There is something about the use of language that has always captivated me.
Supporting the words, there is the intonation and inflection, and behind them, the intent and implication.
Some are easier to pick up. Others only reveal themselves much later.
Just as certain groups and communities speak in code, both to identify themselves to one another and to exclude outsiders, I find it much easier to talk to certain people, who "get" what I'm saying and, just as importantly, what I'm not saying.
Some may call this "being on the same wavelength" or "having rapport", and there is certainly some of this involved.
More than that, there is a certain shared desire for pursuit of mastery of the language. And I believe that it is this pursuit that we identify in each other.
There is a certain scene (screenshots below) in the anime Bleach that I thought is worth exploring here.
In the scene, Aizen, the antagonist of the season, in true villainous monologue style, chastises his opponent, Yamamoto, head of the forces of "good" and the strongest supporting character of the season (because who can be more powerful than the protagonist, right?), for disregarding his warning - one that is veiled behind seemingly-inconsequential earlier explanation.
I identify very strongly with this particular scene because it reminded me of the countless times I worded carefully only for them to be missed entirely.
Barring his intensely self-absorbed, destructive, and somewhat sociopathic tendencies, I find the antagonist Aizen pitiable - for having an exceptional, brilliant mind yet not being able to find his equal for discourse and debate.
Would he have turned out differently had he found such a one?
My Struggle With Mandarin Chinese May Have Been Due To The Education System.
Like a lot of my peers, I struggled with Mandarin.
We were taught to repeatedly copy characters and constantly tested on them. The hope was that they will somehow be drilled into our memories.
I recall consistently failing these "listen-then-write" (ting1 xie3) tests, because I had no idea what the spoken words looked like as characters.
Similarly, when I looked at a book or newspaper (these were particularly difficult), many of the characters didn't invoke "sounds" in my head.
Hence, I couldn't read them.
There was a now-obvious disconnect between the spoken and written characters.
Growing up in an English-speaking environment, I hardly heard Mandarin being spoken.
And being so poor at Mandarin, all the while being chided for being bad at it, caused me to hate the language.
One of the major deciding factors for my entering a polytechnic instead of a junior college was to avoid ever having to read another Mandarin character.
In contrast, I love the English language. So much so, I studied for and attained a Diploma in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) so I can help others to learn it.
I started reading (English books) around the same time my elder brother (who is 2 years older) did, and I have shelves of books, most of which I've finished reading multiple times.
And, considering my penchant for picking up words and tones in other languages, something went horribly wrong with my education in Mandarin.
In an attempt to start rectifying this and overcoming my fear of it, I've started to watch Chinese drama series and I've recently bought a book in Mandarin. My first one in over a decade!
It has pinyin over the words, but hey, it's a start. And I plan to read a little of it every day.
Wish me luck!
Giving Out Oranges for Chinese New Year
My church, Bethesda Cathedral, has an initiative that began last year. A couple of weeks before Chinese New Year, we would go to the blocks in our community and give oranges to the residents there.
Yesterday was my cell group's (we call it an Oikos - the Greek word for 'family' or 'family's household') date for the task.
We covered our block quickly enough to help another group cover theirs and I learned a few things through the process.
1) Many residents aren't at home on Friday evenings and nights
This is likely to be family dinner time, and many families enjoy a night out as the weekend approaches. We even caught a family just in time as they were leaving the house on our distribution round.
2) Some are wary of our intentions
Some residents were wary when we told them that we were giving them oranges as part of our celebration, perhaps rightly so. After all, in this materialistic world, few would ever give without expecting any return. I understand their caution, because I, too, am cautious of such things.
Though we were asked to give flyers of invitation for various events at the church, I didn't use any. I felt that it detracted from the simple act of giving without expecting a return. Others may have a different view on the matter, but I stand by what I believe.
3) We need to learn to speak better Mandarin and Chinese 'dialects' if we are going to do this on a regular basis
Due to the emphasis on English as the language of business and education in Singapore, many of us neglect to study Mandarin well. We are also lacking in proficiency in the various 'dialects' (I place this in inverted commas because they are really separate languages. It's only because our government terms them 'dialects' that we call them as such) such as Hokkien, Teochew and Cantonese to properly communicate with residents who cannot speak English.
I'm sure there are other points of learning, but three will suffice for today
