första dagen

This is my first day at work really. I am treated well. I find that there are many Cantonese-speakers here. My Hokkien friends warn me about these people, and say they are quite cunning. I wonder if that is another word-play which I cannot quite understand, like my blogger name.

Teachers here are quite professional. But I am surprised that they speak English so well, and yet so strangely. They have an English department here, not just a Modern Languages department. A nice Hokkien man explains to me why the languages are taught in this way in this country. Ah, it is political again.

I find it funny that the English teachers speak English with Hokkien structures. I find it funnier that the Math teachers speak English with formal English structures. Maybe they think in linguistic formulae. I speak to the Humanities teachers. There are people who appreciate I come from a Nord-European country and what this means. But is funny of all funny things that I find a science teacher who says, "Tycho Brahe! Niels Bohr! Anders Hejlsberg!" (My eyes open wide at this one.) He asks me if I play chess. As I am reeling at this onslaught, he says, "Bent Larsen, Peter Schmeichel and Søren Kierkegaard too!"

You know, what impresses me most is that he has not mentioned any Norwegians or Swedes. He is right, they are all Danes. I find myself warming to this strange fellow.