Originally Posted by
priapus1966
First. Big thumbs up to the Sampler for an excellent story. Disappointed yes, Frustrated yes, but still, not a bad deal.
Second. I would take issue a bit with Goldfishman about Chinese girls and language: you are right that if you know some language your mileage can improve quite markedly. Until 3 months ago I had lived overseas for more than 25 years, East Asia, Europe, and North America. You cannot put all Chinese girls in the same basket, Northerners tend to be a bit more outgoing, Southerners a tad quieter but they can even have trouble understanding each other, let alone the big noses like me! I spent a lot of time in Japan, Korea, and various parts of China and it pays big time for a punter to learn a few words in whatever is the local language/dialect. It breaks the ice, mistakes don't matter because they can cause a laugh - and a laughing gal is always more fun.
There is one exception: Shanghai; I'm fairly sure that even the other quite close by Chinese have trouble understanding that mob. And when you start to go west in China there is a myriad of different languages.
Japanese and Koreans are scared of making errors, I put that down to their education systems which tend to penalize error rather than reward success. But a bow, and meticulous good manners, with a word or two in greeting melts them quickly enough. Don't know much about Thais so will say nothing.
Finally as a refugee from Sydney punting 1995 style, I am learning a lot from you guys on this site, things have changed a lot, ahelluva lot, so thanks for all the tips and guidance