And the driver isn't even wearing gloves! Nobody would ever ride a taxi like this in Japan!"

On the Great Wall: "Look at all the trash! The Japanese would never put up with this!"

I couldn't get her to shut up no matter how many times I told her that a lot of Chinese people in Beijing understand English better than you might expect.

I sometimes see this (actually just the other day), even in a place like Shanghai. It's grating when some unwashed white dude is talking poo poo to his friend in English about the people around him. Like, making fun of how someone sharing the elevator with him is dressed or something. Instead of a civilized nudge-friend-and nod-towards-poor-fashion-choice move, it's "Hey look at the outfit on the woman to your right. loving unbelievable. Leopard-print bandana and everything, I guess she doesn't have a mirror at home. Or maybe she actually thinks that looks good. loving China, man."

I'd also heard that a guy previously in my team (before I joined) used to loudly bitch in the office about China and Chinese people, either not realizing or not caring that since the official company language is English, everyone in the office could understand him if they were paying attention.

I wonder how comparable the "Asian people in Asia can't speak English" belief is to the "Non-Asians in Asia can't use chopsticks" belief.

# ¿ May 14, 2014 02:36

LentThem: Aug 31, 2004; 90% Retractible

caberham posted:

Hey guys I'm one of those rear end holes who talks poo poo about people in English. And Cantonese and mandarin. I just make some off hand remark and mumble my sentences.

Followed by a cameraphone pic

# ¿ May 14, 2014 08:01

LentThem: Aug 31, 2004; 90% Retractible

Unless it fell apart in a pile of rust, I'd think he could wound a lot more than 8 kids with a meat cleaver.

# ¿ May 22, 2014 05:43

LentThem: Aug 31, 2004; 90% Retractible

blinkyzero posted:

Host VPN was terribly unreliable for me, but then every VPN seems to poo poo the bed at some point. We used StrongVPN without any problems for like a year and then it went to hell. On VyprVPN now and it does pretty well -- the European and Australian servers are usually reliable. Really though your internet service will always be kinda awful in China because China.

Astrill has been pretty good for me (stability-wise) except for the part where they are price-gouging jerks and I'm paying $70/yr for just a web browser VPN. Paying extra for StealthVPN sucks, but without it I can't connect to most public bittorrent trackers to get a peer list.

# ¿ May 30, 2014 02:30

LentThem: Aug 31, 2004; 90% Retractible

Arglebargle III posted:

That's exactly what disturbs me about Chinese circle-gawking. I can't remember the Chinese word for it at the moment but there's a specific word 围观 and it's creepy.

I described it in one of these threads a long time ago by saying "that staring thing that the zombies do in Walking Dead comics when they see fireworks."

# ¿ Jun 6, 2014 02:58

LentThem: Aug 31, 2004; 90% Retractible

simplefish posted:

How long would I need to take a Goon Tour of the mainland?

I'm guessing the (LAN thread) OP list is rather out of date but in no particular order, that means I'd be looking to get round:
Shenzen
Beijing
Shanghai
Tianjin
Chengduuuuuuu
Henaaaaaaaaaan

Luckily for you, huge swaths of the mainland are homogeneous, so you aren't missing out as long as you hit one major city in each region.

# ¿ Jun 13, 2014 02:45

LentThem: Aug 31, 2004; 90% Retractible

Hey gang, it's been about a year since last time I posted this, hoping there will be some interest.

:shroom:

For anyone who wants a non-teaching job in Shanghai (and you love cubicles!), my team has an opening for a Technical Editor. I tried looking around online for a current job posting, but they seem to have expired! Thanks HR! I found a link to an old JD here (http://www.expatree.com/bazaar/seeking-technical-editor-it-industry_3657) but I'm not sure if HR even checks that site for applications since it was posted almost a year ago.

Aside from basic things like checking grammar and spelling in the stuff we publish, it also needs to be edited for standard wording and legal branding, global English for machine translation, and verifying that technical and UI terms are used correctly. The office is pretty far from the city center, but there are private shuttles available throughout the city to make it bearable.

The requirements in that posting aren't very accurate, so I'll clarify it here. The main requirements are:
-Being a native English speaker
-Having a Bachelor's degree or better in any major (Visa reasons)
-At least 2 years of work experience after university (Visa reasons)
*The work experience must be from companies that are in some way related to the IT industry (biggest and strangest Visa requirement). I guess because it's too easy for someone to change previous job titles on a CV/Resume, the labor law instead requires the work experience to be in a similar industry to the company you are applying to work at. So, if you did some junk at Motorola or whatever, it's considered more applicable than being a network engineer at Ikea. There may be a way around this requirement (depending on how much the company pays their middleman to pull strings), but it isn't guaranteed.
-Knowledge of English is more important to the job than knowledge of technical things, even though tech knowledge makes the job a lot easier.

