Montreal is full of linguists. Here I am in the East Asian Studies building on campus listening to an Italian, a French and a Canadian having a full dialog in Chinese with their Chinese tutor. I gotta admit I was a bit thrown off. I mean, try to picture all those white kids speaking an Asian language fluently. It looks pretty amazing. I think I mentioned that before, but I feel it's a bigger advantage to have a talent in languages when you're white than when you're Asian. For example, if you're White and you go to an Asian country, you're not necessarily expected to speak the Asian language well because you're White... but then if you do speak it well, it's quite amazing. If you're an Asian going to the West, you'll be expecting to know at least English (because it's the "Universal language") and if you don't, you'll be criticized for not knowing it well. In the case of Quebec, you'll be even criticized if you don't speak French. So I, even being Asian looking, in a society like Quebec, I am expected to speak both French and English at least at the level of communication... but I doubt I'll ever get praised for it. It'll go under the "of course that's the way it should be" category of accomplishments. Then I go back to Korea, and not knowing Korean perfectly, I'll be pointed at for having a strange accent and a lack of vocab... until I explain my situation, then I'll get all the teary and undesirable pity of the adoptee followed by the envy of those who want to learn English... I mean eventually I'll be recognized for my efforts, but the process seems to be so much more tiring than if I had a white face to complete my Westernized attitude/education.
Now, what would be interesting to see and compare with me... would be a White person in my situation... like the guy in Swallowtail Butterfly. A Caucasian that speaks an Asian language perfectly but who doesn't speak English nor any Western language... And who would go back to Europe or something and have an Asian accent when he tries to learn the language... Wouldn't that be fascinating?? I yet have to find such a case. I guess that's why I liked the movie SB.
I sometimes get envious of people who are born with (or had the early age opportunity of learning) several languages... But I am also fascinated by and dragged to them. I think I was lucky to be born with at least some ability to learn languages quickly... or else learning languages so late in such a short time would've been impossible... Even though, I am starting to realize I started with a serious disadvantage and might never be able to master any of them the way I wished to. It's okay though, I'm also starting to be less greedy as time goes by. Right now, I just want to reach a level of Korean I can use at work... but it seems like that level is further than I thought?... Ganbarimashou...
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