Taiwanese gran

GrannyA How lovely. Thank you for sharing that with me. How blessed you must all feel to have found each other in this way.

NanSue I used to provide homestay accommodation for adults studying at the local language school. I was asked as a favour to take this boy for one week whilst his homestay family went on holiday. We got on well although he had only been in the country for a short time and had very little English. On the day before he was due to leave he said, over and over; "I stay", "I stay". I explained that his stay with us was only temporary, but before the day was out his mother had telephoned the school and asked them to beg me to let him stay. So we always say he came to stay for a week and never really left us. He lived with us for over a year before I became his legal guardian (again after a begging phone call from his mum) and by then he was one of the family; he went off to do IGCSE's at boarding school, a foundation year, degree and finally master's courses, but always came home for holidays. My children refer to him as their brother and on FB he has me down as his mother. His Taiwanese family accept that he has an English family and are very grateful that we love him like our own.

GA What a wonderful family you have and all so caring of each other,your DSs grandmother will return with all manner of easier ways of running her home by the time she leaves with your help she sounds delightful.
DS1s fiancee is half Chinese and he goes every weekend to visit with his fiancee she is semi-literate she came here nearly 60yrs ago as a young bride with her hubby she feeds DS1 up and always says he is not eating enough,packs him up food to bring home wrapped in huge cabbage leaves as it keeps the food fresh according to her.
Enjoy the rest of your DSs visit he sounds such a wonderful person.

GrannyA How fascinating!
I would be very interested to hear how you initially came to have your Taiwanese "son" with you to study here and also how he adapted to the English culture and education system.
We have a lovely 13 year old Taiwaneses step grandson (DIL's son from a previous marriage) and although DIL has no real desire to live here in England, she often talks about him and DG eventually studying over here so they can obtain English degrees but I worry how they would adapt. The schools over there are in fact very good but of course Degrees obtained in England are highly prized world wide.

grannyactivist I am quite envious of the bond you have with 'your boy's' granny. Sometimes I think it is because of the Cultural Revolution that DD's MiL does not want to make contact. I think she worked for the government then and both SiL and his sister were sent to the countryside to be wet-nursed when they were born and did not return for a few years. Thr CR is something that is never spoken of by any people of that generation that I have met.

granny-a that is very interesting. We can make our lives so much more interesting simply by being kind and open.

Thanks for your kind comments.
I haven't been to Taiwan yet NanSue and to be honest I don't relish the prospect of going as I know there is high humidity and that summer temperatures soar - both things that cause me problems, but I have promised my boy that when he gets married I will be at his wedding along with my daughter, his 'sister', who adores him (it's mutual).
Tonight I took my 'son' and his grandmother along to a concert that was directed by my mother in law, his 'English grandmother'. It was quite special at the end of the evening as he got his two grandmothers side by side to take a photograph; they're exactly the same age and their life experiences couldn't be more different.
Some interesting titbits I found out today:
Taiwanese grandmother still does most of her cooking on an open woodburning stove and this evening before we went out she asked me to teach her how to make the newspaper 'spills' I use to get my fire going. She demonstrated how she just crumples up newspaper to start her fire and complained that it goes out before the fire gets going. I admit I was shocked that she didn't know how to do something I think of as pretty basic and had to check with my boy that I'd understood her properly. (I had.) She hasn't been to the sea for 19 years, since she came off her motorbike when returning from a fishing trip one day and was moved, unconscious, to the side of the road and left there to recover - her daughter sold the bike to prevent her using it again and grandmother is still miffed about it!!!! She lives in an 'oil' house. Her village was built over major oil pipelines and the houses are regarded as dangerous to live in. She has never been to school. She lived in a very rural area and the school could only be reached by train - she was too scared to go away from her village and so declined to go to school. Instead she helped her family to market the locally grown rice until (at age 12) she was big enough to use a scythe and began working in the rice fields.
Most shocking of all to me was that it used to be common for babies (especially females) to be given away to friends or, more usually, other family members, especially if the other family had no children (yet) of their own. Some baby girls were given to another family as future daughters in law for their sons.

It must have been wonderful to meet this lady.

G.A, my daughter in law is Taiwanese, my son met her whilst he was working over there some years back. My DG Grace is just 5 and speaks fluent Taiwanese, Mandarin and English. We have visited them many times over the last 6 years and also Jasmines family. I can definitely relate to the lovely part of your post where you say although Grandma speaks no English, you still manage to communicate somehow. My sons mother in law is a super slim fit 60 something and she is such a smiley lovely lady and sometimes we have what seems like a whole conversation just smiling and laughing at each other! Bizarre as it sounds you must be one of the few people that understands this. We have asked if she would like to visit along with my sons family but she is afraid of flying. Have you ever been to Taiwan? It really is a fascinating culture and the people are very endearing. If you haven't been yet and can possibly do so, I can highly recommend it.

I echo Eloethan's post!

That's lovely.

My DD has a Chinese friend who speaks excellent English. Her mum speaks none and I don't speak any Mandarin but whenever we meet up we have wonderful conversations (without using an interpreter) and share a great sense of humour. She teaches me how to make dumplings and in return I show her how to make Yorkshire puddings. We are just good friends as it is obvious you are with your Taiwanese gran grannyactivist. I love the idea of an International Grans meet-up.
It doesn't always happen however. I have tried hard over the years to find a point of contact with DD Chinese MiL to no avail and now I don't think there ever will be. She doesn't even want to use her son as an interpreter. A great shame as we share the same GC's.

I think grannyactivist that people who are kind and welcoming, and who reach out to those whose lives are very different from their own, make the world a happier place.

What a wonderful example you are.

That's a lovely post GA, and what a great idea a Grans International meet would be!