Here's my cross-cultural adventure of the day. My darling friend Cho, who was in my Japanese class in Japan and has since immigrated to the States with her husband and produced two ludicrously adorable little boys, just moved up to my fair state at the beginning of the week. I told her I'd be off work this Thursday and Friday (yay unemployment), and we agreed I'd come up to hang out one of those days, but a few days ago I realized I didn't have her phone number, she wasn't answering e-mail, and I had no way to actually communicate with her about a visit.
But I did have the address, so this morning, I decided, what the hell, and drove on up. It's only half an hour away, and it's a nice historic town with a railroad museum and whatnot, so I knew I'd find something to do even if nobody was home.
I found the apartment complex, eventually found their building, and went in, and the door to apartment D was ajar. So I was like, hey, score, they're home! I knocked for a while, until Baby Cho 1 poked his head around the door (he's totally cute in person, too, incidentally), and someone called something in Chinese from inside. Finally I decided that it meant "come in" and opened the door - and it was the grandparents. Cho and Mr. Cho were both out, and Mr. Cho's parents speak not one lick of English (I'm assuming they don't speak Japanese either, although perhaps I should have given it a shot). Also, they had never met me. And, as mentioned, I hadn't called ahead.
But Mr. Cho's mom and I managed to communicate, along the lines of "Baby Cho 2 has gotten so big!" and "Baby Cho 1 is three years old now!" and "They'll be back at seven!" Finally, I got around to "Could you bring me some paper to write on!" and left a note for Cho. I spent the afternoon poking around the pretty, historic downtown.
I guess I must've looked harmless, or maybe they knew that Cho had a random American friend living in My Fair State, 'cause basically this nice old Chinese couple let a complete stranger waltz into their apartment, gesture madly, and hug the grandkids. Heh.
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4 comments:
Or Americans' reputations for down-home-y charm and general neighborliness has finally reached the entire world.
You didn't try writing in Japanese/Chinese characters? It would have been really cool if you'd managed to communicate that way.
I didn't think of that til after I left! I can't write very many anymore, though, and some of them mean something different in Chinese. Everyone's favorite example: the combination of characters that means "letter" in Japanese means "toilet paper" in Chinese.
heee, if they were of Taiwanese ancestry, you would have been able to speak Japanese with them no problem! My grandparents' first language is Japanese... and my mom speaks it pretty well. My dad has forgotten all of his.
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