Eating of Potatoes
Banana, Eat Potato
I've been labelled that all my life.
So it came as no surprise today that an ex-colleague whom I haven't spoken to in almost a year called to see if I wanted to watch a movie, and told me that an old secondary school classmate of mine was working in the same office as her.
Oh really! I exclaimed.
Ya! But he say you Jia Kang Tang so you guys never talked much.
Oh he said that?
Yes. But he's Cheena lah.
Should I be faulted for being brought up in an environment that warranted a smack on the hand when I spoke singlish as a child? The fact that he singled out the reason for our limited communication as me being "Jia Kang Tang" is, I suppose, painfully true. However, this is the very same git that I talked to on the phone for over 8 hours once when we were 14. Git. Anyway, that's not the point. Even at uni, the ex boyfriend who was in engineering had coursemates that all mostly spoke mandarin and I was once told that the reason why the girlfriend of one of them never spoke to me was because she found me intimidating, because my english was so, in her words...'Powerful'.
Is it true then that chinese speaking people abhor/avoid/dislike us Eat Potatoes?
I think it's very sad because as much as I have a long way to go in speaking good mandarin I certainly would like to be able to 'click' with my conterparts who are much more proficient in the language than I am. But have I stepped up to actually go forth and make the first connection? Familarity breeds comfort, it's the unspoken rule of herding, stick to your own kind, be safe. But will we actually learn anything if we choose to remain in our self implemented boundaries?
I believe that this relationship between these 2 factions is a symbiotic one, we distance ourselves from them, and so will they. That doesn't mean I'm going to start bringing my spoken english down to new lows for the sake of making a connection, but I think it starts with the discarding of lables.
As of today, I promise to stop labelling people as Cheena.
Banana, Eat Potato
I've been labelled that all my life.
So it came as no surprise today that an ex-colleague whom I haven't spoken to in almost a year called to see if I wanted to watch a movie, and told me that an old secondary school classmate of mine was working in the same office as her.
Oh really! I exclaimed.
Ya! But he say you Jia Kang Tang so you guys never talked much.
Oh he said that?
Yes. But he's Cheena lah.
Should I be faulted for being brought up in an environment that warranted a smack on the hand when I spoke singlish as a child? The fact that he singled out the reason for our limited communication as me being "Jia Kang Tang" is, I suppose, painfully true. However, this is the very same git that I talked to on the phone for over 8 hours once when we were 14. Git. Anyway, that's not the point. Even at uni, the ex boyfriend who was in engineering had coursemates that all mostly spoke mandarin and I was once told that the reason why the girlfriend of one of them never spoke to me was because she found me intimidating, because my english was so, in her words...'Powerful'.
Is it true then that chinese speaking people abhor/avoid/dislike us Eat Potatoes?
I think it's very sad because as much as I have a long way to go in speaking good mandarin I certainly would like to be able to 'click' with my conterparts who are much more proficient in the language than I am. But have I stepped up to actually go forth and make the first connection? Familarity breeds comfort, it's the unspoken rule of herding, stick to your own kind, be safe. But will we actually learn anything if we choose to remain in our self implemented boundaries?
I believe that this relationship between these 2 factions is a symbiotic one, we distance ourselves from them, and so will they. That doesn't mean I'm going to start bringing my spoken english down to new lows for the sake of making a connection, but I think it starts with the discarding of lables.
As of today, I promise to stop labelling people as Cheena.
I can never understand why ching chongs abhor kantangs like us. It's almost as if they feel vindicated when they go 'Hana, hana, ang mor pai lah, your engrand very powderfuu lah'. Why so antagonistic? Why so insecure?
I'm not sorry I grew up reading Enid Blyton and The Hardy Boys. I'm not sorry that I watched Sesame Street and The Electric Company instead of Channel 8 dramas. And guess what? I sure as heck ain't sorry I can at least speak and write one language fluently, efficiently, and effectively.
Have you read emails these ching chongs write? Ha! And I tell you what - they can't bloody speak Mandarin or write Chinese all that well either. And by that I don't mean the way Mark Lee or Hui Ge does. I mean the way Channel 8 newscasters do.
Can they say something like 'We welcome foreigners to our shores. We recognise the influx of students, workers and long-term tourists, and we are implemeting various progammes and campaigns to integrate them into our society' in fluent, contemporary Mandarin?
I don't think so. Well then, let's try something simpler.
'Come celebrate this festive season with us! Enjoy 30% off selected items in store. What are you waiting for? Come on down now!'
I don't think so either.
Am I a kantang-kia? You bet. Am I proud of it? Damn right!
Posted by
Anonymous |
10:38 am
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Posted by
sideshowjo |
5:52 pm
You are a fiesty potato G!
I too am proud to be prolific in english but not so proud to be chinese and not speak decent mandarin
Posted by
sideshowjo |
5:53 pm
Ah the beauty of being effectively bilingual is something that fails a lot of Singaporeans. But hey, hop on down to cantotown where folks pronounced MTV as 'M T Wee' and you feel strangely proud you can say your 'V's properly. Heh heh!
Well if all of us put our 10 years of primary & secondary school of English AND Mandarin learning to good use, we would all be effectively bilingual and there would be no differentiations of 'cheenas' nor 'kantangs'? Correcto? :)
Posted by
Jan |
11:23 pm
Ya. Why can't we all just get along!
Posted by
sideshowjo |
2:20 pm