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Q: Is it too much to ask that a single Chinese person I know can understand a map?
I include my wife as number one. No concept of what a map is. "Use your fucking IPhone", I suggest. She says her iphone does not have maps. I suggest she tries the map app.
Fucking taxi drivers with Iphones and ear pieces. Can't read a map. It should be simple. A to B. GPS lock your destination before you leave. Don't wait til you think you are sort of there, then stop in the middle of the fucking highway to find the GPS location.
Sorry for the rant. I will never understand why Chinese are so ambivalent to their location, and their destination.
Why can't they read maps ?
Pulling my hair out. A to B. A to B. B to A. X to Z.
5000 years of history, you invented the compass. But you can't get from A to B. Please tell me why?
Rant over.
Possible reasons.
1. A frog in the well needs no map. Mind you, it can be a happy frog. It also can be a poor frog.
2. Good guanxi network. In the rare occasion the frog travels other frog-friends tell him/her the route.
3. No concept of time. Frogs figure they have all the time in the world. They also don't consider punctuality important at all as other frogs are like that. In fact, if a frog is punctual when other selfish, ruthless frogs aren't, not only is it "stupid" it usually gets kicked out of the well, which isn't very well. Long live social harmony, so mote it be. LOL
https://en.m.wikibooks.org/wiki/Chinese_Stories/The_frog_of_the_well
As many times as you used 'fuck', it looks you ended-up with your 'lower-head-buddy' in your hands ...tonight
....now, only Q is for how long. Chinese women can be vicious.
Try simpler Q: 'Where is WC?' (if you use 'WC' instead 'toilet' many more students --- at mine = 'no wife'--- will get interested), but you better have few plastic cups handy, 'cause you'll never get an answer...
'turn L', turn R' and 'go straight' is all English you need to 'pin-point' the can.
I have some 4-5 weeks lesson (ONE/the same lesson) about directions. After 3rd week, I demand 'no show-me, just talk....'
It might be 'the leader' who invented the compass....so, not too many more know about it, i.e. 'how it functions'.
Yeah, I noticed it too. One of the worst taught subjects in China is geography, second being possibly science.
I asked my wife to help me while I was driving in Canada and she just gave up immediately stating "I don't know how to read a map". I got annoyed with her, because it is probably one of the simplest things you can do... but Chinese are just REALLY turned off by directions and geography... not sure why... I just relate it to education and them not caring about any place except where they currently stand.
Anyway, I simply used the direction function on Google Maps and there was a lovely AI to give me vocal directions to my destination that worked wonders.
ScotsAlan:
We found ourselves at a Mall in Shenzen this week. My wife recalled that they had a jellyfish display. We went in. She asked the people at the help desk. They gave lazy raising of the arm. WTF. It's their fucking job to give directions. Up, down, where? Lazy lift of arm... We found the display. Found the ticket desk. Bought tickets.... Where is the entrance? Lazy lift of arm.... There. Find the entrance, " Do you want to buy a jellyfish?" And why does a jellyfish display need 4 ticket sellers and 2 ticket collectors?. Why not just one person on the well signposted entrance?
Possible reasons.
1. A frog in the well needs no map. Mind you, it can be a happy frog. It also can be a poor frog.
2. Good guanxi network. In the rare occasion the frog travels other frog-friends tell him/her the route.
3. No concept of time. Frogs figure they have all the time in the world. They also don't consider punctuality important at all as other frogs are like that. In fact, if a frog is punctual when other selfish, ruthless frogs aren't, not only is it "stupid" it usually gets kicked out of the well, which isn't very well. Long live social harmony, so mote it be. LOL
https://en.m.wikibooks.org/wiki/Chinese_Stories/The_frog_of_the_well
I am convinced they killed a smart trader on the silk road who invented a compass and copied the idea. I know longer believe they invented the compass. It's simply not possible even with Mao's genocide for nobody to have any geographical mental ability whatsoever.
As with almost everything else, ignorance, inability to think and laziness.(let's not forget brainwashing)
They see having someone tell them as easier than finding out themselves. They're conditioned to not use their brains or try to figure out answers. GPS is a tool that you use to help you figure out the answer, they're conditioned to be told the answer (translator apps).
Any thinking involved, they will avoid it.
earthizen:
Maannnn, both Christopher Columbus and Marco Polo were Italians, Genghis Khan was a Mongolian, and Neil Armstrong an American. Ma Yun (the Alibaba guy) is a mainlander, but the guy didn't go to America for exploration, his company's name says it all......and he uses a special compass, his compass doesn't point north, it points to $$$$$ 
Zero spatial awareness and partial awareness of surroundings at any one time.
