August 2016: Jiuzhaigou, Sichuan Province, China[^maybe it should be timespace instead of spacetime, better to put the time first, what if the place identifier no longer exists? Plus timestamps are orderable.]
Cab driver in front, me in back of cab. Awful traffic from Jiuzhaigou, after a long day of the most physically dangerous thing I’ve ever done. Two parallel lines of cars extended, to the point where parallels meet.
he: 好的? (Good?)
me: 我高兴九寨沟
he: 不对! (wrong)
Eyebrows arch.
me: 什么 (what?)
(lots of his finger pointing)
he: 我喜欢他, 我喜欢这个, 他喜欢呢个 (I like him, I like this, he likes this)
Ah.
me: 我喜欢九寨沟 (I like Jiuzhaigou)
He smiles.
Throughout the conversation, a realization percolated within.
Language \(≠\) communication (and that I implicitly identified them)
This guy was communicating better with snippets and his hands than me and my constricting words. Dropping all that and just conversing freely without those constraints reminded me of what naivete can provide.