I am Aussie, but my parents-in-law are Chinese. When I return home and they call out, “Hui lai le,” sometimes I respond, “Mei you. Wo mei hui lai le.”

I can tell they’re just thinking, “Yeah, nice one. Very funny.”

Of course, there is no way that they could understand that I do this just to stay sane sometimes. I do pretty well at fitting into Chinese culture with them, but sometimes you have to express yourself.

One hilarious thing I find is driving in the car with my wife and her parents. Not only do you get statements of the obvious, but echoes of the statements. Say you drive past a person walking a large dog. My father-in-law says, “Da gou.” Then my mother-in-law will say, “Da gou.” I often add my own repetition just to add to the joy: “Da gou.”

OK - Only joking, but I must say the Helloooo from starngers when walking in the streets did have me somewhat fascinated at first, until i got used to it.

I am a vegetarian and every time I would have dinner with my Chinese friend he would tell me “You don’t eat meat.” Every time! Without fail! As if for some reason I had to be reminded. It was unnerving at first and then hilarious and even endearing.

English speakers say dumb things with small talk too, but I think it’s especially prevalent here.

I still hate when people shout “laowai” at me. Maybe someday I’ll get over that.

It’s part of our culture, Chines culture. Many foreigners received this Culture Shock at their first time in China, but well, you will get used to it in time!:)

In Singapore, local people call “laowai” “Ang Moh (hong mao)” which means the person with red hair. I think Ang Moh is a less respectful
address compared to “laowai” coz “laowai” is a neutral term.

after reading the above comments, i really like the idea that “stating the obvious” acknowledges a person’s existence. in fact, i think it works as a friendliness. my only problem with it is I DON’T KNOW HOW TO RESPOND!

The same is true for Chinese. On the brighter side, for those of you who felt bothered by the Chinese way, you are already half way to be fluent in Chinese! It is a natural reaction as a result of your language/cultural immersion. It is a phase which will pass.

Chinese in general is a fact based language. That is why we state the fact as a way of being specific and accurate and conversational. The same point can be applied to how Chinese answer negative questions.

“Don’t you like Chinese?” In Chinese manner will be answered “yes, I don’t like Chinese”. or “No, I do like Chinese”. The answerer intend to be truthful to the question verses the English way of answering. The English way achieves a sense of absolute consistency: YES must = I do like Chinese. Once this is obtained, the YES and NO become irrelevant to the question.

(as pointed out by Alex) “How are you?” is a common casual greeting in American English - usually, if the reply is more than a few words, the listener is soon looking for an escape route.

I find plenty of things, in both languages, a bit humorous - not laughing AT anybody or their culture - it’s just the way WE (all of us) are.

To me, “laowai” is mostly a neutral term - frequently, the speaker has no idea that the wai guo ren understands what’s being said - I’ve seen contract workers, on a construction site, react with complete surprise, when the laowei walked over and began to speak to them in Chinese. Even our own staff will use it, if they are speaking about me on the phone - to someone who barely knows me. Among themselves, they use either my Chinese or English name. It’s just the most practical way.