Wayne Chen
Northwest Asia Weekly
I must admit…I like it when people ask me if I can be bilingual. In conversations with friends and acquaintances, when I was asked “Are you fluent in Chinese?” I confidently declared: “Yes. I am.” In order not to overdo it, I try to avoid overdoing it and make sure that I Do not put your hands on your hips or puff your chest when you say this.
But in fact, the answer is not that impressive. To be honest, my answer to the question “Are you fluent in Chinese?” It’s still “yes”, but to be completely accurate, I might need some qualifiers. Answers such as “Well, yes, a bit…” or “A bit, almost” or “Yes, on any given day, under the right circumstances, of course” may be more money.
In fact, I am proud that I can speak Chinese. I was born in the United States and I really appreciate my parents ensuring that I understand the basics of language. Now, when I am in a group of people who only speak Chinese, I can honestly say that I can follow the conversation and understand what they are saying. I am not the most talkative in the group, but when talking in English, I am also not the most talkative in the group. Maybe this is why I became a writer.
When the conversation turns to a topic that I am not familiar with, the problem arises, and someone uses a word that I am not familiar with but is at the heart of the conversation. If you don’t understand the word, the whole conversation will start to snowball. Let me give you an example.
My brother-in-law and family from Taiwan now live with us. Their daughter, my niece, named Melody, looks like another daughter to me. The fact that she and her family lived with us to receive COVID injections, which was almost the only highlight of the entire pandemic experience.
Anyway, Melody told me about life in her hometown in Taiwan, and then began to tell me the story of her new pet. The all-Chinese conversation is about how cute Bubble is and what a great companion she is to her.
Now, I assume that Melody’s new pet is a cat or a dog. The problem is that “dog” or “猫” in Chinese are words I know, and she didn’t use these words. Therefore, according to my Chinese vocabulary, she refers to the breed of cat, such as “Siamese cat”, or my niece adopted a pet ostrich.
Purely based on my highly refined Chinese language ability, I want to go with the ostrich. Yes, my niece decided to give birth to a chick who will eventually grow up to the size of a typical NBA player. It seems a bit strange, but who should I judge? Maybe she suddenly developed a passion for ornithology.
As far as I can understand, Bubble Ostrich is very shy. In fact, when Melody wanted to take Bubbles out of her apartment to visit a friend or go to the vet, Bubbles would immediately hide under the bed or on the dressing table in the closet.
Now, I haven’t been to their apartment in Taipei for many years, but I just don’t remember that there is enough space under their bed to hide a pet ostrich.
Not only that, there are very few walk-in closets in Taipei apartments. I think you have at least a fairly large closet to put such a big bird on it.
what can I say? Children these days. I’m sorry, I have to go now. Melody tells me what she recently bought. She either bought a new scooter to visit Taipei, or…she may have invented a new jetpack that can travel from one place to another.
I will report back later.
Wayne can be at info@nwasianweekly.com.
