Maids are maids because they're poor. They're not uneducated beings.

I came home from a massage to find my maid with a cook book. While I was happily eating my lunch on the table, she was on the floor flipping the pages while reading it aloud. Then she turned to me and said, "Ibu, mau coba ni sore nanti ngak?" (Would you like to try cooking this dish for dinner later?)

She never fails to amaze me. First, she knows how to read a cook book, all printed out in English. Second, she knows what ingredients we have in the fridge to try out that particular dish in the book. This shows that she understood the book's content.

I am absolutely impressed. By the way, did I mention that she's from a small kampung (village) 2 hours away from Jakarta and also, that her English pronunciation is much better than most of our fellow countrymen?