Thus far my time here has been good overall. Adjusting to a new country has it’s very hard moments, but thankfully there have also been some sweet and encouraging ones as well. Recently one of the After-School program’s student’s father passed away. His father had been battling cancer of the liver for over a year. Unexpectedly, I witnessed the procession where they moved his body from the family's home to a mortuary. The procession was lead by Joey (the student’s “English” name) carrying a poster sized framed picture of his father, and then a crowd of a few hundred people following all surrounding the hearse type vehicle with his dad’s body inside. It reminded me of the jazz funeral processions I’ve seen on the famed streets of the French Quarter in New Orleans, Louisiana. The other memory was of my own father’s funeral and the 8 x 10 picture that sat next to his casket during the wake and funeral services. Watching this 11-year-old boy, and the family and friends that followed, I was overwhelmed with emotion. I felt sad for this student and his family. I know the loss of a father. I also felt a disconnect with the culture around me, and this made me sad as well.
I have travelled enough to know the challenge of connecting with someone that doesn’t speak your own language. It has been a frustration in each of my previous travel experiences, but never before has a language barrier been as heartrending as it was on that day. To fully understand what people are thinking and feeling I have to know their language. Benjamin Lee Whorf, an American Linguist noted for his hypotheses regarding the relation of language to thinking and cognition and for his studies of Hebrew and Hebrew ideas, said, “We dissect nature along lines laid down by our native language. Language is not simply a reporting device for experience but a defining framework for it.” Knowing someone’s language connects us with his or her culture in a manner that cannot be surpassed.
It’s been a number of years since I really put in a lot of hours to study something. Furthermore, I have never thought of myself as the one good at foreign languages. My sister and other admired friends have the brain for that, and part of why I choose my major in college was because it DIDN’T have a foreign language requirement. Nevertheless, here I am engaging and studying a new language, but not to fulfill a degree requirement or some New Year’s resolution. No, I want to connect with Joey. Maybe one day I could ask him to share his favorite memory of his dad or what he misses most about him. I want to share with the local Bao Zi (a dumpling that many locals here eat for breakfast) shop that they’re my favorite place to stop in the morning, and maybe I could know more about them than just the bao zi they make every day.
My desire is to connect with people, really know them and engage this journey called life. However, I have a barrier that keeps me from that right now. I’ve referred to it as My Great Wall. You may not see this wall from space, but I can see it everyday at the supermarket, catching a taxi, ordering food, etc. Thankfully, this wall, just like The Great Wall, has it’s weak spots which I pray I’m able to penetrate and overcome. Benjamin Lee Whorf also said, “Language shapes the way we think, and determines what we can think about.” Samuel Johnson, the 18th Century English poet, says so eloquently, “Language is the dress of thought.” I hope to shape the way I think less with my native language and dress it more with a new tongue.
