Multilingual

Bad Dad and I saw A City of Sadness last night at the LACMA film series.  The mainly Westside crowd appeared (from overheard snatches of conversation) to know a lot about film.  They didn't know much about Taiwanese history.  Even Bad Dad, who had heard my family's stories, still had trouble keeping the people and the plot straight.

I think the problem stems from the five languages used on screen: Taiwanese, Mandarin, Shanghainese*, Japanese and Cantonese.  You are supposed to learn something about a character's background, sympathies and motivation from their language.  But, to most of the audience, all they saw were the subtitles in English. 

For instance, at the hospital, the staff speaks to one another in Japanese and Taiwanese.  The language flows back and forth, showing how comfortable they have become with one another.  When the Japanese retreated, some of the Japanese settlers choose to remain and continue to work at the hospital.  (They were so young, they had known no other home than Taiwan.)

To prepare for integration into China, the hospital gave Mandarin lessons to the staff.  Bad Dad knew they were learning some language, but didn't know which language or why.  They were learning Mandarin because almost none of the hospital staff knew Mandarin.  I think that point went right over the heads of most of the audience.

I understand a little bit of Taiwanese, Mandarin and Shanhainese, and I can distinguish the sounds of Japanese and Cantonese, though I can't understand them.  It made it so much easier for me to keep the characters straight.  If Bad Dad was lost, I think the rest of the audience must have been completely clueless.

Was it really that bad?  Actually, it was worse.  They had to downplay the genocide to get it past the censors.

My parents speak Taiwanese, Hakka**, Mandarin, Japanese and English.  They also know a little bit of Cantonese.  Like many American immigrant families, my parents will speak to me in one language and I will reply in English.  Bad Dad's family spoke German at home and the kids replied in a mixture of German and English, too.  I took enough German in high school and college to follow along and reply when necessary at my in-laws' house. 

Once, when we were visiting my dad and stepmom (who spoke Japanese when alone but spoke in Mandarin out of respect for my presence), Bad Dad didn't answer a question addressed to him.  I poked him and glared.  Why was he so rude?

He gave me a, "What?" look back.

No one else had realized that my stemmom had asked him a question in Mandarin and he didn't understand it!

My most popular joke abroad
Q.  What do you call a person who speaks two languages?
A. Bilingual
Q. What do you call a person who speaks three languages?
A. Trilingual
Q. What do you call a person who speaks one language?
A. American

* I have no idea why the movie background sheet distinguishes between Mandarin and Shanghainese.  I had previously thought that the Shanghai accent was the adopted Mandarin standard pronunciation (used by TV and radio newsreaders, natives of Shanghai, and  social pretenders).   But I forgot that there are so many regional accents and dialects.  I guess, at one time, Shanghai must have had a distinct dialect.  It was before my time.

** The Taiwanese and the Hakka were the two most populous groups in Taiwan until the mid 19th century.