memoirs of a banana
my topic today, sheds another layer of “onion skin”. i hope some of you would be able to relate to it or even share your own experiences or links. on with the show…
i am sure many people have heard this term before. especially if you are of chinese descent, but speak nary a word of chinese (dialect or language). welcome to my world. i am of chinese-thai heritage and the choice of language at home is, English. being malaysian, our conversation has an occasional smattering of cantonese, bahasa melayu (BM) and an occasional thai word or two.
the “kebangsaan” education system, which i attended my whole life, did little to improve my grasp of the chinese language. i was turned away, along with 2 indians kids, from a classroom teaching primary 6 chinese syllabus. it turns out, we did not have the foundation at this point and the teacher found us a bit of a burden. they say, ignorance is bliss, but i wish someone had told me otherwise. i plodded along happily in life until i entered high school (secondary). cultural shock was the least of my concerns at this point. the majority spoke very little English and BM. now at this point of time, i was lucky to have basic conversational skills in cantonese. this i readily admit, was the sole reason i did not commit suicide in my 5 years through high school. every chinese friend i made, spoke mandarin and most understood cantonese. when they were having their conversations, i felt like i was listening to a bunch of aliens gabbling away. frankly speaking, i guess they viewed me more of an alien.
it was here, i learnt to write my name in chinese and also identify some chinese characters from friends. i have them to thank, for all their patience and efforts in teaching a banana, to not split (pun intended). i could now understand simple mandarin conversations and clumsily add an opinion once in a while. they still had many laughs from my pronounciation, or lack thereof, but respected my spunk at giving it a go. sadly, i have not been using mandarin much after i started college till now.
most bananas would agree, that pin yin (Romanized Chinese) is the bee’s knees. i learnt that pin yin taught us the proper pronunciation of chinese words and it was quite accurate. more information on pin yin at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinyin. just recently, i got back into the habit of listening to mandarin songs. a habit i’ve lost since leaving secondary, as it was good to know about the latest hip chinese music scene at that time. so i’m slowly picking up where i left about 7 years ago. hopefully after this, i will be able to accept those Karaoke sessions i have been constantly invited to by my chinese friends. i stumbled upon this gem of a site in my recent quest for pin yin lyrics, of chinese songs. the site is http://www.leoslyrics.com. definitely worth a visit, as it has most of the current popular songs, all ready in pin yin. i just love the internet!
anyone else share my predicament? got any links or tips to share? do voice it out.
ooooo yes, i have something i can share.
i’m of indian & eurasian (portugese + chinese) descent. i cant speak tamil coz dad’s couldnt speak it, n neither was i priveliged to pick up any chinese dailect coz mum too cant speak it. thus english was the MAIN medium at home. over at dad’s side, grandma would speak tamil or BM to me n i would asnwer in BM or english. dont ask why i never picked tamil up (kick myself EVERYTIME i wonder). over at mum’s side, english oso was always used.
then in primary school, dad forced me to go to mandarin class so i’d drag my pitiful ass to class every saturday but learnt nuts until secondary school when i had NO choice but to force myself to speak mandarin coz of communication break down. 90% of my classmates were chinese educated. so u can imagine lar. i just bantai wat i knew n although my pronounciation sucked n only those who know me can understand me, was good to know that they accepted me n well, were VERY happy abt it. but i’ve given up hope on tamil lar. i value my precious tongue too much to try learning it up now. lol =P
hey! whaddya know. someone in similar situations. i soooo understand what you are saying, Yvy. sob sob. kinda kesian (pitiful) you know. so left out at first, but luckily got some really good buddies. eh, i still need to brush up on my mandarin Yvy. any tips ar?
i do not have similar experiences of such.but i’ve found alternative ways for more income. how about tuition lessons?you guys teach me BM and i would teach you chinese in this modern era? (:
that sounds like a sweet deal! i was ecstatic the first time i learnt to write my name. sorry for the poor analogy, but i sure felt like moses did, when he parted the Red Sea. actually, BM is not too difficult to pick-up, seeing that it’s a "borrowed" language. pronunciation is simple. food for thought, i actually use BM to find the pin yin for the chinese song lyrics. whoever said BM was useless. hehe hehe. you just gotta know how to improvise. in fact, i do that in Thai too.
can anyone teach me mandarin or cantonese or tamil? im 100% indian but cant converse in tamil for nuts. no one to speak tamil to. my Grandma left me and ever since no training in Tamil.
at the risk of sounding cocky,i can speak tamil,hokkien,cantonese and a dash of mandarin.be glad to help you achieve your goals of learning multiple swear words in various languages.
BWAHAHAAHA…sad to say, i too have a flowery lesson in Tamil *ehem* language. it’s very colourful, if i may say so
thanks for the links. i found all the david tao lyrics i’ve always wanted! Woohoo!!
Fellow banana.. haha.\
don’t mention it, dave. glad i could help a fellow “banana” in need
I also learn mandarin by a special and innovative service in Beijing Chinese School. I like to learn in live class with teachers from Beijing directly. I also like to practice mandarin with volunteers freely everyday. Watching Chinese mandarin learning TV on CLTV is also interesting and helpful to practice listening and learn more about Mandarin
can i make friend with you??