Rising Stars

Over the two years that we’ve lived in Taiwan we’ve mentioned the perks of being some of the few white people in an Asian world, but I think being asked to be in movies tops them all.  That’s right, I said movies, plural.  In the last three weeks, we’ve been asked to be in 2 movies!  (Granted, we’ll probably be extras in the back ground, but these opportunities don’t come around everyday people.)  We of course said yes, because that’s what you say when someone asks if you want to be in their movie, right?!

Unfortunately, we quickly learned there’s a reason we’re teachers and not actors, the reason you ask?  We. Can’t. Act.  After agreeing to be in the first movie, we met up with some of the movie people for what we thought was a “we’re gonna film on this day and you need to wear this and act like you’re talking in the background” meeting turned out to be an audition.  We were as astonished as you because like I said before, we can’t act.  They wanted us to act out a short scene where we were riding our bikes and I fall off mine and Nick has to check on me, then stop a passing car to take me to the hospital.  They gave us a few minutes to think about it and practice, and then things got hilarious.

Picture this- we have no props, we’re standing in plain view of all the passersby, and we have no idea how to make this look real, but we do it anyways, because we’re dedicated.  So they say go, or action or whatever the movie term is, and Nick and I start our pathetic attempt at acting.  I fall down off my invisible bike and do some whimpering and crying for help.  Nick rushes over and sees that I’m okay, then tries to stop cars.  At this point we think we’re done, but they say “No, keep going,” so we keep going.  Thankfully I’m supposed be the injured, so no one can see my embarrassed smile because my body is blocking my face.  Nick stops invisible cars  like a pro, and eventually I hobble over to the “car” and they rush me off to the hospital.  End of scene.  We of course apologized to the people about our horrible acting skills, and they reassure us that it’s okay, but now they have to send it to the director to see if he likes it.  We haven’t heard from them yet, so, we’re not getting our hopes up, but there’s always our second movie.  That could be our big break!

America the Beautiful

Living in Taiwan means that we miss many American holidays and traditions like Thanksgiving, Christmas, and the Super Bowl.  While neither of us are football fans, we enjoy watching the Super Bowl for the snacks and commercials.  In the age of social media, even living in a different country really doesn’t mean we’re completely out of the loop.  We get to read everyone’s updates about how Denver only scored 3 points, Mattress Mac lost $7 million dollars because of a bet with his customers, how the Red Hot Chili Peppers have lost it, and all that jazz (it’s really more entertaining personally).  But, my favorite thing social media has given us is the opportunity to watch the Super Bowl commercials post-Super Bowl.

There were lots of good ones, but my heart was saddened by many American’s hateful response to Coca Cola’s “America is Beautiful” commercial.  If you don’t remember it, or haven’t seen it, here it is.

It’s a beautiful multi-lingual rendition of America the Beautiful (NOT the national anthem, as so many of these haters suppose- I guess they didn’t listen closely and sing along at the beginning of the game) depicting American people doing American things in America, drinking an American favorite.  Many people responded with such hate, racism, and xenophobia to this simple and beautiful ad campaign stating that “in America we speak English.”  Let’s just overlook the fact that many people who posted such comments can’t even use grammatically correct English, and look at a foreigner’s point of view.

Being a foreigner in another country has given us a lot of perspective on what it’s like to live in America and not speak the language and be illiterate.  That’s right, in the country that Nick and I live in, we are completely illiterate.  We are the people who cause citizens to say, “If you’re going to live here, you should speak Chinese!”  Now, most of the people we come into contact with on a daily basis are very nice and hopefully don’t say those hateful things behind our backs, but it’s possible.  Living in another country is hard.  You move away from your family.  You are in a foreign land that you are not familiar with at all.  You don’t speak the language.   You can’t read.  You have very few contacts.  You are in a constant state of confusion.  You go without things because you can’t communicate your needs.  You are brave.

So why do people do this?  Why do people move to another country and leave everything they know behind?  Because they are in search of something better.  We moved to Taiwan for great jobs, just like many of the people who move to America.  They think, “This is the place to be.  This is where I will make my new life.”  After having seen some of the places that these people come from, I can see why they want to move to America.  We should be proud that people come to our country thinking, “this is where it’s at.”  We should welcome these people and try to make their lives easier.  We should respect them and the choices they have made.  Who cares if they don’t speak English?  As a matter of fact, we Americans should try harder to learn other languages and see other countries, but that’s a conversation for another day and another post.

Because America is a “melting pot,” we as Americans have a valuable and unique opportunity.  We can experience other cultures daily.  We know what the people of the world look like.  We don’t stare at people who have a different skin color, because that’s part of our everyday life.  No other place in the world offers that wonderful opportunity.  The fact that the people living here speak other languages is what makes America America.  We are THE melting pot.  So don’t be so narrow-minded.  Embrace it.  Love it.

Thank you Coca Cola for reminding us of the beautiful country that we live in that attracts people from all over the world.  Thank you for reminding us of all the opportunities to learn about other cultures from the comfort of our own homes.  Thank you.