"How old are you?" It may be weird to be asked this question by strangers in the US, but not in every culture.
5月24日，我來到亞塞拜然北邊深山裡、接近俄羅斯邊界的小村Xinalug，那時候整個村裡只有我和另一個背包客；我在建造於山頂上、全部用石頭砌成的房屋之間走著，村裡的男孩突然用發音還不錯的英文問我「你叫什麼名字？」「你幾歲？」「你從哪裡來？」我回答了他們所有問題然後就⋯⋯沒有然後了，或許這就是他們在學校學到基本英文的其中幾句吧？
他們不是村裡唯一嘗試和我搭話的人，也有些成年男性向我問好，並且問我需不需要地方住，猜想對他們來說這是賺外快的方法；不過當我向他們說明自己不過夜之後，他們就像正常的朋友那樣對話，絲毫沒有那種想無所不用其極從你身上榨出錢來的感覺。這種還沒被觀光業破壞、還未遭到銅臭味污染的人情味，是我喜歡高加索山的原因之一。
On May 24, I visited Xinalug, a remote village in the mountainous Northern Azerbaijan near the Russian border. While walking through stone built houses on top of a mountain as one of the only two visitors there, a couple of boys looked at me and asked "what's your name?" "How old are you?" "Where are you from?" Their English pronunciation was surprisingly good, but our conversation ended after these 3 Q&A's. I guess these are probably some of the few English sentences they learned from school.
To be honest, they're not the only locals who tried to talk to me with simple English. Several other adults also asked if I need a place to stay overnight, which is for them a business opportunity. But as soon as I said I didn't need it, they simply talked to me as guests without pushing me to spend money on anything. This is something I really liked about the Caucasus -- the locals are not yet contaminated by tourists, and you don't need to worry about being plundered by them.
