Looking at the iced milk coffee that was one-third condensed milk, my friend excitedly took a big sip, only to shake his head and stick out his tongue: "Too sweet."

Years ago at a Bangkok airport, staff let my overweight bag through after finding it was filled with books. That small act of flexibility left me grateful, and made me think about how fragile the balance is between rules, fairness, and service culture in aviation.

I studied English the traditional way, through textbooks and dictionaries. After decades, no matter how long or complex a sentence is, I can still grasp the main idea.