Foreign Tongues
Before my current endeavour I’d never genuinely tried to learn a second language. My French is passable, but that is simply a product of growing up reading the French sides of endless cereal boxes, and occasionally listening to Radio-Canada. Having never really attempted to learn a second language I hadn’t given much thought to those who, on a daily basis, work in a language other than their mother tongue. Well, it isn’t that I hadn’t given it thought, rather that I couldn’t appreciate it fully.
The experience is an interesting one. There is a tangible distance, for lack of a better word, between myself and the locals. I feel hamstrung on a daily basis. Language, being my principal way of interacting with the world at large, is an incredibly important facet of my personality. In English I fancy myself a moderately articulate individual with a functional vocabulary at my disposal. While trying to use Chinese my ability to express myself is compromised. I am effectively a different person in Chinese than I am in English.
Nonetheless, I’m learning. I don’t reckon I will ever be as proficient with Chinese as I am with English, but I will certainly improve. Hopefully my ability to identify various Chinese foods is one of the first things to improve. About fifty percent of the time I’ve little to no idea what it is I’m eating. Sometimes I can hazard a guess as to whether it be game or fowl or seafood. Other times I am completely flummoxed. This evening I was having some scrambled eggs and rice with bean sprouts. Or what I thought was bean sprouts. That is until I noticed they were a bit too soft, and made a closer inspection. Up close I noticed my bean sprouts had eyes. I haven’t yet encountered anything I wouldn’t eat. I’ve had a few things I didn’t enjoy a whole lot, but I’ve also had some things that were great.