Awkward Questions

When we agreed to be Peace Corps volunteers in China, we also agreed to never ever, ever, never, ever discuss the ‘3 T’s’ with any Chinese Nationals: Tibet, Taiwan and Tiananmen Square. Those topics were pretty easy to avoid; I think the entire time I was in China, people only asked me about them 3 or 4 times. And it is fairly easy to deflect conversations in China; if you change the subject, they accept that means you don’t want to talk about it. But there were other questions asked that weren’t necessarily verboten, but for me, awkward to answer. Such as:

1. “What do you do in America to spot the counterfeit money?” There is a problem with counterfeit money floating about in China. It’s quite common to be passed fake money, to the extent that if you get fake money from an ATM, the bank is not responsible for reimbursing you. (The safest way to get money is from a teller, because they check it before they hand it to you.) So you learn to inspect the paper on everything higher than a five, and if you do get fake money, you can make a scene or decline it or whatever. Or try to pass it to someone else. So when the business teachers asked me how we spot fake U.S. money, it felt awkward to have to admit we don’t really have the same size problem. One of them said,"But how? Your money is easier to counterfeit than ours!” Um, I don’t know. We just don’t really have to worry about it. I mean, I know there is counterfeit money, but not in daily rotation like there is in China. I still don’t really have a good answer for that.

2. “Why do Americans just say ‘Korea’ when they really mean ‘South Korea?” My answer: it’s tradition to just say ‘Korea.’ Follow up question, “What if you want to talk about North Korea?” Answer in my head I didn’t say out loud, "’Most Americans don’t talk about North Korea.” In China, there is South Korean and North Korean. In America, there is usually Korean and North Korean. My students picked up on this. They are smart kids.

3. “Do you have to have a visa to go to Hong Kong?” No, American citizens don’t need a visa to go to Hong Kong. “Oh, in China we have to have a visa to go to Hong Kong.” I never really said anything after that, just something lame like, “Oh.” But inside I was cringing.

All of these questions were asked out of sincere curiosity; it’s just that the answers made me feel a bit awkward. Luckily, they were usually short conversations.