8 minutes until closing


I've completed a month here. I think I'm just starting to get the hang of language and life and the moments of utter confusion are much less constant. Or at the very least I've grown to appreciate the diferent flavors of confusion that are available to me.

Notes on confusion:
1. The first kind is a complete lack of words. Only a stream of vowels is parsed out. I don't hear this one as much anymore.
2. The second is a content lacking confusion. All that is intelligible is a very basic key word or cognate. "El" "Porque" "Sofa"
3. I don't know the 3rd kind. I think there's a hand gesture involved.
4. I'm at the 4th kind right now. It's where I get confident enough to respond moderately incorrectly. I know all the words, but not the meaning of what was said to me. If I ask them to repeat it to me it would probably clear up the confusion. But I have my pride... no... that's gone now too.
5. I'm working up to this kind. This is where I can get some fun cultural misunderstandings because of a context problem that I couldn't have known without living here longer. Give me some time, friends, give me some time.

Much love to you all... but platonically.
-Ezra

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Nihilism

Sarah's noticed that in my last few blogs there's been a decidedly downward trend as far as morale is concerned. This is true, and since I'm pretty sure I've already hit bottom, this blog is sure to be brighter and sunnier than the last two. So, let's talk about nihilism ! In a world where things no longer make sense in an understandable way, one could draw the conclusion that there's no sense in the world. Likewise, if the things that we do have no value that we can see, we could then say that it's because there's no system of value in the world. Our lives have no value. Nothing matters. Apathy overwhelms. To apply this to my current time as a teacher, my nap was my greatest accomplishment of the day so far. But this clearing away of old values isn't the ending point, but rather the beginning. Sure I could say that no one cares what I do here, but that also means that I'm free to do anything. And if I can't create an enjoyable life for...
Read more

My Old Name

A few days ago, Sarah and some of our friends were sitting down to a delicious brunch at Bistro 33 , this slightly upscale chain that specializes in Pacific Northwestern cuisine. I think that basically means they serve salmon. I got the two eggs any style and asked for one of the eggs to be fried and the other scrambled, since there was no stipulation that the "any style" had to be the same for both eggs. Oddly enough, I received two fried eggs... and then another fried egg for good measure. Their thought process was probably, "I know we're giving you a fried egg you didn't want, so to make up for it, here's another fried egg you didn't want." Partway through the meal, a girl interrupted our friend James by calling out to him, "Jimmy? Oh my god, Jimmy!" They had been best friends in undergrad, three years ago. In the intervening years he had gone to work and has gotten people to call him James. People don't call him Jimmy any more...
Read more

Of Mustaches and Men

Image
So through a series of coincidences, everyone thinks I'm Muslim now. It started a few weeks ago when Sarah and I spent 15 minutes in Mydin (like Walmart but less evil) trying to explain the concept of voltage converter to its employees in the electronics department. I do think they understood that we wanted a "Amerika-Malaysia-konvertor-plug-buy," but they seemed to be fresh out, and or, doubtful that they ever existed. As a result we needed replacement products for the two things that had voltage issues: Sarah's hair straightener and my beard trimmer. No problem, since we're at Walmart's less evil cousin, we can certainly buy two hair-machine-products for cheap. Sarah's hair straightener- no problem. She gets one for 4 dollars. Beard trimmer... slightly more problematic. The concept of hair clipper seemed to be alive and well in Mydin electronics, and I had my pick of 5 brands, all for 5 dollars or less. But while Malay men might want shorter hair o...
Read more