Sorry but no WW3 outbreak story follows. After 2 years here I finally got around to cussing a Chinese in Chinese. It amounted to a couple of "crazy bitch" and cao ni ma's aimed at real estate agent who demanded 1000 kuai to stamp a renewed lease of my apartment that the landlord and I had worked out by ourselves. All we needed was the stamp (even though it has very little value) on the finished contract. I felt kinda bad afterwards but on the other hand it was a clear case of trying to rip me off for something amounting to 10 seconds of work. What about you guys on Gokunming? Did you ever "lose it" it public? What happened and why?

Plenty of times. Just cos you're a foreigner, doesn't mean you should 'suck it up'. In the beginning i often used Chinese friends to help me take issue when i thought i was being taken for a ride, and they really went to town on the person/people involved. Since my Chinese has improved though, i have no problem calling people out if i feel wronged in some way. Try not to use insults where possible though, especially 'cao ni ma's' etc, as i've seen things deteriorate quickly into physical fights when such language is used, and you don't want to be involved in a brawl here. I've had many issues; from people pushing in, to landlords trying to take advantage. If it's a serious matter, you really just need to think about what power you have, I.E. who can help you (police, PSB Etc) and use that, or at least the threat of that, to settle the argument. If you have no power, or the incident is minor, then, well, there's nothing you can do really. Telling said person to 'f**k their mother' won't make the slightest of difference and is, as i mentioned earlier, a risky way to go.

One nice thing to do if you are on the line to buy something and someone cuts in front is to push your things together with theirs and tell the cashier nicely,,"Oh, its ok, they are paying".

Dammairen - - cussin' someone out is usually counter-productive - - unless you're prepared to go all the way. onomatopoeiaaah gave you good advice. Good for her.

Cheers - - JJ

Cursing someone out is a win-lose situation. They win cuz they got you so ticked off you can't think straight - and nothing happens anyway.

I've found the best solution in these situations is to pretend to be an utter moron - just say no and smile (like a moron) and then insist they do their job.

Also - China (aka Kunming) is full of RE agents - the other option is just take the business elsewhere - or move (landlords hate looking for new tenants when they have a good tenant who pays rent, doesn't make trouble, and keeps their property in good condition).

But the best solution when you know you're being ripped off is either walk away or use the patient moron approach - this works great at banks also - just say no - consume their time, be polite, but firm and nag your way to success. I personally find it immensely satisfying.

As for the issue at hand - you might try taking the contract to any other RE agent - tell them you'll pay them Y100 for the same thing and they'll probably stamp it for you...quick cash...assuming the landlord agrees (and you didn't just cuss out one of their relatives).

And by 'going all the way', that means, erm, well, whatever it means, it's productive anyway. Apparently.

Well I kinda made it clear that it's not something I do on a regular basis. It was the same agent who made the contact one year ago trying to pull this little stunt, and they were being a bit rude and really REALLY illogical when we summed everything up to them. We offered them 200 kuai but they still demanded 1000 so I basically told them to fxck off. Maybe a contributing factor was that if it had been my landlord (a colonel in the PLA) who had walked in to get the stamp they would have been kissing his feet and offered their first born to him. That's how they treated him last year at least. It was made very clear to my "regular folk" girlfriend that she ought to kow tow them and pay up, and I clearly heard the the-foreigner-can-afford-it argument they threw at her as well.

I wanted to curse at someone, but I think it would have made my life here quite a bit harder. So instead I composed a shitty little poem.

Girl it feels like iv been waiting all my life for you
I wonder what my place is in your great flock
Venerated, I am granted a solitary audience
Every week we dance five times

Moon it has come and gone
Each time you say

Missing, we are missing something
Yesterday you bade me seek the state

Vanished, nearly a thousand gone
It didn't have to be like this
Still I must return
Agog for the treasures you promised

Why did you need the real estate agent to stamp it? Having rented many times, both for personal use and my company, I've never needed that.

Gettin a little deep there Kelevra. Next time I want to curse at someone, I'll just write an unrelated poem to get through the day.