“Can you see and hear me OK?” I said for at least the eighth time that day.

I was talking into my laptop. This was in Thailand, where I had moved after college to teach schoolchildren during the day and, for extra money, teach English online to Japanese and Korean adults in the evening.

I had hoped my student would cancel, but here he was. He looked to be about my age, 23, with a handsome, gentle face. Soon he was talking excitedly about his master’s degree in corn. “Corn is everywhere,” he said. “It’s part of everything. Even your clothes!”

I was expecting to have to fake laugh a lot during the 25-minute lesson, which I do to ensure good ratings, but he was genuinely making me smile. Most of my students were Japanese businessmen in expensive suits who said mundane things like, “My hobby is watching movies.”

“Can I ask you something personal?” he said.

“Sure.” I assumed he would ask if I was married, a common question in these conversational lessons.