Mandarin & Han yu pin yin

I dislike it when people refer me by my Chinese name & try to disregard my English name.
First of all, my English name was finalized at birth far before my Chinese name. Hence, my Chinese name was 'created' for the sake of pleasing the older generation (my grandparents). My parents both were true Chinese illiterate & gave me weird name for my 1st Chinese name, Yen. I have always been addressed by my English name. My 1st name.

So, when people do that, I strictly feel that it's a disrespect toward me.
So much so that I condemned it by suggesting that I should really omit my Chinese name.

When my hubby found out that my friend recently named her baby without a Chinese name, he said it would be difficult in Chinese class, presuming that the baby would finally be receiving her education in Singapore. (Chinese is a compulsory 2nd language). That would be so sad for her. Not because she had to learn Mandarin/Chinese, but because there would be no condusive environment for her to learn Chinese. Both parents Chinese illiterate. So are all the four grandparents. So, what mother tongue are we exactly talking about?

I have always been against Mandarin education as I was brought up to believe such. Today I realized how Chinese education lead to so many auspicious believes: how they played with number 8, certain characters, numbers, births, dates etc. Because I remember how my poor aunty was rejected at birth because she's believed to bring terrible disaster to her family. Even her foster family returned her to my grandmother after few years believing that all the 'disasters' were brought upon them by her. Having no where to give her to, my grandmother had to keep her. She was always 'verbally' tortured, brought up to believed that she's not meant to be.
All that lead to low-self esteem.

She became someone's else's 2nd wife. Not legally. You know what Malaysia in the older days are like..

I may be exaggerating by bringing this into the picture. As I read the recent books I bought about Chinese culture & literature, I understand why Chinese believed the way they do.

Only surprisingly, they still believed in 'auspicious' & 'omen' after thousands of years.

Even as the society progress, when they have no answer to their misgiving, they turned to this for excuse. Without sometimes looking at their own behaviour & up-bringing.

Okay, culture aside.
I seriously dislike Mandarin because (I found that many people who learned Chinese/Mandarin as their primary language) I have difficulty understanding them when they speak English. They either speak with direct translation from Chinese (which is pure insult to either language) or they can't pronouce many words properly.

It takes few seconds to translate their pronounciations,.. as
b & p,
d & t,
g & k,
z & c are used totally confused from the master creator of the alphabets.
Besides, they somehow believe they can't roll their tongue to say R. Mostly the same 'species'.
Oh, it does drive me up the wall. (ANd now, they're affecting me TOO!)

German, Dutch, French, English, Portugese & Spanish may have use them differently, but the basics will stay. Only a few letters will change. Even with my Malay education background, English isn't a problem to me.

So who says anyone can't master two languages or more????

I have laid the rule that my children shall not receive Mandarin as their primary education for the fear of this problem.

So what(?!) that I'm of Chinese heritage? As far as I know, when my grandparents sailed out of China, they knew there was no turning back. Besides, both of them (sorry, all four of them) DO NOT SPEAK A SINGLE WORD OF MANDARIN.

Yes, with China booming, Every 'Chinese' all over the world are swarming in to learn Mandarin. But with Taiwan having a major influence, some may get caught in between as to which Mandarin to master (namely HongKonger). And with both China & Taiwan being loggerheads with each other, I doubt they'll unify the Mandarin usage. Imagine, American English, British English, Australian English & New Zealander English. All four English language countries, sometimes you can barely understand the other if you're familiar with one (excuse frequent travelers please). I'm not just talking about accents, but Pronounciations & grammer usage.

Well,.. back to people "Swarming In" to learn Mandarin. With so many people trying to enter the market, they'd be extremely proud. And when the society or market matures.. They'd be very judgemental.
Remember when people were so keen to learn Japanese?
People stop not because Japan became less popular. But because they are so proud of their language, if you can't speak it well, pls do no insult the language by speaking you menial Japanese.
Eventually, they learn English too.
The same is already happening for the Chinese.

Many Chinese are learning English. Their population is so huge, their society is advancing fast. Thinking about entering Chinese market? Now is your chance. DO it late, you''ll be scorned. For your lousy Mandarin. Remember, for you to be up to par with them, no matter how, your mandarin will never be up to their standard.
They will see you as 'hua-ren', but you are no 'Chong-kuo ren".

Call me stubborn. But I don't care. I can learn Mandarin for public's sake. But don't condemn me just because I'm have yellow skin. That is how 'English' students in Singapore gave up learning Mandarin. That is not challenging, that is oppressing. This leads to discourage.

My mother tongue is Hokkien.
My husband's mother tongue is Cantonese.
Mandarin IS THE national language of China.

