Word Power

This is a bit of a throwback/ nod/ reflection on my time in Asia this summer.  Some of you will remember my excitement about being in a place where I had zero fluency in their primary language. Until this trip, all my travels outside the U.S. had been to places that either spoke English or Spanish-- both languages in which I have functional ability.  As I looked forward to the time in Malaysia, Cambodia and Hong Kong, I told a number of people that I wanted to see what it was like to be language-less.

Several friends did look at me a little funny.  Some of them tilted their head and nodded or shrugged.  Sure, it's an adventure to go somewhere new, try different things, break away from the standard codes of life that surround us.  But yes, being mute is an unusual goal.

I’m not sure this makes the objective less weird, but I think the prospect of escaping English for me was less about getting away from familiar (as with WalMart or Starbucks) and more about testing my sources of satisfaction and control.  Part of what gives me such joy in Latin America is the forced dependence on God that comes when I don’t know what else to do but pray and let others help me.  Another thing that makes me really happy is speaking Spanish.  So as a horribly under-controlled experiment—would the thrill of helplessness (go ahead, laugh away...) be amplified without language skills?  Granted, it’s a drastically different setting to spend a week as a tourist, versus a month as a helper/ worker/ visitor/ friend in a slum.  But I think I really just love people, wherever they are, whatever language they speak.  I get pumped about the conversations that come with actual fluency, but even without that, I can taste (yum!) and see and smell life with folks.

 As it turned out, lots of people spoke English in the regions we visited.  It was never a problem.  Actually, it was more of an adventure to get a dress hemmed by a Vietnamese seamstress here in City Heights this week than it was to hire a taxi to cross Phnom Penh.  Ah, the impact of colonialism and the tourist dollar.  I suppose the quest for the brink of linguistic desperation hasn't taken hold of tourist market share.  Surely we're missing out!