The following exchange (as I can recall it) took place in my Friday evening adult class:

Me: "Iron" is a verb and a noun - you iron with an iron on an ironing board. Let's see who does the ironing in your home?
Sabrina: I am terrible at ironing, so my husband irons. He tells me to go away.
Me: Your husband?
Sabrina: Yes, he is very good, because he had to learn how to iron when he was in the army.
Reagon: It is the same in my house. I iron. I also had to do it in the army.
Me: What about in your house, Amy?
Amy: Sometimes my husband irons, but most of the time I iron. I do it all on one day. But for the children I buy a lot of T-shirts, because I don't have to iron them.
Me: Yes! That's why you always see me wearing T-shirts! I hate ironing. I have an iron, which I bought when I arrived in Taiwan, but I have never used it. It is still in the box I bought it in. Who irons in your house, Alan?
Alan: No one! Megan and I hate ironing. We send our ironing to the laundry.
Reagon: I try to buy shirts that I don't have to iron, because I don't have a lot of time to iron.
Me: Even if I had the time to iron, I wouldn't want to! And I didn't go to the army, so I never really had to learn. Someone, a friend of mine, tried to teach me once, but it is so boring.
Reagon: In Taiwan all boys have to go the army.
Me: It used to be the same in South Africa. We say "conscription", but now the South African army is a volunteer force. There is no longer a need for conscription, because we are not fighting a war. It's different in Taiwan, because of China.
Reagon: So why didn't you go to the army?
Me: Because I am diabetic and the government thought I would be too much trouble. My two brothers went though. But, when I saw them while they were in the army, I was happy that I did not have to go - it looked so boring.
Sabrina: It's the same here. Like my brothers. They had to go for two years and they say it is very boring.
Me: Yes, in South Africa it was also for two years. These days not many countries have conscription. Which countries still do? Do you know? Of course, Taiwan ...
Alan: China.
Reagon: South Korea.
Me: South Korea?
Sabrina: Yes, they do.
Me: Oh, of course, they have a problem with North Korea.
Reagon: The Philippines.
Sabrina: No, I don't think so.
Me: Yes, I'm not sure that the Philippines do.
Reagon: Indonesia?
Me: I'm not sure ...
Amy: Israel does.
Sabrina: Yes, there the men and the women have to go to the army.
Alan: They have a big problem with Palestine.
Me: Yes, it is a mess over there. I was watching TV, CNN, today and saw that another suicide bomber has blown himself up. No one seems to be able to sort out the problems there and Arafat doesn't seem to have any power to do anything about it.
Alan: It seems to me that the Palestine government is supporting these suicide bombers, because they give money to the bomber's family.
Me: How did we get here?
Reagon: We learned to iron in the army ...

23 March 2002

Dion Marc Delport

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