I'm illiterate and so are you!

It’s true. We’re all illiterate in all but one, maybe two, of the world’s languages. The difference is that it doesn’t have an impact on your everyday life the way it does on mine. I’ve gotten used to walking down the street and being able to understand or even pronounce very few of the signs I see. I go to the grocery store and pray that there are either photos, drawings, or broken English on the packaging so I can figure out what I’m about to buy. Luckily, the images and random English words haven’t failed me yet when it comes to the difference between rat poison and human food.

Months ago, while I was still living in Changsha, a fellow volunteer mentioned how odd it was that her conditioner lathered up when she conditioned her hair after washing it. I told her that I hadn’t noticed this difference between American and Chinese hair products and that if it was true, it would be very strange. The next time I washed my hair I noticed that what she said was true, the conditioner did suds up in my hair. It looked and smelled like what I would label as regular conditioner. I was satisfied to simply chalk it up to being some kind of weird Chinese preference.

This past weekend, while staying with two friends in another city, I took a shower at my friend’s house. I hadn’t planned on showering during the short visit, so I didn’t bring any toiletries with me. My friend offered to let me use hers and I was surprised when her conditioner behaved like an American conditioner would. I inspected the bottle to be assured that the product was purchased in China; it was. I figured that it must just be the brand of shampoo and conditioner that I was using. I mentioned the difference to my friends, both of whom thought I was crazy. Conditioner doesn’t foam up in China, they said.

A few days later I asked a gathering of a few other American girls. None of their conditioner acts any differently than what we were used to before coming to China. It’s just me. After a few minutes of research, we discovered that I must be using two-in-one shampoo/conditioner, rather than regular conditioner. I have been unknowingly double washing my hair for over eight months because I can’t read!

I haven’t checked the product placement at the store since this revelation, but I assume that the shampoo and two-in-on shampoo must be placed next to each other on the rack and the conditioner somewhere else. Because two-in-one has the same pearly color as conditioner, I guess I just assumed it was the conditioner all those months ago.

Oh, if only I could read the 20,000 characters required to be a literate Chinese speaker!