Brandy and I were discussing a friend’s trip to Taiwan (I don’t remember why) when I asked which dialect of Chinese she (the friend) spoke. Brandy then informed me that she spoke Mandarin (which I will always think of as an orange and giggle, because I am an adult) and that it was the “official” language of Taiwan. I said that I was pretty sure it was, but she followed up with “What did you think it was, ‘Taiwanese’?” and then she cracked up laughing.

Apparently Brandy wasn’t sure that ‘Taiwanese’ was a word (I have to admit that I didn’t either) and she felt that adding an ‘ese’ onto the word ‘Taiwan’ was essentially making up a word, kind of like ‘Houston’ + ‘ese’ = Houstonese (someone originally from Houston). By this rationale I could have also attended ‘Texasese’ schools, and now have a ‘Lazybrookese’ home.

It was at this point that I said I was pretty sure that it WAS a word, so she checked and indeed it was. Turns out we had a ‘hilarity ensued’ moment for nothing. [insert whammy noise here.]