Another time, another world
One morning, I woke up from the crow of a rooster – a sign that I’m not in America. It's an early morning wake-up call common in Southeast Asian countries. At that time, I was in a province somewhere in the Philippines. With nothing to rush for the day, I took time to listen carefully with the energized sound. After listening intently, I found out that they either crow alone or at the same time. They also take turns. Then my imagination started to roll. I tried to mimic the English sound, “Cock-a-doodle-do” from its Filipino counterpart, “Tik-ti-laok”. And amusing as it can be, I found out that there’s a difference. I couldn’t follow with the English crow sound but the Filipino sound did the trick (try doing it, too). I then concluded that even animal sounds are interpreted differently from place to place. If I wasn’t familiar with the sound, I wouldn’t know that it was a rooster (remember Pavlov's classical conditioning?). With this in mind, another thought came -- learn to li...