01.02.08
The Noo Yeer
Well, we’re into 2008 and the world as we have come to know it is still here. No nuclear terrorist strikes or the like. It’s been an interesting 10 days here in Canada. I saw my friends Kay, William, and Carolyn tonight and we had some engaging, thought-provoking conversations. A quick hello to them if they happen to be reading this blog entry.
It’s nice to be able to speak my native tongue in a rapid-fire pace again. I don’t have to constantly second guess myself, wondering whether the other interlocutor will comprehend my choice of words. Nor do I have to speak very slowly (and thus in an unnatural rhythm) all the time. In short, it’s nice to be able to speak English again, eh?
At the risk of repeating myself, it’s been quite a struggle readjusting myself to the indigenous nonverbal behaviors. For example, in Japan, eye contact between strangers is rare. Here, though, people in the street often look up at you, make eye contact, and (gasp!) smile. In stores, when I was chatting with my mom about the items on the shelves, people would sometimes make eye contact with me and smile in agreement with what I was saying (as when, upon eyeballing a messload of chocolate, I remarked that you’d need to keep a toothbrush handy if you bought one of those containers of sweets). And I find that, when someone bumps into me in the store and says “I’m sorry,” I don’t want to say “That’s OK.” In Korea, of course, people hardly ever say anything when they bump into you. So in a nutshell, I have to readjust to all these sociocultural nonverbal norms that I learned as a child in this country. Most of these norms were never explicitly explained to me; I just picked them up unconciously as I grew up.
Before I close, I will say that my wife seems to be much better and I believe (and hope) that she is steadily heading down the road to recovery.
