Fuddland

Spitting is a problem. The men spit. The women spit. The children spit. Everybody spits. They spit as they walk down the street, noisily building up a good collection of phlegm in the back of their throat before unashamedly phlomming it to the ground. You have to be careful when overtaking on the pavement — tread too silently and you’ll find your shoe [or worse, your trouser-leg] on a collision-course with someone’s earth-bound spitballs.

Worse still, they spit indoors, in the stairwells as they ascend apartment blocks, or in restaurants as they get up to use the facilities — a nice glooper on the floor just as you’re enjoying what is now certain to be your last mouthful of tasty dumpling soup. Why not at least save it for a few more seconds and spit into the toilet?

There is some effort being made to educate the population that spitting is unhygienic, especially indoors — certainly none of the children in my classes ever spit during lessons — but for now, you’ll often still hear the unpleasant tones of a pre-spit throat-clearing as you take a stroll down any city street. It makes me so angry, I could —

But I won’t.

#1

Gordon | 2006 / 03 / 24 – 00:48

Yeuch.

Unless it’s a really GOOD one.. then it has a strange satisfaction to it but no.. never ever indoors, and rarely when other people are around.

And whilst this is an excellent example of cultural differences, why on earth has this been tolerated for so long? It’s SOO unhygienic, no wonder those weird flu type things love it over there.

#2

Clair | 2006 / 03 / 24 – 01:09

Apart from it being unhygienic…it’s just yucky.

#3

imogen | 2006 / 03 / 24 – 06:21

sounds like American undergraduates tramping around campus! at least, though, they tend to keep their nasty spitting habits to the out of doors.

that reminds me — i’m over-due to deliver my lecture about that this term …

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