Culture shock…

The past few days have been a blur… punctuated with a few moments to breathe and process. I went to the wedding reception of two friends of mine on Saturday, which was dope. A lot of times I felt like a big dork because they were speaking in languages that I couldn’t nearly understand – Tongan and Samoan – and I found myself smiling or clapping when other people did. I didn’t feel too out of place because I’m friends with a few members of the family, and they would explain things to me a long the way. It’s funny being on the end of that sometimes, considering I don’t know another language. Does Ebonics count? In any event, we ate and laughed a lot and just over all had a great time. Congrats Liz and Nofo!!!

Today I went to the ortho for a routine check up – again in a place where I feel like I’m being pelted with lingo that I don’t understand, but the connection between myself and the staff there has eased over time. Not like their was any much negative tension – just that “I only see you once a month, and I don’t really know you, so I’ll try to make small talk” kinda instances. Every visit was “How are you? How’s school? When are you done? Nice brushing! See ya in another month” kinda dealio. Dr. K and I don’t chew the fat or anything, but he’s more chill now. Today, there was some residents making the rounds and doing observations… and at one point I had 9 docs peeking at my grill. The whole time their throwing out dental lingo, totally forgetting that I was even there. But Dr. K was cool. He kept them at a distance… primarily so they wouldn’t be in his way, but just preserving what he could of my visit. He’d speak to them in their dental gibberish, translate it back to me, and ask me how was I doing and making small talk here and there – so I didn’t feel so out of place. That I wasn’t just a case with metal fronts, but that I was a person. Props for that.

On my way back to the j-o-b, I was listening to the radio with my window rolled down. “Super Freak” by Rick James was on, so that meant disco party in the intersection. All of a sudden, I hear some clapping and singing; I look to my left and an older Asian couple pulled up next to me. “Ohhh yeah, turn it up… super freak!” Dayum, like that lady?!?! That shit was priceless. Who knew that funk could cross the cultural divide like that.

My last bit of culture shock was when I went to pick up some flowers for our intern Lee’s going away get together. I stopped by Moe’s on telegraph, and out of all the times I’ve gone to him for various bouquets and such – which has been over a good 5 years -- this was the first time that our chat went beyond “hey how ya doin?” He and a friend of his were discussing languages, and he was telling her about what he spoke. For years I thought that his dialect was Russian, but it’s actually Farsi, and that over time he’s learned to speak a bit of almost every language. He was even practicing a little of his Japanese with the friend. Wow. He asked me what do I speak. Again in my mind “Does Ebonics count?” – eh, a little Spanish, but I’m rusty. “You should learn – everyone should learn all the languages in the world.” Indeed Moe.
I guess the over arching lesson learned is the value of communication… whether verbal or not. That at least for one point out of your day, don’t stick to a routine, but step out of the box to get to know someone, either for the first time, or all over again. But if you’re not able to break through the lingo barrier – blast “Super Freak” – that instance made my day.