Some of the girls went out tonight for a dose of high culture at the opera. I'd never been to an opera before. I tried to put preconceived notions out of my mind, but part of me kept hoping a fat lady in a viking hat would show up.
We saw Puccini's Tosca. It was tragic, but good. I wish I were so vocally gifted.
There were English and Thai subtitles projected onto screens on either side of the stage, but I enjoyed trying to figure out as many words as possible based on my Spanish.
It wasn't until I got to Thailand that I realized how much I like foreign languages. I feel like a spy trying to crack the code. Every street sign or poster I pass is a secret message, waiting to be deciphered.
As of right now, I can read about seven Thai consonants and two vowels... out of 44 and 28, respectively. Baby steps, people, baby steps. Did I mention that Thai is hard?
I know some quasi-useful words and phrases, though.
Hello, goodbye, yes, no, thank you, left, right, the color blue, the color purple, beautiful, ginger chicken with rice, chicken, pork, the numbers through 100, "Look at this/that.", "How much is it?"
Hm. I guess that's about it. Now that I can see my Thai vocabulary enumerated, I'm pretty unimpressed with myself.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
there was one performance of tosca where she jumps at the end, lands on the hidden mattress, then bounces back up for all the audience to see. what was supposed to be an emotional moment was replaced with everyone laughing. poor opera lady.
ReplyDeleteOnce again, I'm fascinated by your writing. I wish I could write half as good as you do...oh,maybe I do.
ReplyDeleteSarah - That's awesome. Our Tosca's jump was weird. It didn't look like a great flying leap. I can't describe it.
ReplyDeleteMr. S - Thank you! But you are too generous in your compliments.
Love it - don't be so hard on yourself. That is a pretty decent amount of thai in such a short time...you'll get there.
ReplyDelete