Strange and Unexpected Impressions While Traveling Abroad

It’s my first time to the U.K.
Staying in Hounslow, Greater London right now.
I’ve got lots of strange and unexpected impression so far.
Not sure whether it’s just London or the whole U.K. is like this.

Upon arriving in the Heathrow Airport, everything is so tiny and people are packing all over.
The seats on the underground tubes and buses are as tiny as (or even more tiny than) the ones on the MRT in Taipei, but people here, including myself, are a lot bigger than the average Taiwanese people, so it’s crowded as hell.
And, maybe in the area I’m staying in, I haven’t seen any indigenous White English yet. I see people of every race, ethnicity, and skin color here except for the indigenous White English. Most White people shown here are obviously migrants from Poland and other Eastern European countries.
No English was heard when taking a stroll in the city center. Every one is speaking in their own first language, which is not English or Mandarin, so I understand nothing. LOL.
And, once again, people here like any other Europeans, give me strange looks and discuss or guess my ethnicity in their own language, because I clearly heard sounds like “Cheenes” or “Cheena” coming out from their mouth, which is so identifiable. Then again, South Asians, Africans, Latinos, other ethnic groups are not getting this kind of treatment. Only East Asians are getting this. So, I once again doubt there’s some kind of anti-Chinese or anti-Asians thoughts going on in Europe.
South Asians, Africans, or Latinos here are fine with me. No problem so far.
The Polish here seems to be obviously anti-Chinese. Two Polish clerks had a huge conversation in their own language bashing China and Chinese once they saw me in shopping in their store. And they even keep talking about it when I’m lining up to get checked out.
I don’t understand a word in Polish, but I heard sounds like “Cheenese” and “Swine” in addition to their ugly looks, I figured out they’re obviously not saying anything good.

  1. I couldn’t fully make sure what they were saying.
  2. I was tired at that moment, so no mood to argue with some clerks.
  3. I’ve gotten used to it. It’s Europe anyway.
    After one of them checked me out, I couldn’t help but ask “Where are you from?”, and she replied “Oh, I’m from Poland”, I said nothing and walked away, leaving them with their nasty comments behind as if I’m the one despising them.

I’m sure I’m just stuck in a strange place in the U.K., which for sure doesn’t represent the whole spectrum of the U.K.
Hopefully things are getting different and better once I head up North.

London is a bit of a shithole, IMO. Most big cities are.

It’s highly unlikely that people were actually commenting on your Chinese-ness. The UK has had a large-ish Chinese population for a very long time, and while kids no doubt get some casual racism at school, the vast majority would pay very little attention to you, especially if you speak English reasonably well and don’t spit everywhere or talk at 145dB on your cellphone. You’re just a face in the crowd. Nobody cares about you one way or the other.

OTOH the country seems to have a growing minority of ignorant cnuts who seem to think absolutely every problem they have is somebody else’s fault. The Muslims or the Poles seem to be favourite targets. The British have always been a curmudgeonly lot (with a strong dose of racial superiority), but it’s crossing that thin line into misanthropy.

I’m pretty sure you will find it’s different up North. Or even anywhere else except London. I’ve lived in both areas at various times and much prefer the North. People say Northerners are “more friendly”, but I don’t think it’s that. I can’t quite put my finger on what it is, but I think it’s mainly a much smaller number of people who think the world revolves around me me me.

However the UK has very little to recommend it as a place to live. I especially dislike the rise in scams and ripoffs, which seem to be curiously immune to legal remedy.

Incidentally, the tube is small because it was built in the mid-1800s. It is what it is, and the trains have to conform to the tunnel size.

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That’s because no one actually understands what Scottish people say!

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There’re 65 million people packing this tiny island (not coutning illegal immigrants).
1% insensitive, rude, badly-behaved assholes will still be up to 650 thousand people.
So, not surprising if you meet those 1% people.

Bold assumption.
BTW. There is no slur that sound similiar to “Cheenese” in Polish.

Completely true, but I meant North of England. Don’t tell a Scottish person he’s English unless you don’t need your kneecaps anymore. :slight_smile:

Freeeeeedoooooooooom!

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The getting called Chinese randomly is very common in Europe. At least for me. It was pretty annoying indeed.

I didn’t have it in London though, given that London is basically a Chinese colony nowadays, they were probably saying stuff like “damn these Chinese are invading this neighbourhood as well”.

