Yesterday I went to a student's house to spend time with her + give her some English-speaking practice. She speaks English well and is an incredibly bright student. I'm excited about staying in touch with her after I leave Moldova because it's clear she has a very promising and exciting future ahead of her. She's very goal oriented, loves reading, and is well informed about current events and politics.
While eating some food with her family I was given a glass of beer--each of the three children, two of them my students, were given beer--and then the 3 year old girl lifted her glass to toast me and her parents were saying "toast her! toast her! We toast here [in Moldova], don't you know how to toast?" It was an incredibly awkward situation to be in--I've been there multiple times before in similar situations.. It's hard to know what to do--do you drink with the children or do you try to explain to the parents that alcohol is not healthy for someone so young? You risk shaming someone with views that they consider Western (and in some cases might be Western views) which can alienate them from you and or put you at risk of sounding arrogant. No one wants to listen to an arrogant westerner. I don't know... a very sensitive, but interesting topic.