You know we spend along time learning Chinese and polishing our accents(debating if we should cultivate a Beijing twang versus a Taiwanese drawl), trying to master the right tones,and the best delivery such that our Chinese becomes more like a well polished Lambugeni that’s never been let out to play. We focus more on getting it right than just letting it fly.
Well tonight I let it fly a little in the cab on the way home and had a heart to heart with my binglung chewing driver about the in’s and out’s of the binglung life style choice.
And it was quite insightful. I asked him about the taste and the extent of his habit. He told me he only got into it because he was driving the cab and it was boring at night and he needed something to do. ie. chew. So he started in on the binglungs and it appears they filled the gap just nicely. They gave him a rush and kept him awake and had the added advantage of justifying a trip to the binglung shiao jie stand.
This much I could understand.
Then I asked him how many did he have per day and he said 60. I thought that’s alot! That’s a serious habit! He said that he took so many per day that he had to get his supply from this ugly woman at the market because he had discovered through observation of both the shiao jie’s and his habit that the pretty binglung babes were always peddling the most expensive poorest quality binglung. He just couldn’t afford to go to them, but he oh so wanted to. It was his lament that his habit had finally trancended his sexual desires for binglung babes.
I thought “WOW”. That was an interesting conversation and mangled piece of cultural connection, but I couldn’t have achieved it with out my Chinese.
Has anybody had similar experiences trying out their Chinese?