My Taiwanese workplace has had all gender bathrooms for a couple of years. I thought it was standard practice now. None of the girls use them, though.
I’ve not come across teachers still mandating masks. That is definitely odd. Suggests a mental health issue to me. I still see a fair few students wearing them out of choice. We both know it’s not for health reasons, and that’s fine.
I disagree when they have outsized influence and pressure the rest of society to conform to their masking standards. Problem in Taiwan is people have no courage in their social circles to be the first to rip that diaper off their face and say “this is stupid.” It’s a collectivist culture so people are too deferential and also allergic to confrontation, so you have a lot of people still masking just to appease others especially in schools and workplaces.
Like I said, it’s not a self righteous political identifier like in the USA, so I guess it’s less annoying in some respects. But it’s almost 2027! And people only mask marginally less than they did in 2023. I think COVID permanently broke Taiwan in some ways.
With my students it’s generally girls with social anxiety issues who are still wearing masks.
I would have thought Taiwanese were wearing masks even before the pandemic. Like in many other asian countries. Especially girls.
I have a questionable memory, but it feels about the same number now as pre 2020.
Bunch of NPCs.
No way. Pre-2020 I had about 1-2 students per class who would always mask up, and then another couple who would do it when they were sick (I still put on a mask when I’m sick, to make my students comfortable if nothing else). Now I’d say most classes are about evenly split between maskers and non-maskers. Like I said, it’s marginally better than a couple years ago, 2023-2024, when it’d be like 70%. But I feel this has definitely become a semi-permanent status quo. In 5 years, people will still be masking up here in large numbers. The ones who think it’s dumb (outside of being sick or immunocompromised) have already stopped.
I’ll run a count tomorrow, but I’m sure it’s a maximum of 10% of students in masks. I’m amazed at your 50:50 split.
At least 30-40%. It’s a large chunk in all my classes.
First class today, 28 students with 4 wearing masks.
8 out of 30 in class 2.
First class today, only 11 out of 40. Maybe we’re finally turning a corner… 
Sorry I was a bit forceful in my certainty last night. Just get tired of the mask silliness.
So far it’s more than I thought it would be.
It makes news stories like this so difficult to follow:
He was a Trans man, married to a transphobic woman, and they managed to have three children. But he must have been a biological woman who had started transitioning at the point at which he married his wife in 2012, because he had a mastectomy in 2010.
How can a formerly biological woman produce viable sperm after transitioning?
My guess is they both had children from previous relationships, due to the use of the word shared.
Too bad the gang are way too old (and half are dead) to remake The Life of Brian in Arabia.