I'll try to find an active posting from HR that people can use, and I can also take PMs to attempt some kind of referral.

# ¿ Jul 1, 2014 07:44

LentThem: Aug 31, 2004; 90% Retractible

Magna Kaser posted:

I have a question related to that info: How do you get by with 2 instead of 5 years experience for the visa? Is it guanxi or some Shanghai SEZ law? We're having trouble getting any foreign hire that has <5 years a work permit/visa since last summer and it's a big pain in the neck for us. It has basically hamstrung our ability to hire junior programmers or marketing staff from the west.

Interns we can still get though, but we technically aren't allowed to pay them.

Actually I'm not sure...I think from reading poor Google translations of HR's emails about previous candidates, they've been saying that 2 years was enough when looking at candidates.

But yeah it's still been surprisingly hard to find people that the labor bureau will accept. It can be pretty heartbreaking for someone if they're qualified but can't get the work permit.

Also the salary range is the worst place for a typo, jeez. But even if it's not 150k/month, it's a pretty fun place to work and there's non-monetary value to be found somewhere in there.

# ¿ Jul 1, 2014 10:29

LentThem: Aug 31, 2004; 90% Retractible

Arakan posted:

I hope that job is like 10 hours a week if it's only paying 10k in Shanghai.

Yeah I've had people in interviews tell me they prefer English teaching even if it's a career dead end because its basically stripper money with no hours if you're white. This might explain the number of ABC candidates in the past, actually.

Edit: But really this doesn't matter because anyone who only qualifies for the low end of the scale probably won't be able to get a work visa.

LentThem fucked around with this message at 12:17 on Jul 1, 2014

# ¿ Jul 1, 2014 11:37

LentThem: Aug 31, 2004; 90% Retractible

GuestBob posted:

Teaching English isn't a career dead end if you want to, you know, teach English or work in international education in the future. Alot of people do it for the money/travel and gain entry to the industry because of the pathetic qualification barriers at the lower end of the market.

Frankly though, those people can suck a dick.

I agree, but the kind of person who actually cares about teaching/education long-term won't be showing up to Tech Editor interviews in the first place.

I once had a guy decide he didn't want the job during the interview when he found out that the hours wouldn't be flexible enough for him to keep up his lucrative private tutoring appointments on weekday afternoons (early, like 2pm).

# ¿ Jul 1, 2014 14:28

LentThem: Aug 31, 2004; 90% Retractible

GuestBob posted:

The serious point is that I don't need a salary carrot to recruit people. If you do, then your job quality is either sub-par, not being represented well enough or you are advertising to the wrong people. Recruitment is tricky, but it ain't that hard.

I could make a much better sales pitch than my thing earlier if I wasn't stuck behind an NDA. For people that are interested in IT and in learning new technologies, there is a ton of cool stuff.

# ¿ Jul 1, 2014 15:43

LentThem: Aug 31, 2004; 90% Retractible

GuestBob posted:

You need to fix that. Do it. As in, do the HR people's job for them.

"Was Snowden telling the truth? Sign the contract and maybe you'll find out!"

But really guys I have no idea where the salary range on that website came from and I should have just linked an expired LinkedIn posting instead.

# ¿ Jul 1, 2014 15:55

LentThem: Aug 31, 2004; 90% Retractible

Haha god okay I'll re-pitch this to try to salvage the job posting.
:shroom:

To my knowledge, nobody on the team in the past 5 years:
-Made as little as 10k/month
-Made as much as 150k/month

People on the team DID have:
-An excuse to put Microsoft on the CV/Resume
-Access to every product the company has released and some internal beta tests
-Access to training/informational materials about every product
-Access to study/practice materials for technical certifications
-Access to internal analysis about the industry and competitors
-Free subscriptions to third party sites that compile information about different industries in different parts of the world

That's the digital stuff, here's the physical stuff:
-Private shuttles with WiFi access for commute
-Slightly flexible work hours
-Performance bonuses (sometimes monthly, mostly yearly)
-On-site masseuse if you're into that (not free)
-On-site gym (also not free, but reasonable)
-Free snacks and drinks

There are probably some other things I'm forgetting right now. If you are interested in the industry and like improving your own tech knowledge, this is a really cool place to work. If you don't care about technology and are just building up cash reserves, then the job could become tedious routine.

If HR gives me a link to an active posting I'll add it. I can also accept PMs.

# ¿ Jul 2, 2014 02:56

LentThem: Aug 31, 2004; 90% Retractible

DontAskKant posted:

What are the actual working hours? Like in Seoul the paper hours are 9 to 6,but actual hours could mean getting a taxi home.

