Listening to Enya's Ániron at the moment, and it makes me love LotR even more. So peaceful yet so epic. I love it.
Didn't post yesterday because I got lazy and wanted to watch House instead, and there really wasn't anything to talk about.
Math early in the morning today was all right, because I didn't get terribly lost and was completely okay with it. Honestly, I can't imagine Math class without Mr Chia. Man, it's going to be so sad without him teaching us next year.
Then had Malay, where cikgu jumped us with a karangan we had no idea was going to happen. Did a crappy job (but then again, all my karangans are really bad because my Malay is simply atrocious).
English was great, because we watched a documentary on the Chinese people of China (not the "me" kind of Chinese, where I only call myself that because of my Chinese roots and have the Chinese literacy of an ambitious tourist, but the real Chinese people of China) and how they toiled to learn how to speak English in preparation for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. It was really moving, actually, despite how we mocked Chinese accents afterwards.
I love how their instructor guy told them that they learn English not because they're wannabes, but because they take pity on the foreigners for not understanding Chinese. Their work ethic is ridiculously strong and driving, and I love how they know that the advancement of themselves and their country is going to be built on a foundation of understanding and comprehension brought about by effective communication. If they won't learn Chinese, the Chinese will learn English and trounce everyone.
I feel so ashamed now. I claim to be Chinese yet I neither read or write Mandarin. People think I speak Hokkien funny even though it's really the only Chinese dialect I'm reasonably fluent in. I may look Chinese, and hang out with Chinese people, but on the inside there's very little Chinese about me. I have relatives I see annually who say the same thing whenever they see me, "Oh here's the English person/So you speak Hokkien now, eh?" So they belittle me for frankly, sucking at being a Chinese person. It gets worse when it comes to food. I don't eat pork, and am generally uncomfortable with Chinese cuisine. Do I blame my upbringing? My parents and brother are "Chinese" enough.
In answer to questions about my strange accent (which a lot of people think is weird, or that I'm faking), no I didn't grow up in Asia, and yes English is my first language. Three or so odd years in Birmingham was enough to see me turn from a toddler to a rather English-accented little girl. I'm rooted there.
As I've always said, the most Chinese thing about me is probably the fact that I eat with chopsticks sometimes. How sad is that? So people regard me with disdain. I love it how people talk about me in Hokkien and think I don't understand. Dear lady who serves us hostel food, I know what you say about me not being able to speak Mandarin. And it hurts.
MoE language proficiency test was interesting, because it wasn't really gathering information about how well Malay students in Singapore handle the Malay language, because the only Singaporean Malay taking the paper from our school was Aisyah. Their survey results are going to be contaminated with Bruneian and Indonesian data. Fun.
Okay, going off now.
Night.
P.S. "You are my adversary, but you are not my enemy. For your resistance gives me strength, your will gives me courage, your spirit ennobles me. Though my aim is to defeat you, should I succeed, I will not humiliate you; instead, I will honour you, for without you, I am a lesser man."
P.P.S. Spilt an almost full box of Eclipse mints in the Audi today, because Kian Wee didn't close it tightly enough and I flipped it over. Five second rule totally applied there.
No comments:
Post a Comment