Day in China Town

This past saturday, my boyfriend and I decided to take a day to go see the activities going on in China town and absorb some of the culture. We started of by going to the market, because we wanted to get some cheap fruits and vegetables(which to our surprise, weren't cheap, we ended up spending 15 dollars on only 2 fruits). At the market, there is much hustle and bustle going on, with people talking really fast and being extra pushy. Unlike many stores, where there are designated people to restock, organize, work the cashier, etc., everybody in the markets in china town tend to do the same thing, and everyone does the 'dirty' work.

I never really payed attention to the languages that are spoken in China town, but i noticed that there was a lot of vietnamese that was used, and many of the store owners appeared to be vietnamese. The only reason why I recognized the vietnamese language is because I hear much of it between one of my best friends and her mother, who is a vietnamese immigrant. I found this very interesting considering that the vietnamese and chinese communities intermingle so much, considering that chinese and vietnamese often become very offended when they are mixed up (as do koreans and Japanese). I couldn't distinguish between the languages such as mandarin and cantonese for example, but I did notice that many of the people who sounded like they were speaking the same language, had many differences in their tone and the sounds of their words. Some people spoke with much more of a sharp emphasis on their vowels, while others spoke more smoothly and fluidly. One thing was for sure though, everyone spoke very loud and aggressively.

Another aspect of language that I noticed in CHina town was the english proficiency of people within the different businesses. For example, the people who worked in the markets usually spoke little to no english. This was most likely due to the lack of education in people who are in the produce industry, and also because they are mostly dealing with people who are on the lower end of the conic spectrum. However, we ended up stopping by a jewelry store for a bit. The 2 jewelry shops we stopped by had a very different environment from the markets. The stores were very well maintained, but located in a not very well maintained area. ALso, we noticed that the jewelers of both stores spoke very properly and were very proficient in their english. This is most likely due to the fact that they communicate and sell to people of higher economic status and have much more interaction with other english speakers who want to buy their genuine jade and what not. It was really interesting to see the difference in language between these two types of business owners, and it showed me how important of a role language can play in ones economic/financial success.