Thursday, August 16, 2007

A few things in life

I was at my parents making Thai curry and realized we were out of coconut milk. I went around the corner to to a tiny grocery stand which have been in existence since I was very little.

I asked in Chinese, "do you sell coconut milk in a can?" The man looked at me as if I were from outer planet and replied with disgust in Taiwanese, "can you speak Taiwanese?" Heck of course I speak the language, not super great but comprehensible. All I had in mind was that my curry was sitting on the stove and I was in desperate need of this very ingredient, which the traditional taste relied mainly on. You know how some words can slip off the word bank when you need it the most. I stood there and thought about it for two seconds, only failed to remember how to say it in Taiwanese. I looked on the shelves to ignore his question, "it comes in a can, you know, coconut milk," I said again. The mid-day sun was scorching me badly that I was starting to lose patience in looking and decided to head home. "No, I don't think you have it." I talked to myself. "No", he said those words in Chinese. Apparently he heard my self-talk. "But you don't speak Taiwanese?" He raised his voice. I was irritated. It sounded like he was interrogating me like this:
1. How sad that you don't speak Taiwanese living in Taiwan, or.
2. Taiwanese should be used more predominantly than Chinese in Taiwan. And, this woman does not speak it? That is just not right. She has to speak Taiwanese.

I felt being disciminated upon at that very moment. In smaller towns of Taiwan where people claim the real Taiwanese identity, discrimination like this does happen. But I've only seen it on TV or heard about it. To be confronted like this was novelty to me. And it happened in my very home town.

I waved to the store impatiently and said, "no, I don't" in Chinese and then as I walked away, I made a face that he couldn't see and continued with my self-talk "non, je ne parle pas and it is none of your business!" I wasn't even PMSing but was not a happy camper either.

Enough about this. I went home and made myself some English fruit tea. Immediately I felt much better. English tea does wonders to me.

13 comments:

  1. I'm confused, I thought you were Taiwanese!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I am, Jeff. But it is a subtle language. I grew up speaking Mandarin Chinese more than Taiwanese. My accents are good but because it is such a different language than Chinese, It takes some getting used to whenever I switch myself from a Chinese speaking environment to a Taiwanese speaking community. It is similar to Hokkian in Singapore or southern China (the Hokkian province). There are also many accents with the language and generational differences as well. Just like people may say "sai-ii-na-la" in Osaka in stead of "sai-yo-na-la", the standard Tokyo tone. But Taiwanese has more varieties than that. And of course there is Hakkaian spoken by the Hakka here, too.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yes, I went to a Hakka village in December when in Taiwan. I noticed that my Taiwanese friends found it unique to them. I guess it is like me visiting a native american reservation or Chinatown when in the western part of the USA. I would have loved to see that look on your face...and to hear the self-talk...that is for sure.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Curt, you were probably in ChuTung or ChuNan (north or south of Hsin Chu) where a large Hakka community is. The Hakka people spread out all over the island. One of my uncles (my aunt's husband) is a ChuNan Hakka and it was considered inter-racial marriage when marrying a Hakka or a Chinese in Taiwan. Ridiculous but true. It is much better nowadays.

    And as I am a Taurus with Sagittarius traits, I can be all nice and smiley until something pushes my button to explode. Although it rarely happens, it is ugly when it does.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Ah I understand. I didn't know you grew up speaking Mandarin.

    One of my friends from Japan is Taiwanese, but she went to high school and college in Canada (and majored in Japanese.)

    So she speaks English, Japanese, Taiwanese, Mandarin and decent Cantonese as well. I told her that list needed to be at the top of her resume!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Do you think the current tension in cross-strait relations has something to do with these attitudes? What I mean is, many Taiwanese seem to be deliberately separating themselves from China in as many ways as possible. Language is just one of the ways that they can express it. Perhaps I'm reading too much into the situation...

    ReplyDelete
  7. Sorry for the previous confusion, Jeff. And I suppose you are right that your friend's language skills are beneficial for jobs.

    Rog, your speculation was correct. You probably heard or felt the segregation while you lived here. And to add to that, Taiwan really has a sad history of being a territory of many others. It was under Japan for 50 years, and before then, Portugal and Holland. I can sympathize the Taiwanese's desire in searching for a real identity after all these while striving to survive under the constant threat from China.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Talking of China, I think it would be important for your readers to be informed of what's going on there via

    http://www.ninecommentaries.com

    Up to you, of course!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Thanks, Rog. I thought the damage to the cultures was one of the biggest mistakes ever. For me, the simplified characters are not acceptable characters without the forms of beauty to portray the origins of words. Sadly, the world is doing away with the Taiwanese version of Chinese characters (the originals) and we are left to become outcasts. It is just not right.

    ReplyDelete
  10. After reading this, a stange feeling surged in me. My English is not good enough to express my thought. Living in Kaohsiung Taiwanese is a important language for communicating with the stangers. However my Taiwanese is worse than my English. I don't understand why Taiwanese is so enthusiastic at the foreigners. Why??? They are so rude to their own compatriots.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Thanks for stopping by, Ocean and I totally agree with what you were saying here. Sometimes people look too much into the differences rather than focusing on the similarities we all share as the citizens of the universe. Thanks for writing in English. Your English is great.

    ReplyDelete
  12. As rog suggested, speaking Taiwanese instead of Chinese could be seen as a sign of patriotism, especially in the southern part of Taiwan. My family in laws speak Taiwanese exclusively. The only time they speak Chinese is when they talk to me. They have often suggested that I learn Taiwanese instead but I prefer the softer sound of Chinese and the fact that it can be written. Anyway, I think the store owner was out of line. What is it to him what language you speak? You had every right to be miffed.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Thanks, Martin. That was exactly how I felt at that moment.

    ReplyDelete