A while back, I found a clip on YouTube of a Japanese a capella group singing Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?
Watching this, I was struck by how the only thing I understand are the lyrics to Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego. I don't understand the spoken introduction, I don't understand the signs, I don't understand the various other spoken words. If put in that environment, I couldn't buy a coffee or a train ticket or even ask for help, unless someone there happens to speak my language.
That concept is terrifying! Like paralyzingly, can't-breathe terrifying! I have never in my life been in an environment where I don't speak the language! Sure, I've been in the presence of conversations in a language that I don't understand, but I've always been able to read the signs and address any random passers-by in the default local language. The idea of not being able to makes me feel helpless, like when I was 2 and fell asleep in the car seat and my mother decided to take the groceries into the house first and then come back for me and I thought she'd forgotten all about me.
Then I realized: I have never been in an environment where I don't speak the language! Isn't that weird? People travel to places where they don't speak the language all the time, but I'm so used to knowing languages that I find the prospect terrifying.
2 comments:
IIRC, you don't have a desire to travel, and I think these things go together.
I have been to places where other languages are spoken, and at times when I was less than perfectly fluent in the ambient language. But this is the first time I've ever had zero understanding of the language of something I'm paying attention to. (Normally if I turn on the TV and it's Chinese or something, I change channels without paying attention.) It's way scarier than I expected.
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