[quote=“Salvatore Armani”]The “nod” is all that I require to be happy living here in 昭明. The Taiwan nod and the Vermont nod are actually the same, so it’s not hard for me to understand when I’m being acknowleged as a neighbor and, more importantly, as a HUMAN BEING.
I live out in the pigshit country between Kaohsiung and Pingdong city, so I experience the deep and hard stare every day, sometimes 3 or 4 times per day.
Thanks JD Smith for giving me a new response to try out, and believe me, I’ve tried everything. Mother Theresa’s remarks are spot-on as well: The hard stare is a situation in which the offending party doesn’t even acknowledge “ado” as a member of the human race, and that’s a very frustrating thing to work with IMHO. Satisfying myself in English (for my own benefit) is sometimes the only thing that makes up for the de-humanizing deep-stare treatment. As a result, I often resort to saying things that I could never get away with saying in an English-only environment. I’d make a sailor blush with some of the English I use in public these days.[/quote]
just pretend you are brad pitt and those are all your adoring fans If you cant change the problem, change the way you handle it? By changing your thinking about how it affects you? just a thought?