There’s something different about this one…
I see myself as a moderately well-travelled person, having visited most of Europe, Hong Kong, Japan and the southern states in the USA. Many memories are made on each trip, whether they are about trying strange food, meeting friendly locals or even having the odd moment of hilarity – but one thing I always find is that confusion crops up about my ethnic appearance. I’m not even sure if it’s in a good or bad way.
I’m a British Born Chinese, speak English fluently and studied Spanish at university, so I am pretty comfortable with visiting most parts of the world. I don’t have any qualms about learning even more languages, if it helps me get by. But my appearance seems to evoke different…. responses.
For instance, a short conversation while getting coffee at a gas-stop in New Mexico left a cashier confused when she said I (apparently) spoke like the Queen. Flip side to this: during a night out in Acuña, Mexico, a bartender was surprised to be able to talk to me in great detail about how film director Robert Rodriguez used his tavern to film a part of his feature Desperado, as I was the only one who could speak and understand Spanish – something that also helped make a complaint about a dirty and unmade hotel room in Las Vegas.
A weird occurrence was when a tourist wanted a picture taken with me during a visit with friends to the Carlsberg Museum in Copenhagen. The reason? He had never seen a Chinese person before.
Multiculturalism is growing everyday and so more people are becoming accustomed to different ways of life. But there are parts of the world that are not so used to ethnic diversity, and particularly given Asians’ distinctive appearance, seeing someone different walk through the door will always have that element of surprise. Even more so if that person can talk and understand you – that always raises a smile… or perhaps a furrowed brow.
Do you find yourself surprising people on your travels with your linguistic abilities? Or have you met someone who catches you unawares by conversing in your native tongue?
Katie
Lost in Translation – literally
A few weeks ago I wrote about my plan to get back into speaking Spanish regularly. First off, a confession – I haven’t actually spoken Spanish to anyone yet, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been busy!
I’ve always been pretty fluent at reading Spanish. One of my proudest achievements is reading Lord of the Rings in translation – although I think I might be prouder of getting through the books (especially the end of the third volume, which, in my opinion, was hard work) than of understanding the Spanish. To be honest, a lot of the made-up words are the same or very similar – an orc is un orco, a hobbit is un hobbit… You get the idea. My point is, I still try and read books in Spanish quite often, and generally find I can read at much the same speed as I do in English. (My book club were impressed with me recently when I read our chosen novel for that month, Eva Luna by Isabel Allende, in the original Spanish – and was even able to have a semi-intelligent conversation about it.)
Unfortunately I can’t say the same for my writing, listening and speaking skills. I decided to start by tackling the listening, which has always been my main problem and is probably why I avoid conversation when I can. Spoken Spanish tends to be very fast and my poor, out-of-practice brain takes a while to catch up and process what’s been said. This generally means me standing there looking slightly baffled for a few seconds before formulating a response, which isn’t fun for anyone. To avoid that unfortunate scenario, I decided to start by watching some movies and TV shows in Spanish before I risked talking to real people. Yes, it’s a cop-out, but I felt I needed a little confidence boost before venturing out into the 3D world.
I started by watching Pedro Almodóvar’s 1988 classic, Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios (Women on the verge of a nervous breakdown), featuring a fresh-faced Antonio Banderas, who always brightens my day 🙂 It’s a very funny film, but with real emotions at its heart, so if nothing else it was an enjoyable 90 minutes. Unfortunately my copy of the movie has English subtitles which can’t be turned off, meaning I had to concentrate twice as hard to understand the Spanish whilst making a conscious effort not to glance at the bottom of the screen (which wasn’t always successful). But it didn’t go too badly and I was more or less able to follow what was being said, so, feeling a little better about my abilities, I decided to try a new challenge.
I don’t know about anyone else but I found the TV series Lost really confusing, and I still don’t completely understand what happened at the end (don’t worry, I won’t reveal any secrets, in case anyone hasn’t seen it yet – but if you can explain it to me, let me know!). So maybe deciding to watch it again in a different language isn’t one of my smartest ideas, but I figured it couldn’t be any more confusing in Spanish than it is in English. I also thought it would be a good place to start – I’ve seen all the episodes before, so I know the context, but not so recently that I can remember what the characters are saying. So far I’ve watched about six episodes and it seems to be going pretty well. I’m managing to follow the majority of the dialogue and my brain isn’t hurting too much, although it’s early days; I know when I reach season 5 I’ll struggle, as I can’t get my head around the concept of time travel in any language! In between episodes I plan to watch more films that are originally in Spanish rather than dubbed (top of my list is the fantastically random Jamón Jamón). It’s definitely encouraging to know that I haven’t forgotten everything I learnt at school and university, so I think the confidence boost is working.
In my next post, I’ll be writing about … er, writing. And perhaps (just perhaps) by then I might be brave enough to actually talk to someone…
Liz
Liz’s Language Mission
Recently I set myself a mid-year resolution. I graduated in Hispanic Studies back in 2004, but haven’t really spoken Spanish since, and when recently a colleague needed me to talk to someone on the phone, I struggled to keep the conversation going. Thinking back to some of the experiences I had during my year living in Madrid (finding somewhere to live, doing exams, celebrating holidays with my non-English speaking landlady and her family), I can’t quite believe how much things have changed. So my mission is to get back to speaking Spanish regularly and (hopefully) fluently, with help from a variety of sources – movies, books, chatting to native speakers and anything else that occurs to me along the way. Hopefully at some point I’ll be able to fit in a visit to Spain where I can practise a bit more intensively, but until then I’ll have to make do with the resources at my disposal here in the UK, and will keep you updated with my progress! Once in a while I might post in Spanish just to show off 😉
If you have any suggestions or ideas to help me with my Spanish mission, please post a comment below. Thanks!
Liz
