Language Matters

Daniel of http://brotherdanielsan.blogspot.com made an interesting comment on my previous article. He said that the French are very proud but if you speak their language they would be more friendly and attempt to communicate with you. It is true that the French are often well known to be somewhat ethnocentric, but I guess they are proud of their beautiful language. I think if I had a son, I would not mind him marrying a lovely French lady, because no matter how old I am, even with my face wrinkling and teeth dropping off, I will still be that beautiful mother, for in French the word for mother-in-law is "belle mere".

I realised how ethnocentric the French were when I was queueing up to pay for my grocery bills in Chinatown when I was studying at the University of Alberta. I was speaking Mandarin to the Chinese cashier when suddenly he looked up and asked the man behind me, "Do you understand what she's saying?" "No way!" I heard a loud voice behind me. "I am French".

"Comment-allez vous, Monsieur?" I turned around to ask the French customer.

Suddenly his face turned beetroot. He mumbled, "Bien, merci".

I guess it would be the same for all other races. We somehow warm up to people who can speak our language. This is why I take the trouble to learn some greeting words in 12 languages. I have found when I greet someone in his language, it immediately breaks the ice! Once a black couple came to my restaurant, and when I heard they were from Tanzania, I immediately greeted them in Swahili. You should see their white teeth glowing in the dim light of the restaurant as they smiled widely. The couple came back three more times for dinner during their one week stay at a nearby restaurant! Swahili is a beautiful language. For eg. you say, "Mi mi mo nyan chi" - I am a citizen. "Habariya mualimo wango?" - How are you, my teacher.? A musical language, isn't it?

I remember I went on a camping tour of Europe during one summer holidays in June. We were in Antibes, a small coastal town in France. Since I did not have the strength and skill to pitch my own tent, I volunteered to be the cook for the group of 24 international tourists as we toured Europe in a double-decker bus. When I realised that the shop keeper could not speak English, I spoke to him in French. You should see how his face lighted up. He hollered to his family members to come out and meet me. The French couple told me I was the first Chinese to communicate with them in their mother tongue! Fortunately I had my little French dictionary which I carried with me during the trip. I tried to emulate my Canadian university buddy's example. James Dunlap carries his Chinese dictionary everywhere he goes.

The French couple gave me a bunch of lovely pink roses which they cut from their garden. I left the grocery store, glad that I had done some French courses.

When I went shopping in Seoul, the shopkeepers gave me so many free souvenirs when I greeted them in Korean, "Ahn nyong ha seh yo!" My eldest brother told me he forgot what I had taught him in Korean but remember it sounded like our Hokkien dialect, "Ah Nya, lu kah seh ho boh? (Miss, have you washed your feet yet?") The Korean shopkeepers also gave him free souvenirs. Probably they thought my brother mispronounced their language but it sounded like some warm greetings anyway!

I guess God's two legged creation throughout the world are all the same. We love it when someone shows he cares by bothering to learn our mother tongue.

Gan Chau :-)