Japanese Study
A quite morning of study for Doctor808 ???
This morning I was up at the crack of dawn determined to get in my Japanese study time. I left the house early after I spoke with my significant other and did the morning dog routine. I jumped into my hummer, drove to Starbucks and then sit down for an hour of study before work. It was going very well, I had two pages of lesson completed both spoken and written. THEN THEY CAME……
A Gang Of Cantonese!!!
I have nothing against Chinese people , in fact my significant other is Chinese. Yet here I am trying to study, enjoy in a nice tropical breeze, the peaceful quite with my favorite coffee. This is all very conducive to study. All of sudden an Asian man walks up and starts pulling outside tables together near me. He not only pulled one but then two and then a total of five tables and 15 chairs. He lined them up all in nice neat row , next to me. A t first I thought he was crazy as sometimes homeless people come around there and do strange meaningless things such as that. Then I realized —OH MY GOD –NO NO NO, it was evident he was preparing for a crowd and getting chairs and tables together for THEM.
I am not against Chinese per se, but when you are trying to study a gang of Chinese having social event next to you is not a great idea. To make matters worse they were not just any Chinese, but CANTONESE speakers. The difference is huge when compared to the main land Chinese who speak Mandarin. Cantonese speakers when in a group sound like a major fight is going on as they talk. Its not that they are fighting , but it is the nature of the dialect. This is much different than Chinese Mandarin dialect which actually is very calm , sweet and like a song. Chinese are much like Italians, my ancestry, they are very loud when being social.
I had to end my study as the loud sound of Cantonese chatter was overwhelming. First one person yakking then another then all talking at the same time. It appears as if there is strong competition for talking!! I found myself thinking back when I worked in China Town in New York City and the words I had learned in Catonese from those days were entering my head without permission.
No longer could I think to myself “Genki Desu KA? ” but now I was thinking ” Ne Ho Ma ?” My thoughts were taking a beating , my blocks to the environmental distraction were failing and had failed. As the cloud of asian languages were confusing, overwhelming and non stop swirling about in my brain—I was having second thoughts about learning Japanese , maybe I should learn french.
drmap
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