Let's break down some stereotypes

some of you (my friends/readers) have sent me questions, either as jokes or actually because you want to know the answer. i'll take this time to respond to some of them. i actually had to go on wikipedia and search for asian stereotypes to research. there are several that i was not even aware of, but the ones that i am aware of, i'll try to tackle/explain/dispel. these are all meant to be explanatory, not derogatory. if anything i say sounds offensive, i'm sorry. i don't intend to, but i'm just calling it as i see it.

1. first, let's break down this "asians are bad drivers thing." is it true? well, not really, but i fully understand why western society would think so. here's why. over here, everybody drives very normally. the thing is though, driving etiquette is completely upside down here, and i'm not just referring to driving on the other (wrong) side of the street. i assure you that if i (or any of you for that matter) got behind the wheel of a car here, within 20 minutes i would have hit another car, a person on a little moped, a pedestrian, or some terrifying combination of all of three. first, there are practically no stop signs. people stop (or slow down) when somebody jettisons in front of them in the middle of the street when they want to go through, pedestrians and other drivers. everybody is constantly jaywalking, because that's just how you do it. i usually wait for somebody else to start this movement so they get hit first (survival of the fittest still translates here). the worst are the moped people, ugh. they're everywhere, cutting of buses, trucks, and cars. the only things they really yield for are pedestrians, probably because if there's a collision, that's the only thing that will be their fault. a personal example...i live on a one-way street. i was being dropped off by another teacher. i opened my car door to get out and nearly hit a moped trying to whiz by the side of the car. collision averted, but valuable lesson about moped drivers learned.
i'm also fairly certain that nobody uses blinkers to merge lanes. i've constantly found myself in cabs and buses that are clearly in the wrong lane for the direction we are supposed to be going, then magically moving into the correct lane before continuing in the wrong lane. i am still dumbfounded by this. in my little world, when you are in the lane that goes right, you should follow your lane and not just drift into the correct lane at the last possible second without coming close to a collision. it seems to me that all drivers are constantly prepared for a collision, so they all somehow avoid it when the opportunity presents itself.
so, in my opinion, there is so much inherent chaos in the streets with the lack of well-defined traffic laws and strict traffic patterns, that everybody expects it and deals with it astonishingly successfully. would this chaos fly in the west? absolutely not, which is where the "reckless" unsafe driver stereotype is born from. but over here, we would be the "horribly overconscious", unsafe driver.

2. the short thing is true. i can't hold on to the belt thing on the bus anymore because we lurched to a stop and i elbowed some dude in the side of the head. i think he understood "i'm sorry" and the embarrassed grimace i made in apology. i now hold on to the metal bar the loop hangs from. my elbow is not as lethal from that height. no accidents since that day.

3. i have not seen 1 martial arts facility. only basketball courts and ping pong centers. (so no, i have not mastered karate since i've been here) (a master of friendship for everyone though...)

4. 1 month here...still haven't seen anybody rocking the fu manchu mustache. i'm not mad, i'm just disappointed...

5. to close, i thought i might throw a new one into the ring. we can file this under the "thoughts by dave" section. i'm not sure how good of singers we have in these parts. i've stepped in a handful of karaoke bars (not to participate of course) and can honestly say that i have only heard 1 good singer. yes, i know that i am an extremely harsh critic and my ear has been spoiled singing under j.scott.ferguson, but when i am severely disappointed by a vast majority of the singing i encounter, i have to wonder. i feel like i'm treading on thin ice with this one, so we'll just wrap it up with that.

if you have any questions that you are dying to know the answer to, throw me a facebook message and i'll either respond honestly there where the forum is less public (not that these aren't honest, but some things are better said behind closed doors), or i'll collect enough to have another future post.