Just recently someone asked if i can speak or understand mandarin. Unfortunately my vocabulary is limited and hence i i dont half understand what people say most of the time. Despite attending POL (People's Own Language) classes since i was 9 till 15 i still don't get Mandarin. if you ask me, it is the hardest language to learn but most would say arabic is the hardest since it is more complicated.
But i must say that i do regret not being able to speak mandarin. I had to get by with my somewhat pathetic cantonese. Yar, my cantonese isn't that good either. Sometimes in a conversation, some metaphors or simpulan bahasa my frens use, i don't really understand. Half the time i'm trying to figure out just what they said or just pretend that i understand.
I have perhaps missed out on about 3 good job opportunities in China because I can't speak mandarin. So yeah, I do have regrets. I tried to learn by listening to cantonese and mandarin songs. That lasted for only a while because i can't really stand the monotonous, mechanical, predictability of cantonese/mandarin songs. If it wasn't for karaoke, I probably wouldnt have somewhat improved my vocabulary. Learning a word a day might just do me some good.
Ok..so maybe i can sing a song or two in mandarin/cantonese, but i still can't utter a complete sentence in mandarin for the love of gawd! i was in Taiwan last year and some street vendors got somewhat pissed off that i couldnt converse with them in mandarin. Or Hukkien.
Having said that, me not knowing Cantonese/Mandarin doesnt make me any less Chinese than the chinese-ed people. I dont idolize the west. Some smart ass thinks that we refuse to learn mandarin because we look down on it. Or that we are snobbish. I just think some people just a higher ability to be language proficient especially Mandarin. I happen to be someone who is just not so good in Mandarin. It's no crime, right?
5 comments:
will teach you what i know of Cantonese.
"ngo oi lei".
Of course it does not matter; not all of us know everything either.
(:
tai ka jie i tell u wat..
there is alwayz a higher expectation set upon.
so wat if i can speak nihongo mandarin AND canto? ppl still ask DO U KNOW HOW TO WRITE EM DOWN? if u dont u r a banana..so rub it.no big deal not knowin a nut.
i rather i dont know any canto or mandarin and ppl call me banana rather than i knew how to speak and yet got commented. fark
belle: we can never win! but really, i ought to at least learn how to speak mandarin. a word a day would do. :)
Haha, when you start to like Karaoke it means you are in China for too long!
I'm just like you!
I'm trying to learn those chinese songs!
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