I read on another blog how a person who had recently returned to Kazakhstan had found some things (points 3,4 and 5 especially) wound him up again, after his break away… this lead me to thinking what exactly gets on my nerves over here…
Driving – see the Kazakh Driving category for previous posts on this subject, however a quick summary would be the complete lack of lane discipline, seat belt wearing being seen as an oddity, not stopping for zebra crossings, expecting drivers to be halfway across a junction before the traffic light turns green etc. etc.
Foreign? You must be rich and earning a lot, we have actually had people openly admit to charging twice the going rate for a car journey because they heard English people speaking. Not all of us work for Western companies, on Western wages…
ADSL – I’m sorry, but a 128Kbit, unreliable connection, capped at just 10Gb a month (though called ‘unlimited’), after which you are throttled to just 32Kbit DOES not cut it. The infrastructure is in place, just start using more reliable equipment, proper speeds, and if you must data cap, set a more reasonable limit. You can of course go a little faster here, but you need to pay more, and no ‘unlimited’ option either – after 1 or 2 Gbs, you pay for every extra gig you down/upload.
doors are shut in your face
The staff’s lack of knowledge by in many shops, when it comes to their own products, especially in some technology based businesses. There are of course exceptions, but I hate to imagine the sort of advice some people receive, and the way their computers are setup from some of the shops here.
Anyway, to read the post that inspired this one, please check here over at KZ Blog. Don’t forget to read around the other posts there as well.
I’m sure more will come to mind, but I needed to get those off my chest at least…
Feel free to reply with what most annoys you about arrogant, know-it-all, ‘been-there, done-that’ foreigners who come to this country and try to dictate how things should be done 
March 17th, 2010 3:15 pm
[…] Chris Merriman has posted his own list of pet peeves for foreigners, so check that out too if you […]