Admiration for our friend

We admire Gen’s friend from China. Her perseverance, her attitude.

We’ve been discussing how difficult it is for her here, culturally. For those who have traveled to another country, culture shock is easy to imagine. It’s a lack of familiarity, a necessity to “figure out” even the simplest things that causes fatigue and disorientation and a deep longing for a cheeseburger. But for Gen’s friend from China it’s magnified. Imagine each part of your life, each thing you do on a daily basis, and then imagine that it’s not only foreign, different, and strange but difficult to figure out.

Language: she knows English. Enough to get around, ask directions, listen to lectures, though she misses some things that Gen explains to here, typically idiomatic expressions. And the entire language system is different – letters and words rather than characters, so it’s more difficult for her to look at something and try to figure it out. But Spanish? Different. And Catalan? More different. But even with English: she has a hard time deciphering cursive writing when professors and students write in that form, rather than printing. And capital letters are new to her, so when words are in ALL CAPS they seem to her different words. That really made me think back to all the education we had in primary school for these subjects. Of course, no one thinks that capitalization might be a problem.

Food: Even if the menus were in Spanish, they would be difficult to decipher, but most are in Catalan. Moreso, the actual food items are different, as are the descriptions. Of course jamon is pork, but cocido? Like the Eskimos and their 100 words for snow, the Spanish have almost as many ways to describe their pork. And culturally the food they eat is very different. Lots of bread and cheese - not common in China. Imagine going to China and trying to figure out a menu that was only in Chinese. (Our friend Darren told us when he traveled in China he was so tired of this issue that at some point he went in to Kentucky Fried Chicken to eat for the only reason that he wanted to know exactly what he was ordering) Add the times of day they eat to the confusion. Then add the utensils. Of course she has used a knife, fork, and spoon before, but not everyday at every meal. And a lot of food here is to be eaten with the hands, which is definitely not typical for her. We had her over for hamburgers during her first few months here and she ate it with a spoon. I felt bad because I didn’t realize that eating with one’s hands would be so… unpalatable. She’s better now and accepts the difference in culture.

Calendar: the calendar is different as well. Not just the day and month, but the year. We asked her when her birthday was but she didn’t know the exact day because the calendars are so different. She knew approximately when but not exactly because of the time difference. (Sure, she could have just counted the days forward or backward from one calendar to another but she didn’t have a Chinese calendar or a Western calendar at the time so it took her a few days to tell us).

General Culture: the spanish are more laid back, they drink beer during lunch, they go to sleep at 2am and eat dinner at 11pm, they are animated (the Spanish more than the Catalans, but still).

And with all this, she just goes about her business with a smile on her face and doesn't get angry or yell. We salute her.