Take-Aways

Having lived two years in this country and still only being able to speak to waitresses and taxi drivers should have given me a clue, still, I chose to pursue learning this infernal language. I am sure that somewhere, somehow I must be making some sort of progress. It just does not feel like it. Here’s what the problem is. Firstly, there are innumerable levels of illiteracy to contend with. You may be able to speak the language but not be able to read or write it. You may be able to speak and read but have absolutely no clue how to write and you may be able to speak, read and write and still not understand a thing. I have yet to understand how to construct a sentence that makes any kind of sense. I recognize the words, I can even understand what people are trying to tell me but I find it impossible to answer back. The future tense is still an impenetrable mystery and I wonder if in this language people can even think about the concept of “what’s coming next”. Secondly, the writing. I can now write quite a few characters. That is, I can write them if I can also sneak a peak at what in God’s name they are supposed to look like. I can also read full sentences and signs. Unfortunately I cannot make the slightest sense of them. Yesterday I very proudly managed to read the following inscription: “Big car wind please city east” A proud moment! My text book has such illuminating phrases in Chinese as “I from home in go come”, “everyday morning evening send fetch” and “big house at car in busy come busy go”. Aside from that, all words sound the same. “Ai” means both love and suffering even though they are written completely differently and should you think that kinda makes sense, let me also say that shi means, yes, ten, city, lion, am/is/are and I am sure countless other things that I can look forward to. In short, a week into it and I am already overwhelmed. My brain is literally frying. I have to say though that writing it, even if you don’t understand a thing is a profoundly zen experience. Your mind just empties and your hand acquires a momentum all of its own. The strict order of the strokes makes total sense when you apply it even if it doesn’t when you learn the theory. It’s a feet of practice and technique and it’s impossible to learn by osmosis. No choice but to sit your ass down and just study. I wish it were as simple. The city has far too many temptations and it takes absolutely forever to get to any of them. Also it’s funny how fast you get out of backpacker mode and start wanting things that you really could do without. Somehow being still makes you forget about what it’s like to be free and you start thinking about jobs, the future and where your next paycheck is going to come from. Overall not so much of an improvement on the quest to one’s mojo. It’s only been a week and already I am itching to get back on the road. Otherwise I might just end up committing to reporting to work, paying rent and generally slipping back to normal life. It’s hard, very hard not to get sucked in. But resist I shall.