the other roommates

Already : Hatachi Archives

« "yikes" · "asian turkey" »

the other roommates Friday November 19

for awhile i have said that i didn't get along with two of my roommates. what i should have said was, i never took the opportunity to get to know a couple of my roommates, and as such, i judged them as unfriendly. the chance factor also affected my opinion, but that was really only one of them.

the other, the sock-and-sandal wearing spanish older gentleman tomas, well, he's now won a place in my heart. this morning (and when i say morning, i mean two in the afternoon, plinko and i had a late night last night at merry ann's) he, bryan, and i talked about learning languages and travelling.

tomas has learned a lot of languages: spanish is his native one, he speaks french, english, albanian, and italian. like others i have known, he is obsessive about his language, and he will frequently stop conversation to say "how do you say?", only to offer the correct phrase. if he had a little more confidence, he would sound totally natural. however, his consciousness of wanting to be perfect stops him from being perfect.

sounds like a lesson to learn.

he also told me that one shouldn't waste one's life on languages. he is going to move from here to san diego, he said, and just chill out and make money and live out life. in short, his words were that the "world in your head, the learning languages world, is so contrasted with the real world, out there, you know?"

admittedly, i and others have in the past, and continue to escape from reality by studying other languages. surely, it's a hobby -- but for what? certainly, to talk to people from other countries; but tomas' point is that it can become an unhealthy obsession with no clear point.

that's what has happened to him, and at age 29 or so, he's finding that it's time to do something else.