Why is any of this significant?
Phi Nat speaks no English. He has asked me all of this, and communicated all of this, by looking up English phrases on his iPad every day to make conversation with me. He always apologizes to me when he can’t get his point across, and holds up his index finger (along with a smile) while he tries again. It usually takes a few tries or tweaks of the same sentence to make sense (case and point with the sweetmeat scenario detailed above), but we always get somewhere – regardless of how many attempts and laughs it takes to get there. We also point at stuff. A lot.
The other day, he looked up how to ask me what my favorite print was out of a selection of small fabric squares he had. I picked out two, and he immediately turned back around to his desk, turned on a runway show on his iPad, and began lining the prints up against some white paper on his desk. I think he’s making me something. If not, when he becomes a famous designer, you can probably thank me for the inspiration.
For lunch, he made a special trip across the street and brought me back some sort of coconut flavored bubble ice tea. Just because.