A series of random thoughts

I am sitting in my room on a Tuesday night, having just completed my homework (less than two pages of 生词!) and, while preparing for bed, I am remembering a few things that I thought that I wanted to write blog posts about, but didn't end up doing.

So, here they are.

I. Soy Sauce

So, as a patron of New York's many Chinese restaurants, I expect every Chinese meal to include either a bottle of soy sauce on the table, or a packet of soy sauce in my delivery bag.  Well....

According to my new language partner (they switch at the "semester"), that's a Japanese thing.  (The Japanese need soy sauce for sushi, after all).  The Chinese, while cooking their food, use lots of soy sauce.  (Indeed, one of our earlier vocabulary words was 红烧--fried in soy sauce.  It was in the ordering food chapter.)  But on the table?  With dumplings?  On rice?  Nope.  Not there.  If you are eating dumplings, you dip the dumplings in vinegar, something which I find not in the least bit tasty.  Eating my dumplings with vinegar is the biggest problem I have ever had with 入乡随俗 (the Chinese equivalent of "when in Rome, do as the Romans").

I miss the soy sauce.  Even if it is "American Chinese food" and not real Chinese food.

II. China and Clothes.

So, it is summer in China, and the streets are filled with people.  The men dress very similarly to the way that men in the US dress.  There is only one difference.  When the days are hot and humid (which is pretty much every day), these men will pull their shirts up over their bellies to get a breeze on their stomachs.  While it is not a universal move, enough men do it to warrant a surprised glance from an american.

Small children (i.e. children under the age of two) don't wear pants or underpants.  If they wear pants, these pants have large holes in the crotch area.  They just hang out as if this is totally normal--which, in China, it is.  To be fair, it is probably great for the environment (no throwing out massive amounts of diapers) and money (no having to buy massive amounts of diapers, or pants that the children will quickly grow out of).  It also makes it very easy for these small children to go to the bathroom--well--anywhere.  I have seen children squatting down on the sidewalks to pee, and have seen a father holding his child over a trash can while the kid did his business (this parent was more a considerate one) simply because they can.

I guess it makes life easier for parents (and for children), but I--the 老外 (foreigner)--still feel exceedingly uncomfortable every time I see a pantless small child.

III. 六岁的汉字 (six year old's characters)

When I was in Inner Mongolia, writing letters on the over two days that I spent sitting in the HBA bus, I wrote a quick note in Chinese to a friend who would not be able to read it.  I later asked my friend Andi to have a look at my grammar to make sure it was kinda ok.  He looked at my characters and laughed a little bit.  "你的汉字跟一个六岁的小孩子的汉字差不多." (1.  This means "your characters are a bit like the characters of a six year old child." 2. I am definitely misquoting and probably botching grammar to the extent that my teachers would be very sad.  But I wanted to give it a shot...).  As he wrote his corrections onto my letter (telling the mutual friend who was the recipient of this letter hello), his characters, to me looked lovely.  But he laughed at his own characters and said "跟一个九岁的孩子的汉字差不多" (1. "nine year old child's characters"  2. also misquoted and incorrect grammar-wise.)

It was a very strange experience, having it driven home to me that, while I can read and write these characters, my self-termed chicken scratch is, indeed, chicken scratch in the eyes of the chinese, now matter what my teachers say as they correct my homework.