I was stopped in my tracks the other morning, en route to work, by the realisation that I have been watching too many Taiwanese dramas lately.
Now what on earth, you are asking yourselves, could have prompted such a pavement epiphany at 9.50am on a cold December morning?
That's a very reasonable question. Hark to my tale Dear Readers, as I guide you through the weird and wonderful landscape of my subconscious.
*********************
So there I am, tripping merrily along to work, so bundled up against the cold that I might as well just put on a full burqa and have done with it! I'm listening to my latest batch of K-Pop songs when it finally dawns on my that I have accidentally downloaded the wrong version of EXOK's new single, 'History'. Why? Because they're singing in Chinese!!!
And I had listened to this song three or four times already without noticing!
This startled the hell out of me, because on a normal day, Chinese and Korean sound as different to me as German and Italian. They sound screamingly different to me and I just could not swallow the fact that this song had slipped by me, not once but several times.
In the midst of this crisis of competence I started scrabbling around for explanations and justifications.
There had to be reasons. There. Had. To. Be.
And good ones at that. The alternative is that I'm as thick as two short planks and I refuse to buy that pamphlet thankyouverymuch!
In the end I came up with two causes:
1) Familiarity and 2) The Power of Expectation
1) Familiarity.
As I said, usually Chinese and Korean seem about as similar to me as Belgian Jazz and Early Renaissance Madrigals, but lately I have been following a Taiwanese drama. So I have been listening to about an hour of Chinese every day. Therefore Chinese had lost the jarring, suprise factor. I had become used to hearing it, and almost as importantly, used to tuning it out and focusing on the subtitles. My brain had become accustomed to registering Chinese and then ignoring it.
2) The Power of Expectation.
The song in question is by a Korean boy band. I had listened to it and watched the video on YouTube, the original Korean version (shucks, I didn't even know there WAS a Chinese version!)
So I expected the song to be in Korean. As it 's a new release, sung quite fast and I haven't tracked down a translation yet, I also didn't expect to understand it. So I didn't pay close attention to it. It was catchy white noise with a good beat.
Aaaahh. Mystery solved. I spent the afternoon content in the knowledge that I am not, just yet, an idiot.
And then on the walk home from work, that very same day, my subconscious threw me another curveball!
I was coming home for the day, after work and then dinner with friends. I had arranged to meet another friend but had been stood up, so I stomped home in the cold, muttering imprecations that would do Foul 'Ole Ron proud. I was comfortably mid rant when I realised that while the majority of my brain was concocting witty put downs, another part of my brain was quietly and with no fuss translating the K-Pop song which was on my iPod at the time.
How, how HOW is it possible for my subconscious to be so spaced out and so clued in all on the same day??!?!?!?!
Mystery is suddenly unsolved.
And d'you know the real kicker?
Chinese song and translated song are consecutive tracks on my playlist! Pwuah!
Now what on earth, you are asking yourselves, could have prompted such a pavement epiphany at 9.50am on a cold December morning?
That's a very reasonable question. Hark to my tale Dear Readers, as I guide you through the weird and wonderful landscape of my subconscious.
*********************
So there I am, tripping merrily along to work, so bundled up against the cold that I might as well just put on a full burqa and have done with it! I'm listening to my latest batch of K-Pop songs when it finally dawns on my that I have accidentally downloaded the wrong version of EXOK's new single, 'History'. Why? Because they're singing in Chinese!!!
And I had listened to this song three or four times already without noticing!
This startled the hell out of me, because on a normal day, Chinese and Korean sound as different to me as German and Italian. They sound screamingly different to me and I just could not swallow the fact that this song had slipped by me, not once but several times.
In the midst of this crisis of competence I started scrabbling around for explanations and justifications.
There had to be reasons. There. Had. To. Be.
And good ones at that. The alternative is that I'm as thick as two short planks and I refuse to buy that pamphlet thankyouverymuch!
In the end I came up with two causes:
1) Familiarity and 2) The Power of Expectation
1) Familiarity.
As I said, usually Chinese and Korean seem about as similar to me as Belgian Jazz and Early Renaissance Madrigals, but lately I have been following a Taiwanese drama. So I have been listening to about an hour of Chinese every day. Therefore Chinese had lost the jarring, suprise factor. I had become used to hearing it, and almost as importantly, used to tuning it out and focusing on the subtitles. My brain had become accustomed to registering Chinese and then ignoring it.
2) The Power of Expectation.
The song in question is by a Korean boy band. I had listened to it and watched the video on YouTube, the original Korean version (shucks, I didn't even know there WAS a Chinese version!)
So I expected the song to be in Korean. As it 's a new release, sung quite fast and I haven't tracked down a translation yet, I also didn't expect to understand it. So I didn't pay close attention to it. It was catchy white noise with a good beat.
Aaaahh. Mystery solved. I spent the afternoon content in the knowledge that I am not, just yet, an idiot.
And then on the walk home from work, that very same day, my subconscious threw me another curveball!
I was coming home for the day, after work and then dinner with friends. I had arranged to meet another friend but had been stood up, so I stomped home in the cold, muttering imprecations that would do Foul 'Ole Ron proud. I was comfortably mid rant when I realised that while the majority of my brain was concocting witty put downs, another part of my brain was quietly and with no fuss translating the K-Pop song which was on my iPod at the time.
How, how HOW is it possible for my subconscious to be so spaced out and so clued in all on the same day??!?!?!?!
Mystery is suddenly unsolved.
And d'you know the real kicker?
Chinese song and translated song are consecutive tracks on my playlist! Pwuah!