I asked two senior teachers at my school to name a country in North America. They both confidently claimed "Italy". Needless to say I didn't correct them.
Robk:
lol... They basically had a third of the answer in the question... And they still blow it...
Next time try asking them which country Tibet belongs to... somehow they always get that "right"!
It's necessary so they can claim the lands and waters of others.
it's quite funny that many people have this problem, since most of the Chinese in the north of China rather use directions like "in the north, to the south"
t' be sure, it must be the wonderful experience to be thinkin' ye be betterer than tha common scallywag and announcin' it o'er the hormblower 
seems u had a rough journey somewhr.
i too hv experienced many drivrs r very familiar wth directns in own domain, n get a bit clueless in newr farthr areas.
gps is a modern new tech, so 5k year thing wuldnt help
retiredinchina:
This reminds me of the Chinese taxi driver who ask me "Do you have trains in America? ", I said no we using flying cars. Yes, I am an ass, but I just could not help myself. I felt so guilty for about a nanosecond, but this to, shall pass.
ScotsAlan:
I had a taxi driver ask if we had trains in the UK. After I explained about how we invented them, he insisted that we had copied China.
My apologies for my rant. Further research shows that there is actually 2 almost identical hotels, with an almost identical name, on the same street in Shenzhen. They are half a mile apart.
My frustration arose because I had to carry a sleeping child a half mile to the other hotel. While my Chinese wife chastised me for expecting too much from Chinese taxi drivers.
In China, spatial awareness is a sin. But I will fight the good fight of educating people to know where they are. Knowing the 4 points is critical in my opinion.
My daughter knows the local area out to a 5 mile radius now. My wife gets lost between the bedroom and the bathroom.
I tell her to look and see. Recognize buildings and roads.And she already knows the area better than her mum.
Englteachted:
I think I know which (or one of 2) hotels you're looking for. In the area of the train station?
ScotsAlan:
One is called "skylight garden . The other is called "garden skylight"
Shining_brow:
As I was heading for my hotel in GZ near the train station, I followed Baidu maps. It said to cross the (big) road, and turn left to get to the hotel. However, I found only one overpass, and beyond that (to the right) was the hotel (after about 10 mins of wandering around...).
Seems that Baidu maps was around 500m off target. I was standing in the hotel lobby saying "This says I'm still not there....".
Baidu maps sucks!!!
ScotsAlan:
Shining. Back in 2006, I went to HK to buy a Nokia N95 8GB. Cost me £550. The N95 was the first with maps. Worked perfect outside of China, but in China it had a 500m offset most of the time. The Nokia I have now also has a 500m offset. Normally to the East. This is the thing I find most annoying about China. The offset.
As smartphones are popularizing, this situation will improve. To many young people, it is definitely NOT a problem. Why are you always meeting with the fucked-up things or people? Good people friend with good people. Educated people friend with educated people. How the people are near you reflect how you are as a person. Only way I can sum it up, son of a bitch.
ScotsAlan:
I gave you an upvote Tao. Interesting answer. If young educated people only meet with other young educated people, and ignore the uneducated taxi drivers, how do you expect society to develop? Do you want a split society? The haves and the have not's? Only mix with your own kind. To hell with the lower caste. My rant is about education levels and awareness for all. I want everyone to be able to read a map. Your answer suggests you believe only the rich higher caste should be taught the simplest of skills.
GreatTao:
Thanks for your upvote, but it's useless. Your words doesn't weigh in this forum. Cause all of you with similar opinions are flocking together and make stronger. Most of you have bias or don't live well in China. This doesn't mean you cannot make good money. You find profits in China and complain. Just like you suck your neighbors' milk and blast her nipples. You don't know how to live a life with a thankful heart? Foreigners do have different types, according to their academic levels or attitude towards life. Here they're petty minds, everywhere they are! Some say they want to help improve the Chinese society, in this forum with all the same proud and selfish minds with bias? If they want to help, it's very welcome to report the problems to Chinese officials. But they should report it in a good way. Now there are indeed some foreigners working in this country's departments. China has flaws but they love China. Why? They report the problems in a way more constructed way. You are talking about all the problems like you're not fitting in here, or not wanting to. It doesn't matter. There are some difference between people from different countries. But good manners share everywhere. Understanding is very important. If you're talking about it with complaints or rude behaviors, that doesn't help. It only reveals you're not good enough. Your forum friends complain about his friend's not able to read a map. Does he fear to talk it to his friend directly? Talking behind people is so bitchy. What do you think? It is not a problem for other people from other areas. China has a big population. In some poor areas, people don't even afford to get educated. Some say they own this forum dominating here, that's even more stupid. Without new different perspectives, how can you keep wasting your time complaining something useless?