Also is the air any better, plans to improve it?

The air has slowly gotten better, except on some Mondays when it turns out that an ayi/guard closed all of the windows and AC vents over the weekend.

The official hours are 9 to 6, but because of shuttle schedules and traffic, it's more like 9:20 to 5:40. Working overtime is pretty rarely mandatory, but always paid when it is.

MeramJert posted:

They provide a shuttle bus with onboard Wi-Fi. I'm pretty sure that means you're working more than 9 to 6.

Haha I've tried using a laptop on the shuttle a couple of times. It's pretty much impossible because the drivers have no sense of awareness on the road and need to panic-react to everything.

# ¿ Jul 2, 2014 15:41

LentThem: Aug 31, 2004; 90% Retractible

Arglebargle III posted:

Fun fact, it's possible to cook fish with the bones in -- and then remove the bones --!!!!!!!!

A lot of Chinese people do not like the bones, and my excited friend told me that there are tens of thousands of emergency room cases from fish bones every year. They just don't know that you can remove bones from fish. I think a lot of Chinese people would probably re evaluate their positions vis a vis bones in fish if they weren't so astoundingly ignorant.

People don't de-bone fish for the same reason they don't move to any other part of the subway platform from where the escalator put them.

China needs more crappy infomercials that exclaim "There has to be a better way!" so that they'll consider a new approach whenever they struggle with something.

# ¿ Jul 8, 2014 05:53

LentThem: Aug 31, 2004; 90% Retractible

Ceciltron posted:

"Where Are They Now" update

I've talked to other people about your situation before, and it seems like the main lesson everyone comes away with is "When your job sucks: keep your head down, get passive-aggressive, and QYJ as soon as another appears"

# ¿ Jul 11, 2014 03:03

LentThem: Aug 31, 2004; 90% Retractible

Tom Smykowski posted:

Skip right to the QYJ part. Don't be child about it.

Edit: you gotta be really terrible to get fired from an english teaching job in China, is what I mean. Passive aggresive doesn't matter.

Right but there's going to be a chunk of time between getting shafted on salary/overtime and being able to hop into a new job. So I'm saying be sorta amiable and half-rear end your job so you have more time to find a new one.

Maybe I should have phrased it as half-rear end the work instead of passive-aggressively deal with people.

# ¿ Jul 11, 2014 03:40

LentThem: Aug 31, 2004; 90% Retractible

I cannot live in any city that requires me to dig my car out of the snow in the winter. Suck it, Chicago.

http://www.passiveaggressivenotes.com/2010/02/21/can-you-dig-it/

I'm sorry Qiqihar, despite your rich heritage, I can never love you :cripes:

# ¿ Jul 16, 2014 05:21

LentThem: Aug 31, 2004; 90% Retractible

Be Depressive posted:

Ok so I could theoretically get Astrill from a different app store and then use Google Play? That would work for me..

Or, you could just go into the VPN settings on the phone and set up an L2TP/IPSec connection to one of Astrill's servers with your username/password, then download the app that way (not that you necessarily need the app once you've done this).

# ¿ Jul 28, 2014 11:18

LentThem: Aug 31, 2004; 90% Retractible

Woodsy Owl posted:

The XiaoMi Mi 3 is an amazing phone, by the way. It's not preloaded with Chinese crapware, it's fast, and has awesome specs for the price point. If you get a contract phone with China Unicom you'll get a deal on data.

Yeah I know a guy who actually sold his iPhone 5s because he liked the Mi3 so much.

It's making me wonder if I should get one even though I already have a phone.

# ¿ Aug 9, 2014 07:19

LentThem: Aug 31, 2004; 90% Retractible

Woodsy Owl posted:

They're pretty good considering it's a third of the cost of an iPhone 5. Generally, you still get what you pay for though.

http://thehackernews.com/2014/08/xiaomi-phones-secretly-sending-users.html

...and also there's stuff like this

# ¿ Aug 12, 2014 04:03

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ May 5, 2024 02:21

LentThem: Aug 31, 2004; 90% Retractible

Aero737 posted:

The wechat group was worse than reddit.

This is impossible because Reddit = 4Chan + Yahoo Answers

"I just left FreedomGuo to practice teh Zhongwenz and nongify myself, knee-how chinabros"

The only really annoying part of the Wechat group was the constant reposting of porn from tumblr because that eats mobile data and also maybe I want to be able to use Wechat in public.

But anyway nobody should be using a chat room as an information resource; that's silly unless you're a web dev sitting in an IRC channel in 1999.

LentThem fucked around with this message at 05:46 on Aug 26, 2014

# ¿ Aug 26, 2014 05:43

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Tourism & Travel > The China Megathread III: It is not a happy everyday

«‹›5 »