Friday, April 16, 2004
lost in translation
since i know i would be too tempted to go online if i stay at home yesterday, i went to one of my favorite coffee shops to study for my finals, as usual. after i bought myself a tall macchiato, i got a table near the window and started to get busy with my textbooks, lecture notes and study guides. it was fine for a while, until i realized that i was hearing at least 2 different languages spoken by people around me. they're not uncommon, it's just that they were very obvious and i couldn't help but notice. at the table besides mine, 2 middle-eastern-looking guys speaking in arabic, while at the 2 o'clock direction, 5 latin girls - were gossiping in spanish. boy, they were loud.
it was then when i also realized that the 2 girls at the table in front of me were speaking japanese. while one girl is obviously caucasian, she's learning some basic japanese with the should-be native japanese girl. this is funny, i thought. three very different languages in a row. and just then, i heard another people speaking japanese, who turned out to be a couple at my 5 o'clock direction. while at the table right behind me, 2 chinese girls and a guy speaking mandarin. i started to look across the room, and my, all i could see were just asian and latin people!
after half an hour or so, the two girls in front of me left the place and replaced by a couple, one middle-eastern guy and one either chinese or korean girl. they were both speaking in english (him fluent, her mediocre), although it was more like a one-way conversation for the guy. later another girl came to their place and greeted the girl using korean, and the mystery solved. meanwhile, the two arabs besides me were joined by another guy. and another guy. and another guy. couldn't it be any crowder?
as another half an hour or so passed by, the 5 spanish-speaking girls left, as well as the japanese couple across behind me. not so long afterward, 2 white girls got the table. they spoke in a bizzare language of which later i recognized as german. and, no i'm not making this up, to make things even better, the song that was playing was in french.
can somebody please tell me which country am i actually in?
since i know i would be too tempted to go online if i stay at home yesterday, i went to one of my favorite coffee shops to study for my finals, as usual. after i bought myself a tall macchiato, i got a table near the window and started to get busy with my textbooks, lecture notes and study guides. it was fine for a while, until i realized that i was hearing at least 2 different languages spoken by people around me. they're not uncommon, it's just that they were very obvious and i couldn't help but notice. at the table besides mine, 2 middle-eastern-looking guys speaking in arabic, while at the 2 o'clock direction, 5 latin girls - were gossiping in spanish. boy, they were loud.
it was then when i also realized that the 2 girls at the table in front of me were speaking japanese. while one girl is obviously caucasian, she's learning some basic japanese with the should-be native japanese girl. this is funny, i thought. three very different languages in a row. and just then, i heard another people speaking japanese, who turned out to be a couple at my 5 o'clock direction. while at the table right behind me, 2 chinese girls and a guy speaking mandarin. i started to look across the room, and my, all i could see were just asian and latin people!
after half an hour or so, the two girls in front of me left the place and replaced by a couple, one middle-eastern guy and one either chinese or korean girl. they were both speaking in english (him fluent, her mediocre), although it was more like a one-way conversation for the guy. later another girl came to their place and greeted the girl using korean, and the mystery solved. meanwhile, the two arabs besides me were joined by another guy. and another guy. and another guy. couldn't it be any crowder?
as another half an hour or so passed by, the 5 spanish-speaking girls left, as well as the japanese couple across behind me. not so long afterward, 2 white girls got the table. they spoke in a bizzare language of which later i recognized as german. and, no i'm not making this up, to make things even better, the song that was playing was in french.
can somebody please tell me which country am i actually in?
