9 out of 10 times when someone tries cutting in line in front of me or trying to push their way in as I'm trying to exit the subway, it turns out to be a female. The worst offenders are the old ladies. The old men are bad too. I try to make sense of it by keeping in mind they grew up during a time when they always had to fight to get anything. But among the more well-behaved younger generations, it's almost always the females who behave in such a way. I could be in front of the cashier ready to order and one of them will try to sneak through the side. Or I could be the next person waiting for the ATM and a young girl / lady will pretend they don't see me. I don't get it. Do they expect me, as a foreigner, to be gentlemanly and let them cut in front of me? Or are they angry at the world because their parents would have preferred having had a son instead? With the men, I usually encounter this problem among the 50+ year olds. Anyway... I just had to rant. It happened to me twice today.

Try politeness first--& "sorry, please line up/there is a line here". Better if you can say it in Mandarin--impress and even shock them by saying it in Shanghainese!!

ni mei zhang yanjing ma?

Thanks! I keep forgetting to ask my Chinese tutor how to say that. Then again, I just started taking class with him 3 weeks ago.

fucinay wrote:Thanks! I keep forgetting to ask my Chinese tutor how to say that. Then again, I just started taking class with him 3 weeks ago.

my suggestion is quite rude

Caso's line means "are you blind?"(meaning "can't you see that I am here before you, you rude...." ) Not what I suggested.

Try "Duibuqi, qing paidui"-please line up". Or, more forcefully, "Ni zai wo bei houmian"-you are behind me.

I was just on the phone and asked my Chinese friend what "ni mei zhang yanjing ma?" meant. His first question was "Who told you this?!" Haha! He suggested "bu yao cha dui".

fucinay wrote:9 out of 10 times when someone tries cutting in line in front of me or trying to push their way in as I'm trying to exit the subway, it turns out to be a female. The worst offenders are the old ladies. The old men are bad too. I try to make sense of it by keeping in mind they grew up during a time when they always had to fight to get anything. But among the more well-behaved younger generations, it's almost always the females who behave in such a way. I could be in front of the cashier ready to order and one of them will try to sneak through the side. Or I could be the next person waiting for the ATM and a young girl / lady will pretend they don't see me. I don't get it. Do they expect me, as a foreigner, to be gentlemanly and let them cut in front of me? Or are they angry at the world because their parents would have preferred having had a son instead? With the men, I usually encounter this problem among the 50+ year olds. Anyway... I just had to rant. It happened to me twice today.

Yes about the ATM, happened to me yesterday. I was in the cue, and then from nowhere young chick tries to go before me, i told here that there is a que ( in my poor chinese, but it's not a dificult one ), my friend later told me that she said 'what is his problem?'. Same goes with metro, I'm actualy trying to change this nation a bit ( i know i probably should not asi'm a guest but still! ). Train is full, I want to go out, ppl are trying to get in, I'm saying that if u let me out u have bigger chance to actualy fit in to the damn overcroud train, from their smiling faces i get that they actualy understood me yet besides that nothing really changed. Then in restaurant i hear 'welcome to china' ;D definitely china !
ps. as i'm lil drunk and tired i wont bother correcting my spelling.

middle aged women are the worst, I can't help but tell them to fuggin get into the queue

fucinay wrote:I was just on the phone and asked my Chinese friend what "ni mei zhang yanjing ma?" meant. His first question was "Who told you this?!" Haha! He suggested "bu yao cha dui".

I told you it's a rude one...
But believe me, it works in the right situations.
i tried many many times while in the queues for expo pavillions last year.

man this is gold,..! can't wait to use this (not the rude one fo course) when i'm buying my breakfast bunds from family mart~~

Rezzie wrote:breakfast bunds..

Spelling correction - "buns"

haha,.. you are sick of it Ty..

Here's one for the Puxi v Pudong argument. Puxi metro users are ruder than Pudong ones. Compare Century Ave with People's Square and Century Avenue is much better even when there are similar volumes of people changing lines.

tylerdurden wrote:Mmmmmm....breakfast bund.

Some yuyuan for lunch.

Might be too full to eat my lujiazui at dinner.

Might have to settle for a bowl of Zhangjiang and wash down with a stiff glass of Hongkou.

fucinay wrote:He suggested "bu yao cha dui".

That's what a native speaker would say (assuming a native speaker would notice queue-jumping)

Used to be more of a gentlemen before coming out to SH,.. but seriously now, i don't care if theres a toddler or an old granny,.. it's every person for themselves!

In the beginning that did piss me off but now I'm worse than they. Eat or be eaten and there is no way in hell I let anyone pass me in any kind of queue.

^ I like it!

according to ur avatar, i suppose they thought u were invisible.

a taxy driver once told me if he can choose, he would prefer not to take old shanghainese ladies as customer/passanger.

GoingMad wrote:a taxy driver once told me if he can choose, he would prefer not to take old shanghainese ladies as customer/passanger.

Imagine how it would be living with one.

Nekta wrote:

GoingMad wrote:a taxy driver once told me if he can choose, he would prefer not to take old shanghainese ladies as customer/passanger.

Imagine how it would be living with one.

Or looking in the mirror each day and realising you are one just as you press the nozzle on that next can of industrial strength hair spray over the dyed orange curly 10 inch beehive.

i say stay away from them. let them cut. I have developed this method as every time my line was cut, i would tell myself, these old ladies lives won't be long, let them behave like that. Or, they must be in a hurry to give birth or need to go to bathroom... then all my anger goes away.

Don't give a damn about pretty much everything. Don't need "face". Would give anybody hell who steps(or is going to) on their toes.

This is what a lot of middle age women in Shanghai are like. Get used to it.

I gotta say though, older ladies are generally pretty bad for this sort of thing in most places. When I lived in London often it was an old dear that cut in front of me. One thing I also hate is pavement hogging, walking 3 across and refusing to allow you room when you're coming the other way - I also find girls in general are worse when it comes to this.

Once at uniqlo, I yelled at a middle age local woman for cutting in front of me. Instead of saving her face, I raised my volumn and lectured her on how uncivilized her behavior was. I physically pushed her aside. Even some dogs in the States bahaves better than her.

There was a scene at Carrefour - a middle aged lady was yelling at an old man because he cut in front of her to buy a carton of milk. It was all in Chinese so I couldn't understand but it was fascinating to watch. Anyway the old man didn't budge.

So I was walking down a long flight of stairs into a subway station yesterday. Since they drive on the right side here, I feel it's natural to walk on the right side as well, especially when there are several people walking up and down stairs at the same time. Most people were doing that. A young woman at the bottom of the long stairway looked up, saw me, and started walking up. I wasn't going to move because I've had a bad knee for the last 9 months, and was using the right handrail to hold as I walked down. She looked up again and kept walking. I continued. She looked up again and saw me, and I realized she wasn't intending to move to the center or my left although there was plenty of room. It wasn't until she got within 1 meter of me that she suddenly moved out of my way as she realized I sure wasn't going to change my course. I was very irritated. I couldn't help but think that she was (maybe unconsciously) playing a game of chicken. Later in the day, a 30-something woman cut in front of me while waiting to buy something at Watsons. 5,000 years of history.... sure, but they could have spent just 1 of those years educating each other about common civility.