Nothing Special–A response to Daniel

April 3, 2006

Today I came across a post on Daniel’s blog about typical Taiwanese responses to “How has your week been?” type questions that leave the questioner wanting more. Here is an excerpt:

” A new foreign teacher enters the room and greets the students. They smile at him happily and he introduces himself. He then asks a student, “How was your week”? The student looks at him in confusion. He is a skilled practitioner, however, and so he rephrases his question to, “How are you”? The student relaxes and says, “Fine”. The teacher grimaces slightly at this formulaic answer, but moves on to the next student, “How was your week”? This student, not being mentally deficient, spots the connection between the two forms of questions, guesses what they are being asked, and replies simply, “Nothing special”. The teacher asks another student, with more stress on the “how”. The student thinks and says, “Busy, working every day”. As this is within the acceptable range of answers, in the teacher’s mind, he feels like progress has been made, and he moves on to the first activity, the warmup done. Still, he finds himself musing, “God, these Taiwanese are really dull people”!

What is going on here?

My Taiwanese wife says that when she first went overseas 12 years ago, she was struck by how everyone meddled in everyone else’s life, especially at the 7-11. She has since come to appreciate exchanging more than just a perfunctory “Fine, thank you”, especially with those who reside somewhere between ‘total stranger’ and intimate friend. She went on to say: “With neighbors you know for a long time, it takes forever before anything is said in the elevator. Even after that, it’s just a muffled hello without looking in their eyes.”
So I guess my wife went for the “in traditional Chinese culture” explanation, but not exactly as Daniel outlined it. When I ask my junior high students how they are, how they have been, the stock answer is “Terrible, teacher!” which unfortunately I am increasingly inclined to believe. But even if they weren’t feeling terrible that day, there is a tacit consensus among junior high students that they are generally miserable. Deviating from that would call attention to themselves, or worse, mess up the harmony of agony hegemony. Tsk, tsk.
Another factor—and I am guessing here—is that as a “foreign teacher” I am expected to fit in a very tight mold. Discussing private matters with me is not customary for my students, though I suppose there is a slight double standard when they ask me how many girls I’ve kissed… Maybe discussing what one did is perceived as really private. I dunno. One thing is certain, at least according to my wife, “How have you been?” is not a stock question in Taiwan so appropriate stock answers are lacking. But what may be stock for one could make another stew. (sorry, couldn’t resist)
In Indonesia, where I lived for almost 8 years, the fourth question asked after “What’s your name?”, “Where are you from?” and  “Where do you live?” is invariably “What religion are you?” (quickly followed by “What’s your phone number?”) The incredulous, slightly humoured faces my Archipelagan interlocutors wore when privy to the discomfort I usually felt as these *harmless* stock questions were asked, I imagine could be similar to the expression I often don when I hear the 10th “So-so” or “Nothing special”. Ok, maybe not the 10th; more like 3rd.

So, howzyurweekbinanyway?

Posted in commentary, taiwan, teaching