I'm glad that the Chinese people were willing to help you out! I think that many of them would tend to help an obvious stranger/foreigner in their land - I know that I try to do the same if I encounter someone who appears to be unfamiliar with things and in need of guidance/help. In general, I've found that the poorer, more 'common' people are much more likely than some more 'sophisticated' people to offer to help a person out out.
Once, when I was in Germany in business, I got fairly lost. There were no German speaking people volunteering to help me, and only some would try to help me when I asked directions in obviously poor/broken German. This was in a pretty big city, and they were all like well-dressed bees, buzzing at high speed to their appointed tasks, with no concern for a confused Amerikaner except to avoid running into me. For a contrasting example, Laura and I took a trip to Costa Rica, and intentionally avoided the big city (San Jose) and all its pre-canned tourist excursion packages. I just rented a 4x4 pickup and off we went across the country. The roadmaps down there are really more like suggestions, and we did sometimes get lost. The Costa Ricans speak a form of Spanish that is actually more like Portugese. I didn't speak any of their language when we got there, but I did my best in translating words from their common latin roots into French, and then into English. I brought a small spanish dictionary with me which wasn't much help, and in spite of the obvious linguistic barriers, I found that most of these people would really try very hard to help/communicate with you, even if they didn't understand any English. IT also helped that the U.S dollar was also a readily accepted currency down there, and I would always buy something from a person (if they were a vendor) or I'd give them a dollar or two if they helped me out. For many of them, a dollar or two was a almost full day's wage, so they'd often try to help me further after I thanked them and gave them the tip. I'm sure that there are plenty of examples that contradict these two, but in general, whether I've been in Louisiana, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, Hawaii, or where ever, it is usually the "ordinary Joe" type of person in that culture who will readily help if it looks like you need it. Trusting in the compassion of strangers can be a very uplifting/rewarding experience, most of the time.
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2011-10-22 02:22 am (UTC)Once, when I was in Germany in business, I got fairly lost. There were no German speaking people volunteering to help me, and only some would try to help me when I asked directions in obviously poor/broken German. This was in a pretty big city, and they were all like well-dressed bees, buzzing at high speed to their appointed tasks, with no concern for a confused Amerikaner except to avoid running into me. For a contrasting example, Laura and I took a trip to Costa Rica, and intentionally avoided the big city (San Jose) and all its pre-canned tourist excursion packages. I just rented a 4x4 pickup and off we went across the country. The roadmaps down there are really more like suggestions, and we did sometimes get lost. The Costa Ricans speak a form of Spanish that is actually more like Portugese. I didn't speak any of their language when we got there, but I did my best in translating words from their common latin roots into French, and then into English. I brought a small spanish dictionary with me which wasn't much help, and in spite of the obvious linguistic barriers, I found that most of these people would really try very hard to help/communicate with you, even if they didn't understand any English. IT also helped that the U.S dollar was also a readily accepted currency down there, and I would always buy something from a person (if they were a vendor) or I'd give them a dollar or two if they helped me out. For many of them, a dollar or two was a almost full day's wage, so they'd often try to help me further after I thanked them and gave them the tip. I'm sure that there are plenty of examples that contradict these two, but in general, whether I've been in Louisiana, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, Hawaii, or where ever, it is usually the "ordinary Joe" type of person in that culture who will readily help if it looks like you need it. Trusting in the compassion of strangers can be a very uplifting/rewarding experience, most of the time.