Speak to Me

I just finished watching a movie. No huge deal for most folks, I know, but this movie of love and martial arts surprised and delighted me with enigmatic scripting and acting along with well filmed and choreographed fight scenes that were placed in the proper places of the story, and a few well placed [ I thought ] flashbacks helped rather than hindered the story line.

I viewed the entire film glued to the screen with headphones snugly fit over my ears , and did not, nay, could not, understand a word of the dialog ! That fact really should not constitute reason for surprise, It was just that every character spoke only in Chinese. Very careful attention was required to unravel the story line, but the effort was worth the outcome.

Now this brings me to the gist of my writing. During and after this screening I became aware of how engulfed I had become and thought that a deaf person could have more easily deciphered the plotline than I. I recall wondering if an immigrant with only one tongue , [ and that speech not Chinese ] would fare better than I, and if a bilingual { two tongues }viewer might not have an advantage interpreting this  show. With so many of the bloggers I deal with learning languages from all about the world, realization struck that I, and most Americans, are crippled, or would be if so many others did not learn English, in as much that we limit our value because of dealing with the majority of the people only with the aid of interpreters . If everyone else on the globe did not already understand me, I think I would learn to communicate in another language!

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