breaking through

I'm constantly amazed by the ease with which you can break through a myriad of fears and prejudices just by uttering a few words in the local dialect. I've spent the past few days in one of the more remote suburbs of Hong Kong starting my study of Cantonese, and today was a great reminder of why it's worth making the effort. There's an old guy smoking a cigarette and drinking a beer at the tram stop, and as I go to stand next to him he moves away, obviously a little frightened of what might happen if the strange white person starts talking to him. That is of course until the strange white person turns to him and with a big smile asks: "Bei-zao hou-yum-ah?" ("Does the beer taste good?" in Cantonese). Right now I only know about 20 words in Cantonese, but those three are good enough to start a friendship. Wonderful, wonderful.