Big things never change, so it’s the little things that gnaw at your consciousness and induce that feeling of unfamiliarity in what was once an intimately familiar locale. Reverse culture shock is a strange beast.
Things are deathly quiet here. I had intended to spend some time at my parents’ property in north Florida to “get away from the crowds,” but after spending ten days in suburban Orlando I realized that everywhere was “away from the crowds” in comparison to China. The mall on a Friday night is less crowded than a Chinese supermarket on a lazy Tuesday morning. I’ve been awake for three hours and have heard exactly one sound—a car with bad belts making that “please replace your belts” screeching sound—coming from outside. I think it’s nice to live somewhere so quiet, but it’s also more than a little disconcerting.
I also don’t feel like I’ve had to think very much in my time here. Things are so easy. People speak English. There are no words to learn, no characters to decipher. Even the foods are familiar (and ever so fattening).
My comfort with English is somewhat wanting, however. I went with Jordan yesterday to a small Chinese supermarket, wherein I spoke and listened to Chinese and felt completely natural. A teller at a bookstore asked me “How are you?” and I stumbled over it like I had just gotten off the boat. At home, with Kexia, I don’t use my full range of English (and she doesn’t use her full range of Chinese), in class I certainly don’t, and I think it’s starting to show ill effects.
The people around me also don’t speak English very well. I suppose that having pushed the ideal of “standard English” upon my students for such a long time (though I myself do not believe such a thing exists, the Chinese do and thus that is what I must teach) I have developed a rose-colored view of the native speaking population. People make mistakes, lots of them, many of which are the simple ones that I’ve been futilely trying to exorcise from my students’ speech. Subject-verb agreement, people! I’m sure I make the same mistakes, but a healthy-double standard is what keeps me above the proles.
Eh, America is such a strange place. It will be nice to get back to that crazy place where everything makes sense.
John’s back! That really threw me at first.
Left by David on January 31st, 2005
What kind of subject-verb agreement errors is the most common?
Left by Matt on January 31st, 2005
I don’t know what it are you is talking about. My English are perfect.
Left by Eric on February 1st, 2005
o;;;
Left by taherm on April 16th, 2006