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We are living in a hotel in San Francisco’s Chinatown. Me and my girlfriend’s brother, whom I will habitually call K. for the sake of privacy protection, rent a room that costs about $400 a month per person, which is about as cheap as you can get in San Francisco. We both are very happy with it. The location is great: it’s close to downtown and everything we need can be found in a couple of block. Stories, banks, library, police station and even the City Lights bookstore – everything is within walking distance. There is Chinatown in Portland also, but compared to San Francisco, it is just a mock, a toy town. In San Francisco it is almost a real town, with its own stores, newspapers, Yellow Pages grossbuch, etc. I feel twice as foreign here with my idiosyncratic English and questionable loyalty to American values. It’s a weird feeling, but I am a collector of weird feelings. So what about “osmosis”? I found this expression in Alistair Cockburn’s “Agile Software Development”, This taking in of information without directly paying attention to it is like the process of osmosis, in which one substance seeps from one system, through a separator, into another. “Learning by osmosis” popped up in my mind when I caught myself on “recognizing” some of hieroglyphs on street signs as “familiar”; “familiar” in the sense I have seen them before. I already memorized a few of them, the simplest of course, even though I don’t know what they mean. I mean I don’t know yet. :)
Another thing, and this time “thing” in literal sense. Once I came home after three days absence and found two bowls K. bought. Naturally, these were Chinese, of which fact the hieroglyphs provided all needful testimonies.
Chinese grocery stores are everywhere, and our food is becoming increasingly Chinese. So far we only acquire the most recognizable pieces of eatery, but K. already threatened “to try everything here” which plan I can’t help but share. Russians are so the same… I’ll postpone learning how to cook frogs for as long as possible. :) That’s for advanced learners anyway, and we are only beginners. Until recently the stores were full of Chinese New Year decorations, and I couldn’t resist buying some, even though I had no clue what they symbolize and what to do with them. One thing I did learn though. In a local newspaper there was an article about Chinese New Year traditions (there are so many, do people really follow all of them, or just most important ones?) and it said that there is a tradition to burn money, as it is believed to bring prosperity. I remembered seeing batches of fake money being sold for a couple of bucks, and wondering what their destination was. The cultural life so far was represented by such events as a New Year parade (which I missed) and funerals (which I did not). Chinese funerals that I saw looked pretty similar to Russian. There was an orchestra in front of a small procession, musicians wore something like military uniform, and there was a car with somebody’s photo – that’s why I decided these were funerals. Unlike in Russia, music was rather brisk, and this made me suspect that perhaps this was a demonstration devoted to some historical event, rather than funerals. I asked a man on the street and he confirmed that these were funerals. Ellen promised to tell more about Chinese traditions, and with some luck we perhaps will even get her to blog about them.
Chinese music is as abundant as grocery stores, which is to say it’s everywhere. :) First it sounded strange to me, but I m gradually getting used to it. Political life here also has its peculiarities: it is more concerned with the guy, who according to some protesters, unethically became the President of … Taiwan – believe you or not. -----------------------------
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Re: Learning Chinese by osmosis
Dear Map, you've got really good street shots. News magazine quality already, really! :) I'm a little bit amused by the time stamp though. ;)
Comment from Ellen on February 15, 2005 10:21:28 AM PST
:cry:
I only recently learnt how to set it or how to turn it off :D
Comment from Map on February 15, 2005 11:18:32 AM PST
Map frogs cooked in Chinese way is definitely delicious, you cannot miss it...if you don't want to cook it I'll cook for you for sure...And do you like snakes? The snake meat can be very tasty if cooked properly. And it's very healthy too! You gotta try it! :)
Comment from Ellen on February 15, 2005 11:23:35 AM PST
Hi Map I just added a new entry in my blog tracking back this blog. :)
Comment from Ellen on February 15, 2005 1:08:43 PM PST
Hi Maps, Had you been to Sydeny Australia ChineseTown before? it will bit you down.
Comment from Centrelink on March 31, 2005 12:14:31 AM PST
I'm not sure what you mean by, "...my ...questionable loyalty to American values." You are more American than many many Americans I know.
Frog is OK. It tastes sort of like mildly fishy chicken. Make sure you try Dim Sum at one of the Chinese restaraunts.
Comment from Tom on April 5, 2005 8:14:36 AM PDT
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