When I lived in Chinatown, I used to watch men -- there were at least two of them -- playing some mysterious instrument (later Ellen said it's called "erhu"). It had two strings, and no frets, like a guitar or a violin would have. I wondered, what notation is used to you write melodies for this instrument? "Put your fingers at about 7/10 of the neck"? Do players memorize melodies by hearing them and then reproduce them by memory, like in times when there was no musical notation?

In any case, once I decided to ask a player what is the name of his instrument. I honestly listened to his performance, paid one dollar, and decided that now we became close enough friends for me to get noisy. I asked "What is the name of this thing?" Maybe the man couldn't speak English at all, it happens, when you live in Chinatown you don't really need English, sometimes we had other customers translating for sale people in stories what we want to buy, maybe there was some other reason, but he didn't answer, instead he put bow in my hand and holding my hand in his touched the strings. Then he let me do it myself. After some practice, I managed to produce a sound distant enough from squeak. We smiled and I left. He still didn't say a word in English.

I am still trying to wrap my mind around this way of naming things.