"bu hao yi si"

About "bu hao yi si":
In Chinese culture, it's frowned upon to display or express emotions in public or around unfamiliar people. Expressions for strong emotions, such as "I love you" and "I'm sorry", are often replaced by phrases that show less/weaker emotions, such as "I like you a lot" and "bu hao
yi si".

Day 2 in Jackhammer hell. The workers came shortly before 8. I unlocked the sliding door in our kitchen so they could plug in the jackhammer. Then Bill realized he had to go to the office today, and I heard an "Oh, no!" in my head. You see, it's a different crew today and, it could just be my hyperactive imagination, but these two look like they came straight out of prison! They're buffed and loud. Their arms are covered in tattoos, and they don't talk, they yell. Call me a princess, but there was no way I was gonna stay in the apartment alone with a baby with an unlocked door
and two worker dudes right outside.

So I went out, explained the predicament, and asked if they could find power elsewhere.

"Just leave! We won't go in to your apartment!" the scarier worker dude yelled through the bullet sound of a jackhammer. The other dude didn't even lift his eyes from the shovel in his hands.

No offense, big scary yakuza... er... I mean, worker dude, but I can't just take your word for it (yakuza means mob or gangster in Japanese). Obviously I thought to myself. I would never risk possibly pissing him off.

I called the landlord. I was gonna tell her that I'm sending the workers packing for the day because there's no way in hell we're gonna leave our back door open when we're not in the house.

She didn't answer.

I could feel fume shooting out of my ears. That b#%* had the guts to dodge my call?! I called again and still no answer. "Just...," Bill squeezed words out through his clenched jaw, "take Kai and go to your mom's! I'll just have the meeting here."

I called the landlord again in the cab, and this time she picked up.

LL: "Ah! Kate! Hi, Kate. I'm walking on the street right now and it's really noisy. Can you hear me okay? You'll have to speak up 'cause it's really noisy here."

Who in the world answers the phone like this? I'm not Freud, but that sounds like someone's trying to cover her ass. Perhaps she's setting it up for her eventual "Hello? Hello? I can't hear you" trick. Tze tze tze! What a snake.

I told her about the predicament, and she cut me off before I finished.

LL: "Oh, that's not right! Bu hao yi si! They can't do that. That creates disturbance for you, and they shouldn't do anything to disturb you. I'll let them know that they can't bother you like this. I'm gonna call the foreman as soon as we hang up."

This woman is absolutely shameless! Trying to blame it on the workers
and make it sound like she's helping us?! That she's the good guy
here?! I wasn't gonna let her off the hook this easily.

"THEY didn't create any disturbance," I tried to speak clearly without sounding condescending, "if only YOU had called before sending them over, we could've been better prepared and all this could be avoided."

LL: "Bu hao yi si, Kate. But you know, it really needs to be done while the weather is good. If we wait until later... that will be typhoon season and it will never get done."

What she said had nothing to do with what I said! Still showing no ownership of her ill management of the situation. Still not acknowledging the troubles SHE had caused us. Still no decent apologies. I pressed on.

"Because YOU didn't inform us beforehand, my husband can't work and I have to take the baby and leave the house. You do remember we have a baby, who needs to nap regularly..."

The landlord cut me off, "Kate, have you been down to look at the leaks on the 6th floor?"

Oh you didn't.

"That, I'm sorry (and I used the proper "I'm sorry"), is between you and the family on the 6th floor. What I'm trying to get it across is that we should've been informed."

"I feel very 'bu hao yi si' toward them too," she freaking cut me off again, "but it has to be done when the weather is good..." she mumbled to herself.

That's when I realized there was no point trying to get her to understand. She will never own up to her own screw-ups. The best she can do is to keep saying "bu hao yi si".