I have a good friend here in Mongolia, who I like to call Firecracker because of her bright and quick personality. She is also an English teacher at my school. We hang out often and she is always willing to answer all my silly questions and more than occasionally make me milk tea.
Mongolian Traditions
Now, there are a lot of traditions in Mongolia that a foreigner might not necessarily know...and Firecracker is well aware of this and likes to alert me to the fact that something is Mongolian tradition so I don't embarrass myself in public. It's very helpful.
However, it wasn't until a trip in the countryside (a few months after I met FC) that I finally realized that she was making up some of these 'Mongolian traditions' just to get me to do some things... 'It's Mongolian tradition for the foreigner to sing a song' or 'it's Mongolian tradition for the foreigner to get me more tea' are traditions that no longer fool me.
Now, with saying this, she has never steered me wrong when something is actually Mongolian tradition... but once, she told me a little after the fact...
When I was visiting her family in the countryside, her mother offered me a shot of Mongolian vodka that they had made, to which of course, as Mongolian tradition dictates, I accepted with my right arm, with my elbow supported by my left hand, and my sleeves rolled down. I took the traditional sip, and handed it back the same way I accepted the glass. However, I was standing up while doing so...
The next day, when there was a man visiting the ger, another vodka shot was offered to me. I was busy making some dried cheese curd, so with my sleeves rolled down, and with my right arm supported by my left, I accepted the shot, while standing. FC quickly alerted me that it's Mongolian tradition to sit down when accepting shots of vodka. So, of course, I sat down, enjoyed my shot sized beverage with the visitor, and made small talk of my silly little mistake.
In the end, I apologized to FC's mother for how I accepted the previous day's beverage, with FC chuckling in the background...I might never live it down.
Ger Life
When I first moved into my ger, I of course had many questions. FC also lives in a ger, so she was my go to person for ger related inquires. One of my first questions to her was how often she cleans her stove pipe. I knew from my training that I had to scrape out the coal remains from the inside of the pipe, but I just didn't know how often I should. She proclaimed that she never cleans her stove pipe, and we left it at that for a 7 months.
7 months later, VERY unprompted one day, FC starts laughing in her ger...(per Mongolian tradition) I asked her why she was laughing, and she apologized to me. She said that when I asked her that question 7 months ago, she thought I meant how often she washed the outside of the stove pipe, which she has never done, but that she cleans the inside of her pipe once a week.
Dictionary Use
Firecracker's English is very good, but sometimes of course words come up that she doesn't know and that I catch her secretly looking up on her phone dictionary...
Like the one time, while playing scrabble, I made the word fart...she accepted the validity of the word, but then looked it up on her phone, and I just thought she was texting. A minute later she busts out laughing, and when I asked why, she showed me her phone with the translation pulled up...
or the time we were watching a movie, with a crabs reference...but not the crabs that you eat. after looking it up she still didn't understand, to which I had to explain what crabs were...
Another time, when FC was busy, and told me she couldn't hang out, I then saw her on facebook chat...I sent a quick silly message, just saying 'lame.' A few minutes later I went to find her in her room at school...with her phone sitting next to her, with the dictionary translation of 'lame' displayed on the screen.
Mongolian Traditions
Now, there are a lot of traditions in Mongolia that a foreigner might not necessarily know...and Firecracker is well aware of this and likes to alert me to the fact that something is Mongolian tradition so I don't embarrass myself in public. It's very helpful.
However, it wasn't until a trip in the countryside (a few months after I met FC) that I finally realized that she was making up some of these 'Mongolian traditions' just to get me to do some things... 'It's Mongolian tradition for the foreigner to sing a song' or 'it's Mongolian tradition for the foreigner to get me more tea' are traditions that no longer fool me.
Now, with saying this, she has never steered me wrong when something is actually Mongolian tradition... but once, she told me a little after the fact...
When I was visiting her family in the countryside, her mother offered me a shot of Mongolian vodka that they had made, to which of course, as Mongolian tradition dictates, I accepted with my right arm, with my elbow supported by my left hand, and my sleeves rolled down. I took the traditional sip, and handed it back the same way I accepted the glass. However, I was standing up while doing so...
The next day, when there was a man visiting the ger, another vodka shot was offered to me. I was busy making some dried cheese curd, so with my sleeves rolled down, and with my right arm supported by my left, I accepted the shot, while standing. FC quickly alerted me that it's Mongolian tradition to sit down when accepting shots of vodka. So, of course, I sat down, enjoyed my shot sized beverage with the visitor, and made small talk of my silly little mistake.
In the end, I apologized to FC's mother for how I accepted the previous day's beverage, with FC chuckling in the background...I might never live it down.
Ger Life
When I first moved into my ger, I of course had many questions. FC also lives in a ger, so she was my go to person for ger related inquires. One of my first questions to her was how often she cleans her stove pipe. I knew from my training that I had to scrape out the coal remains from the inside of the pipe, but I just didn't know how often I should. She proclaimed that she never cleans her stove pipe, and we left it at that for a 7 months.
7 months later, VERY unprompted one day, FC starts laughing in her ger...(per Mongolian tradition) I asked her why she was laughing, and she apologized to me. She said that when I asked her that question 7 months ago, she thought I meant how often she washed the outside of the stove pipe, which she has never done, but that she cleans the inside of her pipe once a week.
Dictionary Use
Firecracker's English is very good, but sometimes of course words come up that she doesn't know and that I catch her secretly looking up on her phone dictionary...
Like the one time, while playing scrabble, I made the word fart...she accepted the validity of the word, but then looked it up on her phone, and I just thought she was texting. A minute later she busts out laughing, and when I asked why, she showed me her phone with the translation pulled up...
or the time we were watching a movie, with a crabs reference...but not the crabs that you eat. after looking it up she still didn't understand, to which I had to explain what crabs were...
Another time, when FC was busy, and told me she couldn't hang out, I then saw her on facebook chat...I sent a quick silly message, just saying 'lame.' A few minutes later I went to find her in her room at school...with her phone sitting next to her, with the dictionary translation of 'lame' displayed on the screen.
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