The International Festival of Raleigh (a while back)

This past Sunday I joined my classmate on a trip to the annual International Festival of Raleigh. I was lucky enough to be able to attend this event last year, and was just as pleased with it this year. My friend, who I met through Spanish class, and I both had fun making our way there listening to her Spanish speaking GPS who she calls Raul. The Festival takes place inside a spacious convention center and has a stage for the incredible variety of dancers and performers who are present there throughout the event. There is a veritable ocean of kiosks, each with individuals from different nations selling international goods or presenting information on their country. A wall of food stands also loops around the back which has never failed to impress me with some type of delicious exotic cuisine or another. Hundreds of people mill about through the labyrinth of mini-culture shocks in a true spectacle of diversity, hidden among the plain buildings of Raleigh.

The most momentous event that occurred for me during my time there happened at one of the smaller, unassuming stands. This one advertised to write your name in Chinese calligraphy. There was an elderly woman there who could only speak Chinese, and her daughter, who would translate for her. I tried out (in an accent probably too American to understand) my very basic Chinese. I attempted to tell them what my Chinese name was that I already had. I asked for a piece of paper because I knew that my too-American pronunciation was probably not getting the full message across. The younger girl tried to hand me a pen, but the older woman offered me her paintbrush. Hoping to show them some of what I had learned, and communicate a little more effectively, I began to write a simple sentence that I knew- "I am American," which takes about 5 characters. Both of their jaws dropped as they craned forward to see what this random Southerner would ever have to write in Chinese. They followed along closely and excitedly mouthed the meaning of each character as soon as they recognized it. As they finally got the full sentence, I added a little smiley face to the end. The older woman laughed and added her own, admittedly more Asian-looking, smile drawing to the paper as well. The woman also took the time to draw me my name in Chinese, after I had written what is was down in pen. (Because trying to tell it to them out loud did not really work there either.) Her calligraphy version was much prettier than my utilitarian one and I thanked her in Chinese, "xie xie" being one of the only phrases I have ever picked up from childhood from being half-Chinese. Her eyes lit up and she thanked us in unsure English as we walked away.

Two things happened here that I found important. The first was, I realized how absolutely perfect the brush and ink system is for writing characters. For the amount of times I had imitated them in the workbook in pencil, I never realized why they were shaped exactly the way they were. After writing in Chinese with the brush for the first time, I understand a little more why they are constructed as they are- it is much, much more natural to write characters with a brush! The second that occurred was the breaking of a language barrier. In my experience with Spanish, sometimes even knowing a few words can strengthen the connection between people. Here, even a few basic but correct characters were powerful enough to create a sudden understanding between two vastly different cultures. As a linguist it is easy to spend all day memorizing word after word and forget what they are there for. In my experience it is not until the words you have so carefully memorized actually smash down a social barrier do you realize their true importance.