Film in foreign language

I would like to ask why should be wrong that the kids look a cartoon in a foreign language.
In Malaysia a young couple with two school girls invited me for dinner. After eating, we chatted while the girls were looking at a DVD - a fairy tale in English. I was impressed, because the father is Chinese, the mother Malay, and the girls perfectly trilingual. I thought that those kids will be the next generation in power.

Unprepared job interview

I would like to ask whether it is not obvious that you know what will be the conditions in your contract when you go to a job interview. Maybe not the tiniest details, but for instance if it is a short-term contract, or how much travel is involved, or the salary range.

Not that young parents

I would like to ask what is the role of the kids towards their own parents when the kids are adults and the parents get old. Let speak about parents and kids who love each other, share opinions and events, and are there for the other when needed.

Girl in tights

I would like to ask the girl in the tram whether she just forgot her skirt or she intentionally goes around dressed like that. I don't wanna judge - well, actually, I am - but... why should an about 15-years-old quite normal pretty looking girl go around wearing a nice short blouse, black thick tights, and shoes, without any skirt or trousers?

Idiot theater

I would like to ask whether you too sometimes felt like being within a funny movie while everyone else takes it very seriously.
Imagine that you are sitting at the breakfast table with a friend in a quite crowded nice cute bar. Everyone is talking with the table partners, and you are too. You are trying to tell your friend that he is an idiot, sometime. But you do not want to offend him, so you try to put it down nicely and softly. Unfortunately, being he sometimes an idiot, he does not understand what you mean.

Town smell and color

I would like to ask how do the color and the smell which characterize a town form, what constitutes them and how can be unique and recognizable for every single town. It might be true that all cities along the sea have a hint of fishy, marine smell in their own odor, but then to this a mixture of the background mountains, the local food, the air humidity, and thousand other insignificant factors is added, which all together form the unique essence of the town.

Ironing

I would like to ask why do clothes need to be ironed. Ok, not all of them. But let's take a nice cotton shirt or blouse. That is the typical example of something that if not ironed "looks bad". I would like to meet the person who invented all this and exchange a couple of words and get some explanation. I really do not understand why the shirt has to be ironed. Once it is clean, and it matches the pants, and it is decent, without holes or strange stuff, what is the problem?

Non self-evident

I would like to ask why we have to get sick to understand how health is not a natural condition. Only then we realize how lucky we have been until then, or how important it is. I wonder why we can not appreciate what we have all the time, and not only when we do not have it anymore. Sometimes, we even challenge our bodies, or we look at danger with disregard. 

Fear

I would like to ask whether fear is a sign of elderly. Whether you have more fear when you get older, because you are more mature, you think about all what you could lose, all what could happen, all what happens already in the world, because you are aware of it. Whether you begin to think about yourself being finite, powerless, and not able to influence most events, just feeling like you are more flowing in a river with different currents and that you can only decide which one is the stronger one, but not which currents contribute to your motions. Whether you feel responsible for someone and for something, but you can give very few support.

Worrying

I would like to ask why sometimes people get worried before even it makes any sense. They get worried about what would happen if, but the "if" did not happen yet, nor is foreseen to happen, and, what's worse, they could not change anything in case the "if" would become true. It is just one of many occasions of our impotence in influencing many things. Therefore, it makes even less sense to just get worried: can you avoid it? do it; can you not avoid it? be prepared in the best way, but do not worry.
When people worry, they begin to kind of panic and lose any type of objectivity on the situation. It is like if someone would keep telling you "I can't swim, I can't swim, I will draw" sitting on a bench in a park along a little water hole, where nobody would ever think about taking a bath, nor the person speaking would ever think about taking one, but is getting worried about the fact that she will draw "if" she would take a bath.

Common sense volume

I would like to ask why some people believe that they need to listen to music to the highest volume to really be able to enjoy it. Does the volume really make such a difference? And what if the neighbors or flatmates do not want to listen to it?

Pedestrian crossing

I would like to ask whether that father believes he is a great example for his son, after he yelled at us while crossing the street.

Music

I would like to ask what would be the world without music. It is something so ephemeral and impalpable, but still with the power of changing our way of feeling or let us be less alone. You can sing with it, you can just enjoy it laying lazy on the sofa, or you can use it as a background for a lot of activities. And there are so many different types, it can be so different, from the African traditional drums to electronic music, from Wiener Waltz to bands.

