NORMAL VOLUME AND POLITE

Last week a nice little girl could not take her eyes off me. It was slightly disconcerting. Perhaps she was trying to figure out if, under my white guy pallor, I was actually a strange form of Cantonese person. Because I had spoken to the proprietress in what could only have been their language.
She and her mom were waiting for their take-out food.

This is something that isn't a rarity.

Cantonese tykes often find me a rather queer sort.

See, I'm obviously white. And I've got a beard (a small neat ellipsoid ring of hair around my mouth and chin). But unlike many definite monsters, I have no eccentric tattoos nor highly individualistic clothing.
And I try not to be loud and demanding.

It confuses them.


I too am confused. Almost every time I see people with tattoos, piercings, or peculiar clothing choices, I prepare myself to speak in another language, so that I don't get dragged into a conversation that I do not want. This is San Francisco, and it's a common enough risk that I deploy defenses.


"Your pipe reminds me of my father. Are you a Pisces?"


"Het spijt mij niet, edoch I heb geen zin om met u in gesprek te gaan." More or less 'not sorry, but I don't want to talk'. Polite, but in Dutch, so it's quite unintelligible. Can't do that in Hindi, because they might have gone to India to find themselves. Same for most any other languages I have any ability in. But Dutch is good. No one learns Dutch, even if they have gone to Amsterdam to find themselves.

See, the nice thing about children is that they aren't yet highly artistic totally unique self-realized "woke" individuals with tattoos and piercings that express something deep and spiritual. They're still people.

Little Cantonese people are usually surrounded by common sense adults.

Without visible evidence of artistic meaningfulness.

It's a different environment.



"Nei sik kwontungwaa?!?" [Do you speak Cantonese?]
"Sik. Ngo sik kwontungwaa." [Yes, I speak Cantonese.]
"Nei hai jung-gok yan?" [Are you Chinese?]
"M-hai." [No.]


How confusing! Let us ponder this anomaly a while. Then ask him something else.

And when you think about it, that is infinitely more rewarding than any conversation which includes questions about zodiac signs, their journey toward self-realization, or whether I have a cigarette.

I am not a Pisces.



FYI: Most Cantonese speakers, like most people who talk Dutch, are not Pisces. No, I do not know why this is so. It's a mystery.




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