More about little knowledge. I am learning a lot about the perils of using little knowledge and the little risks it comes with .Whenever I read a few new Japanese words , I feel like trying it out in the open. Till now , I have inflicted my Japanese on a taxi driver, a shopkeeper and some other less fortunate individuals here in Japan.
The results have been less than spectacular. The taxi driver looked like he pitied my lack of intelligence , the shopkeeper replied about the price by talking in Japanese numbers and after looking at the blank expression, used his calculator to actually show the price in digital form . The other less fortunate individuals had similar reactions . To understand their situation, the 'Lord of the Rings' movie dialogues are instructive:
Pained with his situation, Frodo says to Gandalf ,
"I wish the ring had never come to me...I wish none of this had happened."
on this, Gandalf says :
"So do all who live to see such times, but that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us."
So these individuals tried their best to deal with the situation given to them. In other words, they had to use all their resourcefulness to answer my questions.
Firstly and naturally, they would speak in fluent Japanese because I asked the question in Japanese. Then, when they find out that that I had already used all the Japanese I knew, they try to use some very broken English . After this point some gave up with the cross sign using their fingers , meaning they are at their wits end , and left. Some others used sign language to make me understand their point .
I have very few days left here , nevertheless, I intend to keep up the good show.
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