hey,guys who want to give red envelopes to their teacher. just forget it If you want to be given respect,. if you start it, you will not know how to stop it because your teacher's appetite is endless. hold onto your principles as you did in your country . as Serrure said, chinese think you white foreigners are rich just like a rich pig . they want to eat your money, you need to say no and tell him you guy can pass the exam. corruption is anywhere,anytime in china, but do not be involved as a foreigner
@Luis: no, for the most part I don't think teachers' appetites here are endless - this gift-giving thing only rarely approaches the polar opposite of honesty. I'm sure it's a lot worse in the business world, where almost everybody's aim is simply to acquire wealth.
Again, it is not corruption — it is just a culturally-different of doing things.
@mmkunmingteacher I'm under impression that you are ready to defend anything and everything Chinese. Even if it's completely wrong. I like China and I'm happy here, but that doesn't mean that I shouldn't point out things like corruption. And yeah, an envelope full of money exchanged for teacher's favour is a bribe.
Serrure, no I am not, but I am a big proponent of letting cultures be their own thing, and not judging them by another culture's standards.
If someone is receiving money which positively influences something they are in control of in favour of the giver, and the receipt of that money is both illegal and not officially recognised or recorded, I would call that corruption. Whether that is acceptable in the culture is something else.
Has anyone experienced this first hand? I know treating school appointed tutors, and teacher to dinner is normal. Usually it's split between the students. I've only seen that first hand, so i would like to hear from some people who experienced the extremes of bribes(?) to get an idea of cost.
mm, Serrure is right. I was going to say exactly the same thing. You do it in all the food threads - bend over backwards to defend everything Chinese - and you're doing it again.
It's a slippery slope when you start to brush everything off as "part of the culture".
Mm. FGM is a cultural thing.i guess that's ok to
Obviously, the difference is whether its just a polite cultural practice of 'thanks' or whether it's about serious money, which might be called 'bribery', culturally accepted or not. Cultural practices are not sacred, but they do have to be understood on their own grounds before they can be judged according to some outside standard. Has anybody ever experienced this? If so, give us details. Or are we all just talking about rumors?
