In some cultures, people just don’t care about public etiquette.

The following story is about a Canadian man who moved to Hong Kong and was shocked by the strange culture.

He was bothered by people loudly burping in public, especially at the gym.

Fed up, he decided to copy the behavior to make a point.

Read the full story below to learn more…

Burp out loud? See how you like it

I am a Canadian who moved to Hong Kong, so it has been a bit of a change for me.

One thing that I genuinely do not like is how people burp out loud in public.

Walking down the street, on the bus, or sitting at a public park, it is a free-for-all.

This man noticed that it’s mostly senior citizens who burp mindlessly.

What I also notice is that it is mostly senior citizens.

Even though I hate it, I get it.

You are old, and you do not care anymore.

But it is the younger ones that annoy me more.

At the gym, a lot of people burped loudly.

This particular day, I was at the gym.

At a station next to me, this guy kept burping loudly after a set.

It was clearly annoying other gym-goers.

One went out of her way to go to her bag to put on headphones after a few disgusted glares at him.

Another just left.

So, he decided to burp, too.

I got fed up. So I figured if everyone seems to do it, why can’t I?

So after I finished a set, I chugged some water. I let out a burp.

It was not as disgustingly loud as his, but enough for him to hear me.

I did it a few more times, and he finally confronted me.

He told the other gymgoer that he would stop burping if he also stopped.

My Cantonese is very limited, so I did not understand what he was saying to me.

I replied to him with, “Sorry, English.” It seemed to annoy him more.

So in English, he told me, “Stop burping.”

I replied with, “I will stop when you stop.”

He did stop, but was clearly not happy about it. Did I care? No. I just finished my workout.

Let’s check out the comments of other people on Reddit.

This user shares a personal experience.

A HKer speaks up.

This person chimes in.

Here’s an honest opinion from this person.

Finally, here’s another perspective.

Looks like he gave someone a taste of their own… burp!

If you liked that post, check out this post about a rude customer who got exactly what they wanted in their pizza.