The Legal Drinking Age is 3

Last week Shawn told his students that in America the legal drinking age is 21. He asked them the legal drinking age and they said "3".

A few months ago I met a woman on the bus and a gave her our phone number. A few weeks ago (about 6 months after I met her) she gave me a call and wanted to meet me. So, I met the woman and she invited Shawn and I to dinner with her, her mother and sister.

Last night we went to dinner, expecting a very long and semi-painful night considering her English is absolutely terrible and our Chinese is worse. However, it turned out to be a lot of fun. They were all really sweet, and her mother especially was incredibly enthusiastic about our being there.

Her 3 year old nephew was there and when dinner started they gave Shawn a beer and then opened another one for this little kid, and poured it in his little cup. The kid drank an entire can of beer. Every few minutes he would stand up and go around the table "Gambe, mama", "Gambe Ayi" "Gambe Nai nai" etc. "Gambe" is the equivalent of "Cheers" and he would hit his glass to theirs and drink. If someone he had toasted didn't drink (since he did it so often) he would say "He! He!!"(drink, drink) until they did. After a few rounds he was accidentally knocking things over when he stood up to "Gambe" everyone and the mother of the child laughed a little and said, "My son is very happy."

Keep in mind that the beer has a very low alcohol content. Also, they did cut him off after one.

Now we know, the legal drinking age in China really is 3.