Thursday, May 18, 2006
Thank you for not smoking
When was the last time you read something in an e-mail that made you laugh outloud? I had this experience yesterday when my friend D sent me an e-mail from Shanghai. D has been teaching in China for the past three months. He sounds like he's definitely ready to come home! He told me a funny story about how people in China smoke EVERYWHERE! He said he's seen teachers smoke in class while teaching, and people smoking in the gym while working out (WTF?!). Anyway, the smoking in the gym thing really bothers him so, as he relayed to me in the e-mail, after three months of politely asking people in the gym to smoke outside, he talked to the manager about the issue. He told the manager that as there were signs posted around advertising that the gym was a non-smoking environment, he would really appreciate it if the rule were enforced. The manager said "yes, that is a contradiction" and walked away. D thought he had won the battle and left for the day. When he returned the next day, all the signs had been taken down! If that story isn't laugh-worthy, I don't know what is!
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Smoking in China is bad, but I think it's even worse in Korea. There you might find yourself in a meeting with 8 people, and 6 smoke and the door is closed and there's hardly any ventilation. The longest I know of any Westerner keeping his or her contacts in their eyes in Seoul is 12 hours and that person did it only because I told them to take them out on arrival and he paid a price.
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