Language. By far the most essential tool for communication, to express thoughts, get what you need, get what you want, spread love, care, peace , provoke, poke fun, create parodies, in short, sth we cant do without.
the main ingredient needed in that recipe of communication is:
Being able to understand each other.
Not the deep understanding of feelings and all, but basically just simply understanding what the other person is saying.
In other words, i just had a language barrier crisis this morning.
Felt extremely helpless talking (if you call that talking) to an elderly Chinese lady who could only speak Cantonese (the full blown fluent Cantonese). she could understand a bit of Mandarin thank goodness. She was in the psychiatric ward on a wheelchair and i wanted to talk to her to ask her how she was doing, what brought her there, if she was ok. and basically to just be an ear for her in case she was lonely.
the outcome:
i solemnly vow to BUCK UP MY FREAKING CANTONESE AND HOKKIEN!!
poor aunty was lamenting her concerns and worries (i think) and all i could do was to nod my head, smile, show concerned and emphatic looks and make agreeing sounds (Mmm) and ask her about herself in mandarin in when i thought were the appropriate times.
ARGH! i could just slap myself for not actively learning up those dialects in my whole previous clinical year.
it's still not too late i guess.
Plans:
1. Force my friends to speak cantonese to me.
2. Download important cantonese and hokkien phrases from the net.
Anymore ideas? :P
5 comments:
LOL!!! I understand perfectly how you felt and the awkwardness of it all!!!
But unlike you, I have no initiative nor inspiration to buck up my mandarin/hokkien/russian.
Being in Russia, I'm so used to not being fully understood that I absolutely don't care anymore and am indifferent to it already =P
If I'm learning a language, which I currently am, I'm learning it because I want to, not because I have to... done to many things because I have to... now I want to do the things I WANT to... hehe
Watch drama. No joke. Some friends of mine grew up watching HK drama (before Japanese and Korean drama became popular) and I observe that although their family members don't speak Cantonese, they manage to pick up a few phrases here and there from the drama. Hope this help :)
eu- ahhh yes i admire u more for being able to adapt to russian setting. bt i guess when the time comes n u're in desperation to find out what problems ur patients have we'll be forced to learn. hehe.
cher- yeah i used to wonder hw ppl do that too. i depended too much on the bm subtitles back then. ahhh the regret. XP bt i'll be going home this hols. HK dramas here i come :D
Very Very lewat comment here :
Eu.... you may need more mandarin then you think.
2nd week in hospital land : Ward social worker comes round "does anyone know any chinese?"
....yeah, so .... be prepared!
pretty true. my mandarin only started improving (still needs lots of improvement) after i was forced to speak it to the chinese elderly in the hosp. no choice.
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