There is no Academie Francaise for English

Hola, chicas. How’s everyone doing today? There’s something I’ve come to realize, living here in Guangzhou. I so very rarely say ‘Hello’ in English. Hola, Hiya, Bonjour, Salut, Buenos Dias, Gutentag, you name it, I’ll usually go for some variation on the standard. This seems to be completely comprehensible by my foreign coworkers, but my local Chinese coworkers are sometimes confused (not entirely, as the intention of my greeting is rather clear).

In other news, belated Happy Lantern Festival!

I am the product of what I imagine to be a typical American public school education (except when it comes to math and science), and so I was required to study a year of Spanish and a year of French. Television, movies, books, and multicultural appreciation days introduced German,  Swedish, Japanese, and Latin. So, as a result, I know maybe 20 words in Spanish, 5 words each in the rest. American schools’ foreign language programs don’t lead to fluency, but they do give you some exposure. English itself is a wonderful mélange of vocabulary from a variety of languages. I have a coworker here who is a Guangzhou native. She speaks excellent and fluent English, Cantonese, and Mandarin. When looking at a sign-up sheet in the office, she saw another foreign teacher had written ‘si’ instead of ‘yes’ and she didn’t know why. We explained it, and it reminded me that, while I may not be particularly fluent in any foreign languages, I can apologize for not speaking them in five.

This is not typical. Also, this picture is six months old.

On the subject of foreigners, I’ve got an anecdote to share from this morning. I was over near Ikea, which is a great district for running into other people from away. As I crossed through an intersection, I got the foreigner wave from an older Middle Eastern man in a turban. The foreigner wave is what happens in China when two foreigners, although strangers, nod, wave, or otherwise acknowledge each other in passing. I believe it’s a function of our daily reality, which is seeing mostly Chinese people. Now, this doesn’t happen all the time. I did it more, and expected it more, in my first few months here. These days, I often walk right past other foreigners without so much as making friendly eye contact. This in general is probably the weirdest aspect of city living for small-town me: the extent to which everyone willfully ignores each other. Locals stare at me all the time, and the bulk of people slide right by without any acknowledgment. I don’t know if the foreigner wave is about acknowledging our common position as people far from home, or if it’s about ingrained social expectation of friendliness in public spaces, but it does make me feel warmer toward my fellow man. So today, getting eye contact, a nod, and a smile from this nice grandfatherly man made me feel quite cheerful.

vegan chocolate chip cookies also made me cheerful

Then I popped into Corner’s Deli for a day-off treat (A&W root beer, yum) and found a product that made my day. I have been keeping an eye out for Campbell’s chicken noodle soup for months. Campbell’s soup isn’t hard to find (at import grocery stores, mind), but while Oxtail is everywhere, no one has chicken noodle. Today it was there, brightly labeled with a ‘new product’ sticker. I bought a can (only 2 USD!). It’s not even that good, and honestly, I don’t remember the last time I ate it. But, it is iconic and it is nostalgic, and it is on the list of things in my head called “things you can buy at any grocery store in America, but that you must go out of your way to find in Guangzhou.” I will enjoy it to the last drop, just like the kids in the soup commercials.

I mostly blame Warhol for making me want this.

That’s all I’ve got to say. Winter vacation courses end this week, and I am almost through. I can’t wait to have two days off per week again, so I can go back to pretending my life consists of something more than sleeping, working, eating, and surfing the internet in bed. A bientôt! Sayonara!

Spring Festival is over. Time to throw out the orange tree.