On my last flight to Beijng, I had the misfortune of sitting beside an incredibly chatty American businessman in his 60’s. I made the mistake of being friendly in the first 5 mins, which converted to never-ending interruptions during the entire 13 hour flight. Very obnoxious comments, I might add.
Here are a few provoking, and sometimes ridiculous, points made. I thought I’d share for your entertainment:
1. He used to own an investment firm and will only hire Chinese immigrants who have lived in the states less than 3 years. According to him, after 3 years, they will get “tainted” and lose the extra drive.
2. Chinese guys generally choose to return to China after graduation. Chinese women prefer to stay in the States.
3. The only other industry he despises more than media, is finance.
4. All young people should enter the industry of investment management, unless they have a particular passion. It’s the easiest way of making a lot of money.
5. Having a support base is important – it is not wise to uproot oneself and move to a different country for opportunities. This is pertaining to moving to China for work (I will comment on this one later).
6. And a tip: if you fly into Beijing and show up at hotels without bookings, you can negotiate a really good rate.
I have left out a couple of comments (generalization of NYC single women and American guys) since they are too offensive to quote. Morale of the story: don’t be too friendly too early on a long flight – you never know what you gonna get…
Wow, we surely benefit from your elephant memory! Come to think of it, he’s not that bad – some comments are dead-on, e.g. confirming “yellow fever”, although without your divulging his disparaging remarks, I take it he may have felt a tad blase about the latest incarnation of east-meets-west.
I’m intrigued by the three-year line he drew. Are 3-years enough to corrupt/assimilate people transplanted from a culture as steeped in history as Chinese? Or perhaps he unwittingly betrayed his M.O. of running a white collar sweatshop?
Grendel, on the 3 year mark, I too get the impression that he’s really running a sweat shop. That after 3 years, the Chinese graduates will start to demand more. Seems purely mercenary to me. I will admit also that a few of his comments are right on – thought sometimes contradictory.
To lighten up the discussion, here’s a joke forwarded by a reader (Thanks, Dave Z.) that’s really quite witty!
******************************************
A blonde and a lawyer are seated next to each other on a flight from LA to NY. The lawyer asks if she would like to play a fun game? The blonde, tired, just wants to take a nap, politely declines and rolls over to the window to catch a few winks. The lawyer persists and explains that the game is easy and a lot of fun. He explains, “I ask you a question, and if you don’t know the answer, you pay me $5.00, and vise versa. “Again, she declines and tries to get some sleep. The lawyer, now agitated, says, “Okay, if you don’t know the answer you pay me $5.00, and if I don’t know the answer, I will pay you $500.00.” This catches the blonde’s attention and, figuring there will be no end to this torment unless she plays, agrees to the game.
The lawyer asks the first question. “What’s the distance from the earth to the moon?” The blonde doesn’t say a word, reaches into her purse, pulls out a $5.00 bill and hands it to the lawyer.
“Okay” says the lawyer, “your turn.” She asks the lawyer, “What goes up a hill with three legs and comes down with four legs?” The lawyer, puzzled, takes out his laptop computer and searches all his references, no answer. He taps into the air phone with his modem and searches the net and the library of congress, no answer. Frustrated,
he sends e-mails to all his friends and coworkers, to no avail. After an hour, he wakes the blonde, and hands her $500.00. The blonde says, “Thank you,” and turns back to get some more sleep.
The lawyer, who is more than a little miffed, wakes the blonde and asks, “Well, what’s the answer?” Without a word, the blonde reaches into her purse, hands the lawyer $5.00, and goes back to sleep.
[...] 17, 2008 by AF Some of you might recall one of my earliest posts: Flight Talk. In the post, I excluded a couple of topics which I thought are somewhat offensive and nothing to [...]