Awhile back my wife told me that she got the luck draw in a raffle and that we were entitled to a free outing to TopMun Island. Tracy’s work decided to offer this activity to encourage colleagues to relax. They organized the boat ride, lunch, sharings, and coffee activity. I thought it sounded like a good opportunity. When Tracy and I arrived at Wong Shek Pier, the tour guide met us and introduced us to the others in the group. She wanted to know if I could speak Cantonese. I told her that I understood Cantonese and that if I didn’t I could ask Tracy. That’s pretty normal for me. I’ve heard other foreigners say something very similar. I know for myself, I don’t like being singled out as not understanding Cantonese, nor do I like creating extra work for others to translate for me. What about you? How do you feel about doing life in a foreign language. Would you have said you didn’t need a translator when you really did? Would you have asked for someone to translate for you? Or possibly a third option, would you have been in a rare third group of foreigners who really do understand Cantonese and don’t need translation? You might be asking yourself, Is Studying A Language Worth It. Here’s an article on that.
Coffee Brings People Together
I don’t care for Coffee. As I say that, it sounds really weird. Most foreigners probably like coffee. It’s a topic that people are familiar with; they have an opinion on it. How would you feel about going to a coffee workshop in Cantonese or another language that is not your mother tongue? Sure you would be able to observe body language, smiles, coffee beans, grinders, machines and other stuff, but would that be enough for you? For lots of foreigners living overseas, this is their day to day reality. Actually, it’s worse than this at least coffee is a relatively interesting topic, the listeners are attentive, it’s interactive and there are props. My school staff meetings regularly go for 3 hours. Most of the time it is logistical stuff that tends to be boring. Here’s an eight minute video clip taken from the coffee workshop. Take a look at it. Do you feel interested? Bored? Curious? How would you feel if this was your day to day life?
I have actually had a chance to watch the video a number of times, so I understand more now than I did the first time I saw it. Still, I don’t understand everything. There are gaps in my understanding. That’s a reality for a lot of language learners. We have to make life work with the gaps in our understanding. No one is going to translate everything for us. For a season people may try, but this will turn into too heavy a burden for them. We have to learn to become more independent.