So it’s exactly like getting called 美國人 here, even though you are from the other side of the globe…

This is why I don’t dare to go to the UK. I have this romantic vision fed through years of reading classics, and I know my bubble is going to burst as soon as I land.

why would it burst? because foreigners live there?

its very unlikely people would be commenting on you being chinese or asian. especially in london. you said it yourself there are tons of foreigners there.

there are so many asian tourists in london, not sure why anyone would give a crap about one asian person walking around a shop. this isn’t taiwan. people aren’t that nosy.

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Just be aware that if you cant understand a language then it is very easy to get paranoid about what people are saying. Dude when I got a bus in a poor area in Brazil I presumed the bus drivers and customers were making plans to kill me and where to dump the body. In reflection - hey maybe they were making plans to kill me - or maybe they were just talking about the weather, isn’t that more likely?

Same thing with the facial expressions. Resting bitch face they call it. If I was you I would chill out and not worry so much about what people might or might not be thinking about you. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3v98CPXNiSk

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You are talking about one of the oldest and worst airports in the world that also happens to have one of the largest number of people going in and out of there on the daily. It sucks, food sucks, everything sucks there.

The tube was around before WW2 so not really new like the MRT.

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Classics like this one? :rofl:

It’s my first time to Taiwan.
Staying in Linkou, New Taipei City right now.
I’ve got lots of strange and unexpected impression so far.
Not sure whether it’s just Taipei or the whole Taiwan is like this.

Upon arriving in the Taoyuan Airport, everything is so tiny and people are packing all over.
The seat pitch on the MRT and buses are as tiny as (or even more tiny than) the ones back home in Country X, but people here, including myself, are not much smaller than the average country-X people, so it’s crowded as hell.
And, maybe in the area I’m staying in, I haven’t seen any indigenous Taiwanese yet. I see people of every race, ethnicity, and skin color here except for the indigenous Taiwanese. Most indigenous people shown here are obviously migrants from Vietnam, Thailand and other South East Asian countries.
No Chinese was heard when taking a stroll in the city center. Every one is speaking in their own first language, which is not English, so I understand nothing. LOL.
And, once again, people here like any other Asians, give me strange looks and discuss or guess my ethnicity in their own language, because I clearly heard sounds like “whiteys” or “white” coming out from their mouth, which is so identifiable. Then again, other ethnic groups are not getting this kind of treatment. Only whites are getting this. So, I once again doubt there’s some kind of anti-whites or anti-westerners thoughts going on in Asia.
The SE Asians here seems to be obviously anti-whites. Two Viet clerks had a huge conversation in their own language bashing Europe and Caucasian people once they saw me in shopping in their store. And they even keep talking about it when I’m lining up to get checked out.
I don’t understand a word in Viet, but I heard sounds like “white” and “GIs” in addition to their ugly looks, I figured out they’re obviously not saying anything good.

  1. I couldn’t fully make sure what they were saying.
  2. I was tired at that moment, so no mood to argue with some clerks.
  3. I’ve gotten used to it. It’s Asia anyway.
    After one of them checked me out, I couldn’t help but ask “Where are you from?”, and she replied “Oh, I’m from Vietnam”, I said nothing and walked away, leaving them with their nasty comments behind as if I’m the one despising them.

I’m sure I’m just stuck in a strange place in Taiwan., which for sure doesn’t represent the whole spectrum of Taiwan.
Hopefully things are getting different and better once I head down south.

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Racist much?

My first times to Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore (basically outside the home country) are like this.

Same like Scarlett Johansson’s experience in the movie Lost in Translation.
Some people have it… some don’t.
The former likely to be a (often said boring) contributing member of society, a doctor, a policeman or a lawyer.
The latter often become an explorer like Vasco da Gama, Zheng He, Roald Amundsen or Allan Quatermain…

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Heathrow airport is an overcrowded hellhole, my advice, keep your head down and pray to God you can get through it quickly without getting stuck in the immigration queue or needing to actually eat something there.

It could be worse though … could be Gatwick :).

I would be looking for my Mr. Darcy. :heart_eyes:

Seriously though, one thing to watch out for in London is that the pigeons are all controlled remotely by the secret service, and the secret service officers all hate Asians, so don’t be surprised if a pigeon shits on you in Trafalgar square. Its a serious problem.

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That’s nothing.
I heard the harbour at Edinburgh is infested with Laser Sharks.

Who hate Asians

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ha ha yea I don’t speak shark myself, but when I listen to them it sounds like they are saying “see that guy over there, he is paranoid” over and over again. also if you carefully watch the movements of their tails its usually Morse code for “kill yourself before the aliens get you”.

Gatwick is an actual shed.