Japan, Day 1.
So I’m back in Japan for the first time in about 12 years. My Japanese grandma is in ill health and it’s her 90th birthday on Tuesday, so my mom and dad, older bro, his wife, their baby girl and I are doing the Filial Piety Tour 2007.
I haven’t seen obaachan in a while, so long I can’t remember the last time. That’s one of the drawbacks of being an immigrant; with all of my relatives (save immediate family) continents away, it’s hard getting close to your relatives. Throw in a language barrier or two, just for fun, and things really start to get interesting.
Like last night’s dinner. Older Bro, SiL, Baby G, and I arrived in Tokyo around 3pm, local time. After long train and cab rides, we reached our uncle’s house, where we are staying. Uncle Teiji and Aunt Satoko are in Hiroshima for the weekend, so we were met by our two cousins, Hiroto and Megumi, and their friend Stephan (a friend of theirs from Taiwan). Now Older Bro and SiL both speak Japanese, having lived in Osaka for two years. Me, not so much. Not beign able to speak the langue of half my family is something of a personal disappointment for me. But there are ways to get around that, it just makes for very awkward conversations.
Luckily, I speak English. Realistically speaking, if you’re only going to speak one language, you’re better off if it’s English; It’s today’s Lingua Franca (ironically enough). Legend has it that there are more English speakers in China than in the US. If a Thai meets an Argentine while traveling in Switzerland, it’s English they are going to be speaking. So if you’re going to be a monoglot, consider yourself lucky that English is your only glot.
So last night, I could speak with Megumi and Stephan, both of whom speak English. And I could somewhat communicate with Hiroto, as he speaks Spanish and I speak Portuguese (hah, I ain’t no culturally stunted monoglot!). So the conversation last night drifted between Japanese (which I understood 0%), Spanish/Portuguese (40% comprehension), and English (100% comprehension).
It might have been the jetlag, but dinner did start to feel like a GRE question: Hiroto speaks Japanese and Spanish. Megumi speaks Japanese and English. Stephan speaks Japanese, Cantonese, English, and Spanish. Older Bro speaks English, Portuguese, Japanese, and Spanish. SiL speaks English and Japanese. And I speak English and Portuguese. We are all sitting down for dinner (delivery from Shanghai Express). What is the ideal sitting arrangement at the table so that each person can speak to the people on either side and across the table. Assume a rectangular table with 2 people sitting on the long sides and 1 person on each end.
Hmm… I have no idea what the proper order is. If you’re feeling bored, drop me a line with your solution. Me, I’m going back to bed.
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