Language is highly cultural. Grammar and spelling can be taught at school but some vocabulary can only be learned in the street or even—gasp!—watching T.V.
In my first few years in Canada, immersed in the culture, I learned a lot of words and expressions I wouldn’t have found in grammar books.
We left Singapore on Tuesday evening and arrived in Sydney early morning on Wednesday.
The couple walked into the restaurant and sat right behind us. The first thing I noticed was that we had the same shoes, a pair of red rubber flip-flop, the kind everybody wear at the beach. Her feet were tan, like mine, and I could see a whiter patch of skin where the sandals’ strap rested.
At 11 p.m., we suddenly realized we’d better print the Kuala Lumpur hotel booking confirmation we had just made online. Obviously, we don’t carry a printer with us (although I sometimes wish we did) so we had to find an Internet café.
Hostels are chaotic places. Shared bathrooms, communal kitchen, dorms… living with perfect strangers is both surprisingly easy and quite weird. You can tell the kids who have never lived outside home (hint: they leave dishes everywhere and walk around in filthy clothes because they are quite not sure how the washing-machine works) from those who have some experience being on their own.
Citizenship & Immigration Canada is currently consulting the public on marriages of convenience.