Misunderstandings

I would like to ask why it is so easy to misunderstand others. We sometimes explain it with different background, different culture, maybe a different knowledge of the language is used. But most times, it is just the different personal meaning that everyone gives to the same word. Not even maybe the intrinsic meaning, that is, what the word actually mean. I think that the danger is more in what the word refers about, or in all the words which are missed that can completely change the meaning of a sentence, if added to it.

Vegetarian parents

I would like to ask that girl whether she knows what the word "vegetarian" means or whether she simply thinks it is a bad word with which her school friends distinguished her from themselves.
I was on the tram when five girls around 7 or 8 years old came in and stand in the middle of the wagon, where everyone could see and hear them. For a while they talked about school, then one of them suddenly indicated a butcher shop we were passing by. "That is the best one in town, my mum says". Another girl said "Yes, my mum says so too". And a third girl added "Mine as well". The fourth girl joined "My mum too". And the fifth girl echoed "My mum too". But then the other four girls turned to her and two of them said at the same time:
"No, yours not".
Silence.
"Why mine not?"
"Because your parents are vegetarian".
"So what?".
"They don't go to butchers".
Silence.

Silence in town

I would like to ask how would it be a town where you can not hear a noise. Everything would still work as usual - car crossing with powerful engines, door getting opened and closed, people walking around - but nothing would emit a sound. People would talk with signs and through videocalls.

Could you move the revolving door?

I would like to ask that guy how many times he already asked what he asked me this afternoon, and how many times he might have liked to ask but he did not.
It is the entrance of the supermarket and there is a standard revolving door at half height where you have to pass through in order to get into the food section. On one side the wheel for the people and just nearby the bar for the carts. But when I approach it, a guy in a wheelchair blocks my way and looks at me with a distorted face. He says something that I can not understand. Then he tries again slowly, then a third time with great effort, and I finally understand: could I please move the revolving door so that he can get out of the supermarket, as the aisles of the counters are too narrow for his wheelchair?

Traditional clothes

I would like to ask whether the people wearing a traditional dress in the Munich central train station are going to the Oktoberfest for working or for fun. After I noticed at least half of the people in the station wearing leather shorts with long wool socks or white blouses with colorful skirts, my friends told me that those people were most probably “real Germans from Bayern” (the most south region of Germany confining with Austria) who dress up in the traditional clothes for going to one of the most famous festivals of beer in Europe, if not in the world.

Time for travelling?

I would like to ask what would you do if you could choose when to start your new job - on January 1st, or on April 1st - and your actual contract finishes on December 31st.

Helping when nothing changes

I would like to ask what is the best way to help someone. If he tells you, what is his problem, and you listen, and you try to give your opinion and suggest what he should do, and then, things are too complicate, nothing changes. The situation does not change, the people do not change, the life does not change.

"I am right"

I would like to ask why some people do not understand how much they hurt others, only because they believe to know what is right and they do not listen what other people think, wish, believe. I am not talking about religion. I am talking about the behavior of people who believe to know that they are always perfect, and to know what is best for others. So that they just impose it to others, and get angry or disappointed when others do not want to do it and suggest unlistened alternatives. It is when dialogue does not exist and the complexity of life is misregarded. It is when people always know what is right, black or white, and do not see all the different tones of grey, if not the rainbow of colors which characterize life.

To appreciate and to like

I would like to ask what would you think if someone brings you a cake from his own tradition, with a very elegant decoration on top, a certificate of the genuinity of the recipe and of the ingredients, and an exquisitely decorated box.

Doctors

I would like to ask why people are afraid of doctors. In the end, they just try to make us feel better or to solve a problem. Maybe, the idea of a doctor is associated with pain for some invasive analysis, or illness, or feeling bad, together with long waiting times in non optimal conditions. I think that most of the time we are afraid of the fact that they tell us to do something, or to take some medicaments, and we mostly have no idea of how these magic pills should let us feel better or the exercise should help our physical conditions. It basically then implies a blind trust in their knowledge, understanding and capability to offer the right solution to our problem. I can imagine that nobody likes to give such blind trust to, more or less, strangers.

Curtains

I would like to ask whether the use or not of curtains influences the social behaviors of the people living in that region. In the mediterranean countries, the windows of fancy furnished houses have double or triple protection from the sunlight: thin white curtains, thick darker curtains, and shutters or similar. In the continental Europe, in the northern part, it is difficult to find any shade of curtain, thin or thick, even in hotels. In Asia there I have seen ricepaper curtains, where you can see the shadow of the people behind them, but diffused.