My dad wasn't super happy about it.

Hi everyone, my name is Janie.

My Chinese name is Janie.

Born and raised here.

My mom is Filipino-Chinese.

Ended up working at a dentist and then ended up marrying the dentist.

Your dad.

My dad.

I only started to realize that, oh, I think it's maybe a little bit different when I went to elementary school.

You know, because we had English class.

It was always the easiest class for me.

My teachers would clock it or my classmates would also notice it and then they would be curious about my background.

It was interesting you were raised in pretty much an English environment.

So I think my dad is His methods were pretty extreme.

He asked my mom to speak strictly in English with me.

Didn't allow me to watch any Chinese cartoons.

He didn't allow me to read any Chinese books.

It was all English.

They would also teach me like grammar at home.

He was pretty harsh on me.

Very, very intentional.

So learning English wasn't necessarily just a happy memory.

Oh no, it wasn't.

If I'm being sat there like five hours doing grammar, like I'm gonna cry.

Five hours.

Yeah.

He would sit me down, tell me to read things, tell me to remember vocabulary.

He would read novels for me first.

Mark down the words that he thinks that I wouldn't know.

He basically wrote dictionaries for me.

Wow.

And this is on top of having a career. Jesus.

Yes.

The present perfect tense.

Yeah.

Oh my God, I could not get that for the life of me when I was a kid.

Did he know it though?

He knew I didn't like it.

No, no, no.

Did he know the present perfect tense?

Um, I think he did.

He just can't really use the language very well, which is a very common thing for Taiwanese people learning English.

Did your parents ever tell you why they sent you to local school?

This is also like one of my dad's crazy strategies.

Basically graduated valedictorian from my high school and I was able to get into NTNU with a much lower score.

You grew up in Neihu though.

What do you mean?

This is the hood back then?

Yeah, it was like the metro wasn't there.

Okay.

Things have changed.

Things have changed, yeah.

When I say Neihu, people think that I'm like, I'm like, mm.

I think my dad was like very specifically helping me carve out like my whole life.

Didn't really have like particular plans for me to go study abroad.

So in college, halfway I was like, I'm not gonna be a teacher.

But then you ended up studying that in the States.

Or was it just an excuse to go abroad kind of thing?

Sort of, yes.

Like I found a scholarship, this is my chance.

Teaching was Chinese pedagogy.

And you went to Indiana.

I went to Indiana.

Yeah, I went to Indiana.

You must have been desperate.

Wow.

When I was in Indiana, I was like the drill session teacher.

The students who enroll, who choose to enroll in Chinese, they do it voluntarily.

When they get to like really high level of Chinese, speaking gets quite good.

And it made me think about like how Taiwanese people learn English in Taiwan.

Going to a new education system and being in a new environment, it made me see how intentional education can be.

How people can actually think for themselves and make decisions.

After I went to college and then I studied abroad.

And the way that you say that is kind of like, ugh, damn.

Yeah, a little bit.

And he went.

I wonder if that's common for people that have this ambition for their kids to study abroad, learn English, be exposed, get like guo ji guan.

And then they come back.

I have different opinions about things.

Especially the type of dating that you like to do.

Yeah, the type of, what are you referring to?

I'm non-monogamous.

It's definitely more common in like bigger cities in the US or like in Europe, for example.

People think that, oh, you're non-monogamous.

You just want to sleep with everyone.

I get it.

I get how it sounds.

I mean, in a way, when I hear that, it sounds like you better be putting your best foot forward all the time.

Otherwise, I'm gonna look for something else.

I'm not gonna just chill because I know that you're with me.

I want to be actively choosing someone to be with them every day.

That seems like a lot of pressure.

But relationships are hard work.

And like within non-monogamy, it's like kind of the same as a gay person.

It's not like you meet one gay person and you like them too, right?

Yeah.

Ex-pats is a whole different set of problems.

They're like, here, sure, sorry.

Gotta get into their family of origin, all their trauma, why are you here?

What do your parents think about all this?

My dad, I think he's okay with it.

My mom, she's Christian.

She's very conservative.

I don't think I can ever really tell her.

But I told you last time.

Wow.

The shame.

Like, when you tell me that, I'm just like, oh, that seems normal.

Oh, okay.

Yeah, and for me, it's like fine.

I mean, I see my parents once a year.

But I've heard friends here say about, I was like, damn, that is harsh.

Yo.

I think maybe that's why I don't want kids.

It's like, there's so many things that can go wrong.

It's funny because like growing up, I was like, oh, like Southeast Asian.

And I always felt like I was less than people.

And now suddenly because of my English, people are like, oh, it's like you're better than us.

What am I?

Yeah, exactly.

I'm like, what changed?

Do you think that Taiwanese people actually want to learn English?

I don't think it's because people want to learn English.

I think it's just because the status of English.

It is a lingua franca, right?

In terms of like social class, the stereotype that comes with it is just richer, entitled, privileged.

And there are also some people who like, Lao English, right?

I feel like on one hand, there is this expectation in Taiwan that everybody should learn English.

But I don't think everyone can.

And that's okay.

You kind of almost have to have some sort of special ability to learn English to that level in Taiwan.

It took me a while to get used to even.

Socializing, like a Chinese context is so different in an English context.

So when we go to the US, definitely gonna suck at small talk because we don't have that in Chinese.

Quite frankly, a very essential part of living in America.

But because I think I've had a solid foundation in English, it was easier for me to bridge that gap.

I've never told him this because like he just has a really big ego already.

But I am very, very grateful for my dad for putting that much effort into my English.

I can say that it has paid off.

Talking about this, my dad really is a crazy man.

He just has like all these like unconventional ways of like raising a child.

I wonder if he got heat for that ever.

I mean, it worked.

Did it work though?

Oh.

Did it?

I mean, it depends on what the metrics are.

Yeah.

Like you're a successful, seem like a well-adjusted human, but you're not like Shao Chun.

Ha!

Pfft.

Ha ha ha ha ha.

Yeah, it's rough being my parents.

Ha ha ha ha.

Hmm.

Yeah.

Do you think you're better than everyone?

Oh my God.

I'm just kidding.

Ha ha.