finally...
Finally...
So...now that you've seen a few pictures, on to the Random thoughts I've been meaning to share...
Perspective. Here and there. So, I suppose I am here, and you are there, right?. Or from your Einsteinian point of view, you might say: "No Paul, I am here and you are there." It's all relative, I suppose (no pun intended "here" or "there" Dave & Nancy. arrh, arrh)! When I first arrived "here" in Viêt Nam, I naturally compared "here" to "there", a lot!! I mean...a lot!! Now? Not so much. Now, I find myself comparing "here" to "here"! For example, when I'm eating lunch in my hood "here", I never think "Wow, I wonder if this place would pass a health inspection back home ("there")". Instead, I think "Man, am I glad I'm not eating in the Old Quarter [of Hà Nội], too many westerners and bloggers with cameras." I no longer think "Wow, if they did that back home ("there") they'd get a ticket for sure." Now I think, "Ah...I need to cross to the other side of the street ("here"), so go ahead and cross here in the middle of the block and plan to stand still in the middle of the road while busy rush-hour traffic zooms by you literally within inches of your body."
Accents. North meets south. My epic struggle to learn the tonal language that is tiếng Việt played out recently when I traveled "south" to Đà Nẵng to give a workshop. Because I like to practice my tiếng Việt whenever possible, and the forgiving people I meet seem too enjoy hearing me try, I took advantage of my new audience. During the course of lunch, I did something for one of my hosts to which she replied "cảm ơn" (thank you) and I replied "không có gì" (a polite "no problem"). I was a bit perplexed, however, by the polite giggles emanating from behind hands held in front of mouths. After all, I was certain I had pronounced it all correctly. Turns out I did pronounce it all correctly. What I didn't know, however, was that a mere one-hour flight south of Hà Nội, accents changed. It turns out that the word "gì" - pronounced "zee" with a downward tone in the north - is pronounced "ghee" with a downward tone in Đà Nẵng. And...the word "dì" in Đà Nẵng AND in Hà Nội is pronounced the same as "gì" (i. e., "zee" with a downward tone). In the north, given that "gi" and "di" are both pronounced the same ("zee") the listener" would understand the difference between "gì" and "dì" via the context of the sentence. Apparently, not the case in Đà Nẵng, The word "dì" in both Hà Nội AND Đà Nẵng has the same meaning: "aunt". Therefore, instead of saying me saying "no problem" ( "không có gì") to my colleagues in Đà Nẵng, I ended up saying ( "không cô dì") "My mother has no sister." (the literal translation of "không cô dì" is "no aunt"). Those of you with linguistic eyesight may have noticed that the word "có" changed to "cô" as did its meaning. In "không có gì" it means "have", but in "không cô dì" it means "she". In true Vietnamese form, after a good heartfelt giggle, I was directly (bluntly) informed of the mistake and we all shared another round of heartfelt laughter and I was forgiven my grave mistake. So upon my return to the states, whenever I say "thank you" to you for something nice you did, please feel free to inform me that your mother has no sister! It will take me back to Đà Nẵng!