Ask Lao Wang about philosophy and belief, and he talks about words.

Sitting on a rock in the shadows of willow trees, he opens his eight-language dictionary - Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian, and Japanese. Words in Korean are penciled in the margins.

As a park-side philosopher and linguist, Lao Wang began to study foreign languages when he retired in 1995. In his newfound free time, he began sitting by lakes in parks, fishing, and studying Taoist texts; and in order to absorb the texts more fully, he wanted to also absorb their original words.

When he began to study ancient Chinese, he noticed that many Chinese sounds share characteristics and meanings with foreign words, and he embarked on his quest for knowledge.

Lao Wang's method is wildly divergent from that of the language factories across China that produce choppy English speakers. Rather than employ pronunciation drills and TOEFL texts, he relies on dictionaries and the Tao.

"Sword is 'S' plus 'word,'" he elaborates. "In Chinese, there is a saying - she si li jian, which means the tongue is like a sword. She [tongue] contains the 'S' sound. So, you see, tongue plus word is sword. Both can damage."

Lao Wang compared his language study with his practice of tai-ji - devoting five hours a day to theories he says have elements of Taoist thought: "All language originates from nature," he says. "You imitate the form with your voice."

He swishes his hand back and forth, gliding like a symphony conductor and making a "fffh" noise. "The f sound is very smooth and light," he says. "Words that contain this sound are also light and soft - in English, fly, float, flow. In Chinese, fei (fly, 飞) and feng (wind, 凤). And in German, there's fliessen (float)."

Lao Wang glances at his friends who are singing opera in a pavilion on the hill as the Sunday morning wears on. Although his lessons are as contemplative and convoluted as Zen philosophy, he insists that his ideas adhere to a belief system that is purely his own. "I melt myself into nature and into language," he says, "And I see beautiful pictures. It's just like entering another world."

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