A Dissertation by GRACE HUI-CHIN LIN Submitted to the Office of ...

interview:
There were some other sensitive and private topics I would avoid in
conversation. For example, if someone wanted to know my economic level, I
would not continue this topic with him. Some people might think of
borrowing money from you after they had known you were rich. Therefore, I
did not like the others starting a topic about how much money I had or how
good my grade was. I believed that topics about my salary, saving, and
property were the most unwelcome topics. Anything related to money was a
sensitive and private topic. It was like a question of age for a female.
Tien Long told the researcher that instead of “keeping silent,” he would use some
other skills to protect himself from private questions:
It was necessary that I used some knacks to avoid the topic when I detected it
was sensitive. Besides “keeping silent,” I believed it was quite a good method
that I asked the person the sensitive and private questions in the same way. Or,
I responded with nonsense instead of responding to him honestly. I might not
“keep silent,” but I would lead him to some other topics I felt were better.
Tien Long in his second interview talked about his reasons why “keeping silent”
should not be used:
“Keeping silence” could build up an impolite impression for the others. It
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