How Do You Maintain Your Beautiful Skin?

Another day in fabulous Taiwan, and yet another of those experiences you know you have to write down. Today I taught my first night class at an electronics engineering company. It was a day to discover the level of English that my class was at, as well as feeling out what they wanted out of the class. Sooo…as an introduction, I told them my name, and then I told them to ask questions about me that would help them get to know me better. An interesting endeavor. There are certain questions you expect if you were to do this in the United States…and since being here in Taiwan there are a few more that I’ve added to my list of expected questions. Now…however, I guess I wasn’t ready for the questions that my class threw at me last night. I’ll give you a little sample:

“How old are you?” I’m 25. “Oooohhh, so young!”
“Do you have a boyfriend?” Actually, I’m married. “OOOooohhh!!! So young!”
“How many babies you have?” That is a good question, in the United States we say, “How many children do you have?” I have one little girl, three years old. “Ooooh! Only one! Don’t you want any more children? (Now what to say to this, I haven’t quite decided.)
“Do you have a boyfriend?” Remember, I said I was married. “Yes, but do you have a boyfriend?” No. “Do you want one?” (This followed by the Taiwanese version of high fives and jovial laughing….can you guess what the statistic for men vs. women is in this class?) No, I’m quite sure that one man in my life is enough.
“Do you have a sister?” That is a good question. Yes, I have one sister, her name is Nanci.
“Is your sister here in Taiwan?” No, my sister lives in the United States, in Idaho. (This is followed by a brief and not entirely accurate geography lesson of the western United States.)
“Is your sister married?” Yes, actually…she is married. She has a little boy named Wyatt. (This is followed by five minutes of trying to get them to pronounce Wyatt correctly….a fruitless endeavor.)
“How much money do you make here in Taiwan?” (At this point I feel like perhaps I should discuss the issue of appropriate vs. inappropriate questions, but I guess I just assume that this one is less inappropriate than the last few, soo….) Well, in the U.S.A. teachers don’t get paid very well, so we are here in Taiwan to make money to pay for our University degrees. We send most of our money back home, so we don’t make a lot of money here.
“How do you maintain your beautiful skin?” (Hmm….this one made me laugh out loud…it is so hot that I’m always sweating, therefore I have blemishes all over my face, and to me it always seems to be red…but…don’t kick the gift horse in the mouth!) Well, my ancestors are from Scandinavia, so my skin is actually naturally this color…it doesn’t turn brown in the sun. The sun makes it burn…turn red, and then it turns white again. In the United States this is actually not desirable, most people want to have brown skin. But thank you for saying it is beautiful.
(At this point the questions are dying down….so I try to encourage those who haven’t spoken to ask something….assuming that the ones who don’t say much must be shy or afraid to speak to me.)
Do you have a question? You can ask anything that you want to know about me.
“What are you doing tonight?” (Alright, so the appropriate vs. inappropriate talk is overdue….also, someone please remind me that I should put a proviso on the “any question” thing) Actually, you’re going to have to call my husband on that one, I’m not sure what he has planned. Okay…I think that is enough about me…..


Well, so much for assumptions….here in Taiwan, all bets are off when it comes to what you can ask someone. The lesson went pretty well after that…I let them ask each other embarrassing questions so I could get to know them better. Well…that’s all for this week’s English lesson……