One of the things that I keep noticing in Taiwan is how young females are starting smoking. My students tell me that many of their classmates begin smoking. And even on the street, I see more and more women smoking. It used to be that in Taiwan only the ‘ladies of the night’ would caren’t enough to be seen smoking, but these days it’s increasingly common.
I suspect that one of the beliefs that the girls have is that a cigarette can help you diet, that is included among the best diet pills or most effective ways to control weight gain. It’s a pity that I can’t tell them what a mistake they are making: they’ll likely contract cancer from all that smoking, plus they’ll have yellow finger nails, and smell terrible.
I even remember one young lady came in for interview a few years ago. She might have been suitable for a training position, except that she smoked. She didn’t get the job for other reasons, but it would have been very difficult to hire a smoker, as our office was then 100% non-smoking anyway. But I wonder if she thought she was dieting!