You can never accused me of neglecting mother tongue.
Truthfully, I think people who can't speak their own dialect are the one neglecting their mother tongue.

I only neglect my ancester's national language. But they had decided that China is long past them anyway. I'm not migrating back to China. THey would never accept me anyway. Why bother?

Chinese New Year 2007

Sometimes I dislike Chinese New Year. All expectations & expenditures arise during the festive period.

This will be my first Chinese New Year as a married lady. My hubby will be away though. From 1st day to 6th day. I will be around on 2nd day. But ain't looking forward to it. I don't even feel like going back hometown. DOn't want to give ang pow for the first time without him around. So incomplete.

It isn't that I don't want to give ang pow. I think it's really fun. I was proud standing next to him when he had currency notes changed in the bank. We were talking about the amount to give closest relatives, relatives, friends & acquaintances.
'yan mo tou, hong pow to yu tou'

Now I am planning to work throughout the Chinese NEw Year to rid of the lonely feeling.

Heck with the CNY days itself. Now the preparation period is merry & jolly. However, certain businesses isn't pleasing.

I have always like to eat ba-kwa (dried meat). I would even buy it for consumption from time to time. However now is the busy time for the ba-kwa sellers.
I went to buy some today. Simply just want to eat it myself. I'm home alone for few days.

I don't know how cocky & weird people can get sometimes. I went to the stall yesterday. They snapped me off to tell me to queue. I queued awhile. I gave up. I see so many people working in the store but only one serving customers. One serve, one pack, one seal, one cashier. I think my nieces & nephew can do a better job. (They are 9, 6 & 3yrs old). What the heck???

This only happened during the season.

I went to buy today. Normally buying one packet takes about 2minutes. I didn't have to queue today. Yet, it took 10min. That's 1/5 of the regular productivity. Is the trick to make them cause queue to look famous? I counted 7staffs in the store. I shot a remark about the scene. She defended that it would be chaotic if everyone does the same job.
Take customers order of types & weight, wrap, pack & pass to cashier. Why is it chaotic?
The store is well secured & lined. & this is Singapore.
Chaotic is probably mismanagement & thef. I wonder what are their worries.

Duh..

Anyway, she took wrong order. I don't know if she doesn't understand Hokkien. Because I told her 'pua-ken' (1/2 kati). She packed half kilo for me.

Singapore.. Probably nobody will be able to speak their own dialect Hokkien after 20years. I wonder who are really the banana people then?

Chinese History

Meet my latest craze & interest: Chinese history.

I took interest since the multi-award movie Hero. The Great Qin ShiHuang 1st 'united' China. I would rather think of him as the one who 'formed' China.

Next was the drama of the beautiful concubines & their feud from the Qing dynasty (last dynasty of Imperial China): War & Beauty. I began to understand more. Turned out history isn't just about war, war, war & war.
I have always been more interested in cultural development & cultural revolution. Because, it is culture that builds charater. It is culture that makes us of what we are today. And it is culture that we behave the way we do.

I began my craze & ask my poor hubby so much question. I take as my Chinese encyclopedia simply for the reason of his Chinese literacy. i'm not kidding. His command in Chinese is very good.
Of course that doesn't mean he would know Chinese literature or history. But he has the basic knowledge better than anyone I can ask. Anytime. His father has an even greater knowledge, considering his Hong Kong background. But everytime he talks, I felt that I was listening to Cantonese literature instead. TAk faham.
And of course, that's where poor hubby came in as translator.

Recently having completed watching The Conqueror's Story (another HK TVB production). I directed even more question at details to my 'Chinese encyclopedia'. He gave up & told me to get some books to read about Chinese history. He went on to say that Chinese history is so long, I might have to read till 80yrs old and still might not finish them.

Now I would admit that my interest wouldn't last that long.

Asking question is the shortest route mah. Once he sent me off to evening nap so that he'd be left alone to watch the final Tennis match involving Federer. Too bad. I woke up at the last moments of the match.

Passed by MPH yesterday. Ah!!!! My luck! Illustrated book 'History of China from ancient to 1911'. Save all the physical description! Crown with beads.. Crown with bun. Whatever.. Just look at the pictures & read description of period & incidences. How nice.

Oh the names do drive me up the wall. I the Malay & English educated, can't make out of the Hanyu Pinyin words half the time. I'll probably be waiting for my 'Chinses encyclopedia' to be back for further clarification. But without the chinese characters, he'd stil be lost sometimes. That's the art of Chinese. To me. Chu & Chu are the same. Tell me about the strokes I would listen but keep my silence (thinking that it is Pluto language).

So.. for the moment I'm burying my nose into the 'comic'.