I can't teach young dogs new tricks.

I really hope this doesn’t come out racist/rude/etc., but I marvel at how many of my Chinese coworkers have a hard time learning new things. Mostly, it’s just how they keep on doing one thing even though you’ve said to do something different.

I’ve already run into a few issues of plagiarism, where “reporters” have taken entire paragraphs from web sites and only changed a few words. My foreign boss and I have told the editor who communicates and manages reporters’ stories to keep a look out for this. Yet not much has changed.

I’ve also asked this editor to make sure reporters adhere to the word limit on their stories. Sure, cutting out an extra 150 words isn’t too difficult, but when the reporters have added an additional 500 words to their usually unimportant story, it gets a bit annoying.

And then there was the time I sent a reporter some suggestions for how to write quotes. You know, I get that the English language is difficult, especially news-style writing. But when a native English speaker sends you some guidelines on how to write quotes when you are writing them incorrectly, you should probably readjust your writing. Did she? Nope. The 20-minutes I spent writing that email to essentially help her in her English must have just fallen by the way side. Her next story after I sent that helpful, polite, nice email offering some suggestions and guidelines was riddled with the same errors.

Some people say that Asians are so smart. Sometimes I really doubt the Chinese. Sure, they study hard and can regurgitate information, but when it comes to adjusting and taking criticism, a lot just can’t do it.

But then there are those Chinese like one of the interns here, who, rather than take a nap at her desk when the day is slow, is busy reading books in English about news writing. Go figure, this is one of the few soon-to-be reporters who has lived abroad and can think critically.