My own journey with bilingualism

I did well enough in my PSLEs to qualify for a SAP (Special Assistance Plan) school which teaches both English and Chinese as first languages. I owe this satisfactory outcome to my mother who had to spend what limited extra money we had in those days for English and Mathematics tuition for me; Ben and I went to tuition together but that story is for another post.

I grew up in an all-chinese family. My standard of english up, till secondary school, was rather poor and this was not helped by having predominantly chinese friends and playmates. I recall now being very nervous when speaking with my malay and indian classmates in english.

Realising this weakness, I deliberately chose to study, in secondary school, english literature instead of chinese literature which most of my good friends did. In E. Lit class, I remember my teacher Miss Foo would have us to read aloud passages from texts such as "Things Fall Apart" and "To Kill a Mockingbird". I must have impressed my teacher somewhat in my english oratory abilities that I was asked to represent the class in a debating competition. That experience was both agony and enlightenment. I was shaking when it was my turn to stand and speak, my hands twitched, I stammered and I was an obvious nervous wreck. I was so embarassed that I told myself it was time to improve.

The trouble was although we were in a SAP school, the focus was actually on learning a higher level of chinese and not english. So to practise english, when speaking (or scolding) the NPCC squad which I was in charge of, I would only use english. I would like to think this gave me added confidence in using the language later in my life.

On the other hand, as we were a SAP school, the methods of learning chinese were decidedly traditional with lots of tingxue and moxie. Long bus journeys were the perfect time to study the textbook in preparation for quizzes although this severely damaged my eyesight. But becuase of my background growing up speaking chinese, I never had any serious problems in chinese.

Since I started working, what I had to continue improving though was writing in english: in being clear in explaining, appreciating the flow of ideas and tightening prose. And this has so far been a daily learning process that will probably never stop.

So my take on the current bilingualism issue is this. Based on my personal experience, the environment a child grows up in is crucial. In Singapore's context, if a parent appreciates the importance of chinese, then chinese should be the dominant language at home. As for english, there will be more than ample opportunities to develop proficiency or even mastery of the language in formal settings such as in school or work.

Hainan Trip 2009 - Falling sick

The weather was nice and cool in Wenchang, in which we spent 5 days. The days were packed. We woke up early and gathered at the hotel lobby at 7am and took a short walk to the city centre park for our morning exercise.

This will be followed by a hearty lunch before we took the 2 hour plus ride for sightseeing before returning to the village home for dinner. We then had to endure another long ride back to our hotel in Wenchang. The day does not stop there. We will then take a walk in the city streets and have our daily dessert of ginger soup. By the time leave for the hotel, it will be around 11pm.

When we proceeded to Haikou from Wenchang on the fifth day, all seemed fine in the morning. We had our morning exercise followed by our breakfast.

But mum recalled later that once their car entered Haikou, my cousin and Dad immediately started sneezing. By the way, Haikou is warmer and the air is more polluted.

The hotel in which we had planned to stay turned out to be a bad choice as it was situated in front of a wet market, and the condition was quite run-down. It was made worse when I observed that the toilet had no door but a curtain for separation.

By the time we found a hotel and took a short drive to have lunch, Dad was already not feeling well and had to visit the toilet twice. I felt a little tired but was not feeling unwell.

When we reached the hotel, we all agreed to take a much needed rest from the long journey from Wenchang. Ben was already not feeling well. As for me, once I started to lie down on the bed, I felt a little cold, a familiar sympton that the body was trying to cool itself.

I woke Ben up and he immediately gave me some panadol.

I grew increasingly cold and weak and slept until the next morning.

But the most surprising part was that Mum did not fall sick at all despite the fact that she was complaining she wasn't feeling well at the airport!

Must know how to earn money!

Mum and I were joking with cousin A, who happened to be 'unattached' now that we will be able to find suitors for him from Hainan who can help with household chores and can cook.

This was not purely in jest because mum was requested by a Hainan acquaintance to look out for such opportunities for her nieces.

Cousin A replied," In Singapore, no need to know how to cook, most importantly much know how to make money!"

Grandfather's one year anniversary

It is a cliche, but visiting Grandfather at the columbarium, I asked my uncle,"Time flies, has it been a year already?" I have since been a little moody the whole day from the visit.

I was at the columbarium early and as it was a weekday, it was largely deserted save for one family also paying their respects to their beloved relative.

So I ventured to the 'block' housing my grandfather. Beside my grandfather was my grandmother and a couple of other relatives. My grandfather had the foresight to have booked the lots for all of them early :)

I remembered this phrase regarding 'the longest distance in the world': 乡愁是一方方整齐的骨灰坛，我在外头，外公在里头。

Uncle K prepared the food, drinks, paper-money and incense offering. At that point when we were performing the rituals, I realised that this is not about superstition, it is about remembering a loved one, and wanting to have a way to display the love.

Cousin A and I were then given the task of burning all the paper-money and artifacts and we have quite a fun time playing with fire, literally.

We adjourned for a satisfying lunch of dumpling noodles before making our separate ways home.