February 9, 2025

I was attending an orientation session for an ESL class and the speaker started by asking us to not dream of settling in the US.

One by one, we were asked to confirm our registration with one of the staff, and when it came to my turn I was asked to provide a confirmation code. I didn’t remember ever receiving or setting one but apparently it wasn’t much of a problem after all. I was asked to sign a pledge to not drink or do drugs in class while being asked a series of personal questions. “I heard from your mom you studied linguistics, does that mean you’re published?” I wanted to explain that technically, but not really, due to my undergraduate thesis but it didn’t seem to really care. They asked if my dad was in Hawaii, which he wasn’t. Then asked what he was doing in Taiwan, which caught me off guard. “Huh? He’s just living…” I muttered, unsure what was supposed to be an appropriate answer to such kinds of questions.