Sunday, March 4, 2007

0703042100 Good morning, that is a nice sunset.

There is a missionary at church that worked in Hong Kong I have been practicing my greetings so that I can say hello in Cantonese. When I saw her this afternoon, I mustered up the new words and in my best Cantonese said "Sue Jer, Jo-Sun" which meant that I bid her a good morning at one o'clock in the afternoon. Apparently the language course that I am doing does not cover meeting people at any other time than in the mornings. Maybe in lesson three it will cover the remote possibility that people may want to meet in the afternoon. "No, you mean "Meoor - Good Afternoon" was her reply. I had practiced that line since Tuesday. She then said five more things that I can't remember for the other times of the day. I pressed on with my excuse which is, in Cantonese, "Noor sic tan yet tee quong tong waah" - I can hear a little Cantonese - this elicited a yelp of delight from the Cantonese speaking missionary. My number one son standing nearby asked what I said and the missionary began explaining to him in Cantonese! I can only guess why she started speaking Cantonese but I would like to think that she felt comfortable and at home and was able to be understood. Maybe this is why people take the effort to learn a language. Learning an entire language is more than remembering what new utterances replace our utterances - it shows that one is prepared to fit in, to contribute, to make the effort needed to join them.

Cantonese is the second language that I have tried to learn - the first was Russian. I learned a few words of Russian when I was in the army as an artillery signaller in the 1980s and then again later when I borrowed books and tapes from the local library. I have never been to Russia, and as a soldier in the 1980s it was my prime goal to never ever go to Russia. Ever. Back in the 1980s a soldier visiting Russia could end up imprisoned, seriously embarrassed, killed or all of the above. I learned Russian at two different times in my life and for two different reasons. The first time it was how to stay the hell away from them and their incredible number of nuclear bombs. The second time it was to understand what my number one son was going through while he was trying to learn English.

Bigots have a saying, and they state forcefully with conviction that an immigrant must speak their language. Maybe they see the effort of learning a new local language as a sign of respect. In return, a bigot will reward their efforts by withholding all hostilities. I worked with a man, an adult in his thirties whose intelligence was sufficient that he was actually able to join telephone wires, who strongly believed that anybody who did not speak English should not be allowed into or remain in Australia. I asked him why he had such a strong belief but he was unable to explain the reason or purpose to either me or himself. In his personal model of Utopia, in which he was the supreme and only leader, he made a grand magnanimous gesture of allowing the English speaking children of immigrants to remain in Australia - albeit under home detention. And only if the English speaking children have jobs.

Internet names are used in this blog.

references:
http://www.cantonese.ca/
http://www.armscontrol.ru/start/rsf_now.htm

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