Wishin' And Hopin' n Blah Blah Blah'in...

Ever imagined what it would feel like playing scrabble in Chinese.. or maybe Japanese. But then.. doesn’t make much of a difference. They’re both Greek to me.
But coming back to scrabble… imagine this.. a game you would like to participate in… coz you probably like it… or maybe you could help a player win… only if could figure out what the symbols meant.
And how do I know? Oh well… part of my job… I get a good chance of imagining all that at work… at meetings, or some general discussions, or some knowledge sharing sessions. That’s when I slip into a world of my own. And when reality dawns, I realize the advantage of knowing a foreign language. Or rather, knowing the local language in a foreign land.
The other day I’d gone to a friend’s place for lunch. Her mom was asking me how come I still hadn’t picked up the local lingo, considering I’ve been staying here for more than a year now. And what do I say to her – I never felt the need. Which is true. Never felt the need outside office. But at work.. I wish there was some kind of a device which I could implant in my brain which would translate all what is being said around me. My personal interpreter. (Only thing to take care of… it shouldn’t be something that translated “Dunston Checks In” to “Ek bandar Hotel ke andar”… )
Food for thought for all the scientifically inclined…
For the linguistically inclined, however, there’s more in store here at status quo.
Coz if you look at it from another point of view, it does have some benefits.. not knowing the local language. It builds your creativity. How? You hear something like blah blah blah K (that’s me) blah blah work blah blah … schedule blah blah blah… Now it’s all left to my imagination how I want to fill up those blah blah blah’s. Never did I think being a techie would also help my creativity grow. Talk about perks!!
Another benefit - how else would I realize that the concepts that seem so tough when stated in English would sound even tougher in another language? I’ve got it made! Hah! Poor blokes! Imagine having to work even harder for the same thing which already drives me up the wall when I do it in plain simple (?) English.
I suppose I should revisit my wish list. That device I was talking about.. oh well.. will think of something more worthwhile. Things are so much more convenient like this. And anyway, who needs to know what’s whining in the grapevine? And to fill those blah blah blah’s – hmmm… how does eggzellent sound?

~K.