Speaking Mandarin;

I'M UTTERLY DISAPPOINTED AND ASHAMED OF MYSELF!
I cannot string a full sentence of Chinese together!

I used to think Mandarin was this shit subject, that everybody in their right minds should not bother themselves with. And so, every Chinese lessons, I would not pay attention, would not bother to study hard for it, would play a fool with friends...

AND OH HOW I REGRET!
A colleague from China showed me her bank transaction statement awhile ago at work. She asked me to translate some of the English messages on the statment account, because she is unable to read them, and she thought that they were some important messages, and that she owes the bank money. Haha.

Okay, so I read, and I tried to translate to her in Chinese as accurately as possible. But I realised, I CANT! I was stammering, "erm erm erm...", keep casting around for the right Chinese words... So I had no choice but to skip some parts. They were just notes from the bank, like call this number if you have any enquiries, or set up a POSBkids account for your child to stand a chance to win $20,000!

BUT its important to her that she understands what was written to put her mind at ease, and I think I did a total shit job in translating for her. What is taxes in Chinese? I learnt that one before, but I forgot! So I had to ask her (in Mandarin, of course) "You know, when you work, you have to pay the government some of your money right?" And she told me its "Shui" (I think.). And I was like "Dui! Dui!" Its want I learnt before but is long forgotten. And whats bank account in Chinese? I skipped that part. And whats coin in Chinese? I had to try to explain to her about this "Scratch & Win" contest the bank is having, and I wanted to illustrate using a coin to scratch, but WHAT'S COIN IN CHINESE?!

In the end, she said thank you to me. But I'm thinking, how much of my Chinese translation did she understand? I guess she must be laughing inwardly at my Mandarin! And I'm also having a good laugh myself, at myself.

I quickly told Jingwen, and she said my colleague should have asked her, given that Jing's going to be a Chinese teacher. Well, my Mandarin grades had been satisfactory, A for O levels, B for A levels. But I find it really difficult to communicate and express myself fluently in Mandarin. I want to do the same as I can when I'm speaking English.

And I find myself not being able to understand lots of conversations on tv sometimes, especially when watching those Taiwanese Variety shows. Sometimes, Dad will laugh and I would be like "What? What so funny? What is (insert unfamiliar Chinese word/s)?"

I really wished I had put in more effort in my Mother Tongue. Quite shameful not being able to speak proper Chinese, when you are a CHINESE. And Dad's Chinese is damn good lar, considering he graduated from River Valley and Hwa Chong in those days. I'm really thinking of going for Chinese language courses to brush up my Mandarin. I dont know, should I?

EVERYBODY! PLEASE CONVERSE WITH ME IN CHINESE THE NEXT TIME!

Love,
Turtle 1:20pm