Not quite so illiterate as before

I have now been taking Chinese classes for a total of about two and a half months and I am really beginning to see the work pay off.

Today I was able to recognize cabbage dumplings in a menu and just asked the clerk to verify if there was meat inside (to ensure my stomach would be full when I was done eating). I have been able to recognize (on some signs) about half the characters and even if I'm not entirely sure of the meaning, I have at least some idea of what it might be talking about. There have even been times that I have recognized all the characters in a sign and actually understood it!

This feels like a huge break through after all those vulnerable moments where all I could do was look at a menu in bewilderment. Granted, I still am left clueless as to most of the foods listed.

For example, yesterday I went and tried to order something besides my typical go-to dumplings and wantons and order Beef Noodle Soup - a favorite food of many Taiwanese. When the food came it turned out I had ordered pork dumplings in beef broth. I certainly recognized "beef soup" in the name, but failed to recognize the significance of the other characters in the name.

Regardless, I still tried something new, wasn't altogether clueless as to what I was getting, and it filled my stomach.

Life in a foreign country is always full of surprises!

It's the small things...

I ordered something new of a menu today because I read it and wanted it. (The menu wasn't in English and I didn't use Google Translate). I ordered something that is a twist on the dumplings I typically revert to eating (for the sake of relative familiarity), but it was still a new food and I still  ordered independently and all in Chinese. I was happy to know I wasn't just guessing at a food and hoping it would turn out to be good.

It's a small victory, but perhaps it is a victory all the same.

Lost in Thoughts (and books)

We drove down the highway. Ahead was a river of shimmering lights - white lights approaching from the left and red traveling with us on the right. The mountains stretch out beyond the shining river, the sun leaves a pink glow in the grey-blue sky which will soon deepen to black. In the car is the sound of classical violins and the fluctuating tones of a one-sided conversation of my mother-in-law on the phone. I don't understand most of the words, I don't even bother trying to pick up on the meaning. That would require effort that I might need to apply at another time, there's no point in exhausting myself for a conversation not relevant to myself.

On road trips like this I often become lost in my own thoughts. I can't think of anything to talk about, so we ride on in comfortable silence. Since Rex is on this road trip, most of the actual communication happens between my in-laws and him. That's what you call the path of least resistance. My own thoughts lately have involved books downloaded on my phone. I am often transported from Taipei's busyness to the lives of Ramona Quimby, Henry Huggins, or even Beverly Cleary herself.

My only concern with my increased reading lately is the relatively reduced opportunities I grab hold of to practice speaking and listening in a Chinese world.

Street Food in Tainan

      The five of us were walking down the road like a row of ducklings down a narrow road. The sun blazed on us as we shuffled past a long line of people waiting for some delicious street treat (who knows what), and avoided the motorcycles zooming past on the right. Above spanned the multitude of advertisements for wares and goods (who knows what) in those mysterious Chinese characters. 

        My mother and father-in-law are looking for a place to eat. Food surrounds us, the choices are endless. We cross the road to turn onto the next street and stopped at a restaurant with no front wall or door. Everything here appears grey; the stainless steel cupboards, counters, stove, refrigerator, the stony floor, the canopy above, and the asphalt road outside. Only the two workers behind the counter seem to add color to the scene with their brown skin, black hair, and blue or pink t-shirts and the essential Asian piece de resistance - their light blue face masks.