Moments

english...engrish...england?

i know it just make sense if we were supposed to understand and speak our mother tongue. So when you are a chinese, every other chinese every where else would expect you to know the language too (well, most of the time it's mandarin). But this isn't exactly the case, right? English-educated people do exist in this country too, remember? and i bet only a small number of them are 'bananas' since it's either they understand but can't speak or they can do both. After comtemplating whether to write abt this or not becos i might offend ppl but who cares lah it's my blog. i had this conversation with a friend the other day about how chinese-educated people, mostly teenagers, get offended when people strike a conversation with them in English. Apparently to them, speaking in English would suggest that the speaker is showing off. With this kind of mentality, how are they supposed to improve on their language? Some chinese-ed teenagers consider their peers as stuck-up smart ass wannabes when all they are trying to do is practise to speak a few sentences of english and that actually gains them 'The Glare' from fellow schoolmates? i'm not saying this in jest or as an exaggeration. This is seriously what SOME of those kids are thinking since my mom's time. You see, i brought up this issue with her and according to her it has always been this way in school, she was from a chinese school, whenever there were students who spoke in english, the others would straight away take him/her as showing off. trust me, this little 'tradition' of theirs still carries on till today.

whatever it is, why must they think that way of the language? It is ONLY a language for goodness' sake. do you think they can actually improve on their verbal skills if they dun start speaking using english? English is undeniably the most important language for ppl to survive in this world, look everywhere around you, the internet, books, tv, road signs, printed materials, now do you dare tell me that it's not important? our education syllabus is based on the language too, in colleges and universities. But this shallow group of people just fail to admit that it is a disadvantage to not fully be able grasp it well. And so they choose to blame others of commiting an act of arrogance. I myself had sum sort of disagreement with such ppl too in Lower Six. Working in the committee for a function, a group of us had to deal with a bunch of such ppl and imagine all of us were supposed to be co-operating and discuss things. Knowing us, we would jus chatter away in english jus like any other time and thinking dat everyone understands english since it's an international language, it's ALWAYS okie to do dat. So wrong we were, that bunch of people got upset and accused us of deciding and discussing things only among ourselves neglecting them. Fortunately, everything went smoothly after a while and we even managed be friends.

Anyway, the point is, don't stereotype english-educated people as stuck-up bitches just becos they don't speak mandarin like you do. Ever considered the thought that perhaps some of us might want to learn chinese but weren't given the opportunity at all? Well, still we have an excuse for not knowing chinese becos we are not taught that subject in school, BUT chinese-ed ppl are already given the advantage of mastering both chinese and english and what do most of them do, they put it to waste refusing to accept it and put it at the same level with the importance of chinese. oh and later when they have difficulties in interpreting English, they will say things like, "Oh u kno la, i'm from chinese school so my english not good ma","we cannot speak english la","my english is so bad, how to pass the subject, u ppl good la can easily pass". Ya like it's our fault you choose not to learn while you can. Plain childish.

After i go to KL, i'm really shocked to see the number of people in my college who doesn't speak the language at all. In class alone, listening to some of them....sorry to say this but the standard of english here is depressing. and as time goes by, they start to regret not learning/practising/conversing in english, at least i know my mom sure did. when they are young they hated it, and then when they grow up they regret it.

One more thing, whoever who reads this and you happen to be chinese-educated, please don't be angry or get offended becos im not pointing finger at ALL the chinese-ed around, those that i mentioned are just ppl i know personally, people i had seen and stuff i hear from my mom AND neither am i angry at them for whatsoever reason, it's like a discovery i had found and wanna blog about.

All this is my own opinion only and not everyone will of cos see it the way i do, so peace out.

p/s: i can't sleep so gotta occupy my mind to make myself sleepy and yes half successful d.................

Labels: thoughts

posted by meixin at 4:40 AM