Casey's Art

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

J’aime le français!

The last time you heard from me, I was on my way to China. I stayed with two families--the Hu's and my wonderful Chinese tutor from Brattleboro, Tian and her American husband. Tian works with an NGO that helps Chinese families who have children with autism. Some uneducated Chinese people think that autism is the result of bad karma from a past life. Tian is working to help them understand that ASD is a medical diagnosis.

China is a very different culture from ours. It is less relaxed and it is very easy to accidentally insult people or make a faux pas. Because of my autism, I basically faux pas-ed my way across Shanghai.

Let's just say that on the way home from China I made a list of 13 things I would rather do with my life than keep studying Chinese. After all, I was already fluent and my school doesn't offer much beyond Chinese 5, which I had mastered...so time to move on. Which brings me to....

J’aime le français! (Number four on my list of 13.)

Bonjour, je m'appelle Casey. Et vous?

I know that autism has been a big obstacle in my life. It is why I eat lunch alone every day (okay, I have a para-educator with me, but that's not the same as eating with my peers). But autism can also be a gift in certain ways.

Like with languages, I am able to be super-focused on learning languages because I am able to block out all other stuff and dedicate 100 percent of my brain to soaking in French. In the ASD world, French would now be what is called my new "restricted interest." It kind of like is an obsession but obsession seems like a negative term.

So now I am learning le français both at school (French 1 with Madam Cassidy) and on weekends with my new French tutor, Madam Ashley, who lives in Brattleboro but is from Paris. There are lots of French-speaking people here in Vermont because we are near Quebec, a French part of Canada. There are a lot of families who have relatives across the border. I hear a lot of people speaking French here on the street, in stores and in restaurants.

Well, au revoir for now!

Monday, July 16, 2012

Chinese is my new art

New Post from Casey Metcalfe! caseysart.blogspot.com

Hi everyone! You may have noticed that I'm not doing my art anymore. Let me tell you why.

About three or so years ago, I became interested in Mandarin Chinese because I liked the way the language looked and sounded. It was way different from English!

Plus, there was a teacher at my school from China. Because I like politics, I kept bugging him about Tibet. He never gave me a good answer. His reason for the 1959 invasion was that, "China is Tibet's forefathers."

Whatever.

But I still liked the language a lot and he taught me my first words in Chinese, which are, "Ni hao." This means "hello." I was hooked. "You had me at ni hao."

This teacher left to go back to China, so I had to find another. One day, I saw a pretty Asian lady at a restaurant in Brattleboro. I followed her down the street and made my mother ask her if she was Chinese. She was! And, she was getting her master's degree at School for International Training.

My mother asked if she would consider tutoring me and she said, "yes." Tian and I became buddies and I am going to see her in China next week!

Yes, in three years, I became fluent in Chinese. It is my latest obsession. It has taken the place of art.

Then, last summer, I was in the local supermarket and there was a middle-aged Asian couple who couldn't make themselves understood. So, I asked if I could help translate for them. I asked in Mandarin.

Man, were they surprised! The dad, whose American name is Francis, told me he had a son going to school in Putney--a son who is my age and who is named Jefferson after Thomas Jefferson.

Wow! There's a politician's name for you!

So, there have it. Jefferson and I are best buddies and I am going to stay with the Hu family (who? the Hus!) for 10 days in Suzhou near Shanghai.