Just like the Quang people themselves also adjust their accent to welcome the immigration flows from everywhere.
Variety of tones
There are times when I suddenly wonder: is this still my city? Or has it become a city of everyone?
In the past, when I was a child, this town still had a strong rural character. Cities like Tam Ky and Hoi An were still called towns.
From the center of Da Nang , looking across the Han River, people see Son Tra as just a remote fishing village. People in the city center still talk about Hoa Vang as a remote area. A student cycling from Hoa Vang to the center just saw the "language barrier".
At that time, people still had a joke: "A girl from District 3 is not as good as an old woman from District 1", although it was just a joke, it also showed that in those days, each area had its own lifestyle, distinct culture, and distinct class. Among the pure Quang hamlets, a strange accent was a rare occurrence.
In each neighborhood, people know each other’s names, know what each family has been doing for generations, and even know what each family ate yesterday. In the afternoons, neighbors call each other to “share” a pot of braised fish, a pot of mung bean porridge, or borrow a can of rice because their wages have not yet arrived. They know which family has just arrived, which family has just moved away, and know each person and where they come from.
Then the whole land grew up, changing with the pace of industrial and tourist development. The cities developed so quickly that even our generation was bewildered.
Roads became wider, houses grew taller and closer together, small riverside villages gave way to hotels, resorts, and industrial zones. And with them, people from all over poured in.
Northerners come in, Southerners go out, highlanders come down, foreigners come back. The voices calling each other suddenly sound strange.
At first, it was just a few families, then clans, who chose their land as their second home. The alleys that were only familiar with the Quang accent are now bustling with all kinds of accents everywhere.
Learn to tolerate
The city began to accommodate. Accommodate people who had never belonged there. And then, we ourselves gradually learned to be less suspicious.
Quang people are used to being stubborn, now they learn to be patient, choose their words, speak more slowly, more softly, and clearly. From being argumentative, they have learned to listen patiently and flexibly accept different opinions.
Now, every time I enter a local restaurant and hear the words: “Thank you, my dear customer!” or “Okay, honey”, they use Southern words but speak with a pure Quang accent, I find it interesting. Or in small talk, my friends still express themselves firmly, then conclude with: “Well, that’s just my opinion, everyone has their own way of life”. Somewhere, I see a slight shift...
I went from bewilderment to secretly proud that my hometown is big enough to welcome so many people, and witnessed the changing pace of life as locals filtered and chose to learn the quintessence of culture from all over the world, following the influx of people.
As more and more people come to call our homeland home, our people are gradually forming a new way of life: respecting the space, opinions and freedom of others. Changing ourselves to live together.
The city of many, it turns out, is still one's city, one just needs to learn to accept that it does not belong to just one voice or one figure.
People often talk about the “city dweller” as a model: neatly dressed, well-spoken, moving quickly, somewhat cold, and not paying much attention to the surroundings.
But in fact, urbanism is not just the lifestyle of “city people”. Urbanism is someone who knows how to adapt, knows how to harmonize between private and public, between past and present. Is someone who dares to open the door to other sounds, to open their hearts, to love even things they do not yet understand. Is someone who honors identity, preserves familiar things but also opens their hearts to new things.
Good land attracts birds
Perhaps, when a Quang person suddenly speaks more slowly and smiles more at strangers, that is when they gradually become urbanites. Perhaps, when a child no longer finds foreign accents strange, that is when the city has truly grown up.
I still remember, once standing hesitantly in the corner of the square, seeing children shouting in all kinds of accents: Northern, Southern, Quang, Lai Lai... But their laughter was innocent and clear all the same.
This city has, is, and will continue to accommodate many more voices. And in the harmony of those tones, no matter how strangely mixed, I believe that the Quang-Da dialect will still be preserved, like the roots silently nurturing the tree…
Perhaps that is why this city, though now crowded and new, still welcomes all people. Because the “original Quang” people were once wanderers, once guests in the strange land that their ancestors had discovered. That wandering blood, that courage, has become the character of the land: both steadfast and tolerant.
Now, every time I return, hearing new voices mixed in the streets, I no longer feel restless. I think: isn’t this the inherent nature of Quang Nam ? A land that is a gateway, a place to leave and also a place to return.
Despite all the changes, there is something about this city that makes people want to return. Not because it belongs to anyone, but because everyone leaves a bit of themselves here.
As long as we see urbanization as a human journey, from the countryside to the city, leaving our homeland to find a new land, we can find a way to make urbanization not synonymous with losing ourselves. And that is when we are confident and ready to accept a new way of life: the urban lifestyle.
Source: https://baodanang.vn/giong-xu-so-dung-chua-3298551.html
Comment (0)