Noodling in Kowloon
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Standing on a corner
in Hong Kong -
It ain’t so good to be alone
in Hong Kong.
–Screaming Jay Hawkins, “Hong Kong” (psst…do yourself a favor and click the little icon for a classic Screaming Jay number on Youtube, and a Wikipedia link, thanks to the very cool Apture tool)
Just a quickie to show the local flavor of Kowloon, Hong Kong, to Stacy Zheng of Students 2.0, who tweeted, “I’m insanely jealous of you right now. Hong Kong tops the list of my “places I want to visit”. Have fun! :)” - and to show my wife the typical “I don’t speak your language so I’ll take whatever haircut you give me” ‘do I just got in a local barber shop across the street from my hotel.
It’s nice to be back among the Chinese people, among whom I lived in Shanghai for five years, and came to admire more than any people in the 25 countries I’ve traveled. It’s so crazy: they don’t have near the money to spend on English lessons the way Koreans do, yet they speak English so comfortably, with broken grammar but still so communicatively, they far outstrip the Koreans in this respect, who seem so fearful of making a mistake - the internalized grader at work in that so-grade-fixated culture - that they literally do not speak English at all, despite spending more per capita on lessons than any country in the world.
So here’s a bit of fluff from a Kowloon noodle shop [Update: I just discovered Youtube now allows us to annotate our own video uploads, and did that for the below. It's in beta and doesn't work in embeds yet, so you have to click through to the Youtube page to see it. Kinda cool. Think of the educational potential....]:
If you like this post, please spread it: 
(But don't tag it "education." That will bury it.)
I am so so amused by the guy who turned around, stared at you, and then went back to his business.
It’s also funny knowing what the people behind you are saying. I have such a soft spot for Cantonese.
Russell Peters has commented that everyone in Hong Kong speaks English.
[Reply]
Stacy
18 Jun 08 at 2:41 am
Love “overhearing” the conversation between you and Stacy about Hong Kong. We Americans, even the ones who try not to be Ugly, tend to lump Asians together - Chinese, Japanese, Korean, etc. which is obviously a very narrow and screamingly inaccurate world view. I’ve traveled in North America and Europe. Perhaps it’s time for me to consider exploring other lands and more ancient cultures.
dianes last blog post..ACCESS DENIED!
[Reply]
diane
18 Jun 08 at 7:54 am
@Clay
I appreciate your posts. I’d have to agree with Diane that many Americans lump all Asian cultures together. I’m reminded of an episode of “King of the Hill” where Dale keeps asking Kahn whether he is Chinese or Japanese even though he has stated over and over again that he is from Laos.
We have some friends that have relocated to China and will be there for five years with Caterpillar. We are looking forward to saving up to visit them in about a year and a half if we can make it work. Looks like a great place to be.
All the best! and happy travels.
Charlie A. Roys last blog post..Changing Behavior
[Reply]
Charlie A. Roy
19 Jun 08 at 11:25 am