my classmates in the beginner's course (入門華語)

I've been told that most Chinese language students in Taiwan are Asians. In our class, however, it's fifty-fifty: four Westerners and four Asians. It's an interesting mix of people:

• two Vietnamese girls who just finished High School and want to study in Taiwan later.
• two men from Thailand: one of them disappeared during the first break and the other one is a monk.
• an American girl who also wants to go to College in Taiwan, she did a little Chinese in college in the US and also taught herself writing characters from books.
• a French woman who wants to work in Taiwan, so she can live with her Taiwanese boyfriend.
• a photographer from Turkey who wants to work in Taiwan.
• and a German grad student from Canada who wants to learn Chinese so he can order food in restaurants and write Chinese text messages to his Chinese friends.

Remarkably, the French girl really looked French on first sight (I guessed before she told me). Also remarkably, the American girl uses a lot of Asian body language, which I thought she has learned from watching Mangas, but she also had a Korean boyfriend before and she worked in a Korean company in the US. She seems to be the one most interested in the Chinese language itself and I instantly liked that. She already taught me how to write her name: 李亮瑩.