Fili’s world

On my second night at the UK, I was invited by "Suitcasing Daniel" for a small get-together with some of his friends.

Daniel , who I wrote about a few times before, is an expat currently working in Taiwan after he was traveling in various places around the world and Asia. Daniel used to write a wonderful blog I enjoyed reading called Suitcasing . The blog had what I consider to be very unique and amusing observations about life in general and about expat English-teaching work and the Chinese/Taiwanese culture in specific. Trying to build up his writing skills, he decided to take some time off blogging.

I've never met Daniel before, and I was always a bit curious as to what he might be like. When I left Taiwan without have the opportunity, I figured that would never happen, but then it turned out that he's visiting home for a short vacation while I'm here at the UK.

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While in Vietnam, especially in Hoian, I often went out to eat with a group of Vietnamese people. At first, as my Vietnamese was crap, the people in the groups felt that they should all try and converse in their very-bad English so I wouldn't feel left out, but after a few times I saw they weren't comfortable I just told them it's fine that they speak in Vietnamese as I sit back and enjoy the sound of Vietnamese and their special body language. Every once in a while, I would have a private English talk with one person in the group, but in general - I had no idea what they were talking about. Sometime I would try and guess, making out simple words and short phrases in very long and fast sentences, and it was surprising that I was usually right.

Taiwan was no different. My Chinese far exceeds my Vietnamese, but - in a way - it was more of the same. I don't really know Chinese, sadly, and when a group of people converse I don't even try and follow, I just watch and listen.

That's all understandable when it's Vietnamese and Chinese, but shocking truth is - I have the same trouble in the UK. I thought I mastered English a while ago, but I might have been wrong. Heck, I'm writing a blog in English, I can watch a movie with no subtitles and I am able to have a decent conversation about fairly profound topics. Yet, sitting down with the British group in Daniel's house I was a bit lost at first. I couldn't keep up with how fast everybody was talking, with the lovely accents and the exceptional slang and humor. Coupled with the fact that I didn't know anyone, not even Daniel, it made it even more difficult. But, once I stopped trying so hard to follow everything, and just sat back to watch and listen, things started to slowly fall into place. Eventually, I found temporary refuge with a Canadian-accent Japanese who I could finally completely understand.

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Daniel is a cutie, he really is. I was a bit surprised seeing him at first, I'm not even sure why, but by the end of the evening I was able to match the blog figure with the live one. It's always a bit strange actually meeting in person someone you've only known ‘through the net'. I imagine he had similar thoughts about me. Daniel showed off good cooking abilities with some spicy Thai food he picked up in a cooking-class at Chang-Mai. I have to admit that although I also attended a similar course, I remember nothing - as I was focusing on the eating part rather than on the preparation process.

The group of friends and Daniel were all great to be with and listen to, with some nice observations about their own culture and thoughts exchanged about a book project Daniel plans on undertaking. I've enjoyed my time there, and hopefully, someday, I'll be able to invite Daniel to my Taiwanese/wherever flat for some of my Asian cooking.