that's a bingoooo

There's a scene in Inglorious Basterds when Bridget Von Hammerstein (Diane Kruger) asks Brad Pitt and the Basterds:

"I know this is a ridiculous question before I even ask...but do you Americans speak any other languages but English?"

The entire theater I watched the film in laughed out loud. I thought it was hilarious too.

Hilarious because it's so true.

I always got props back in high school for being able to speak, for the most part, native English and native Cantonese. Then I come to Hong Kong and I realize there are so many people like me. Only better.

I work with this girl at SCMP. I heard she was from Shanghai before I met her, so I assumed her Canto would be a bit off, with that high pitched Shanghai twang and all. But not only is her Canto completely fluent, her English speaking is near native level too. And it's not like shes 45, she's in her early 20s. To master three language (okay, two and a half) and switch between the three casually at a native level is impressive.

I know several more like this. This girl interned at Beats two summers ago and she is perhaps the best combination of US pop culture and HK pop culture I know. I mean this is one of my strengths too but she tops me because she's even more aware of HK culture than I am. Here's an example: The other day some local friends said I was a 維園ah 佰, which roughly translates to "Victoria Park Old Man". I had no idea what that term meant. I asked several local friends and they all laughed and agreed it was right.

I later found out the meaning and posted it on my facebook, and this intern girl knew what the term meant. She goes from writing about gossip girl to twilight to tvb to victoria park uncle. Complete awareness of both Western and local culture. Of course, she speaks native fluent English (although Canadian English though....poor girl) and can write Chinese.

(BTW, 維園ah 佰is a Hong Kong term for these old men who gather at Victoria Park every Sunday and vent about things that are pissing them off. They usually talk about issues of the city that they think are wrong and they are very outspoken and have this "I'm right, you wrong son!" swagger. So yes, I am a 維園ah 佰, just like HK Honestly is also a 維園ah 佰. Hahhaha)

Alright, back to topic. Anyway, not only do most Americans speak only one language, some of them can't even master that one language--frequent spelling or grammar mistakes. It's quite pathetic now that I think about it. And these are some ignorant cats too.

When I first moved to the US I lived in Northern Cali in a small white town.

I faced racism then (school had only two Chinese kids, me and my sis)--they'd make fun of my eyes or say that "ching chong" stuff, and well that didn't bother me much....it's when they made fun of my Chinglish that pissed me off. (I spoke Chinglish from age 9 to 11)

"At least I speak two languages!" I would yell back.

"Oh yeah? well... um...um.. at least we don't eat dogs!" was their reply.

So we'd get into fights. Lucky for me, kids are more equally built so I did okay. Now I look at facebook and all these white guys are like 6'3 and 260 pounds. So yeah good thing we fought at age 10 and not age 25. Hahahahahah.

(BTW, racism for the most part isn't genuine hate for a race but rather the desire to make fun of something different--after about two years in the small white town, I started getting "Americanized" and my English got bettter... suddenly they didn't make fun of my eyes no more, I even became good friends with most of those same guys and we hooped together. So they make fun of Chinese folks if you're Chinese Chinese. If you American Chinese they are okay with that)

Back to Basterds. Man the Jew Hunter is such a great character. What makes him so sinister and evil isn't the fact that he can choke a woman to death without breaking a sweat, or that he had a Jew family massacred. What makes him so feared is his intelligence. The dude can speak like 5 languages and he's a fucking Sherlock Holmes/Bruce Wayne level detective. When he offered Shosanna a glass of milk in France, the entire theater were on the edge of their seats.

Taratino called the Jew Hunter the greatest character he's ever written. I'll have to think about this. But the actor who played him, Christopher Waltz, should get an Oscar nod.

(Ahhhh The Departed is on Pearl right now. I love this opening with The Stones' Gimme Shelter, along with that Matt Damon/Leo cop training montage. This is done better than Infernal Affairs. TVB gotta edit out all the F bombs so Marky Mark loses like, 70% of his screentime.)

(BTW part 2: Taratino initially wanted LEO Dicaprio to play The JEW HUNTER)