i've actually reached the point where my chinese has gone way down the drain, in that when i was trying to respond in mandarin to this girl in my japanese class who was speaking to me in chinese, the only words that came into mind were “そうですか”, “そうね”, “そうなんや” and “そうやな”. what's the chinese equivalent for these anyway??? all i can think of are “啊，原来如此”,“啊，原来是这样”and that's it. but it's not even like they have quite the same ring as “そうね”. please let me know if u can think of any other phrases i can use in mandarin conversation.. (and i cant believe i'm actually asking that)
it's crap because my chinese was lousy to begin with, and now it's even lousier than it was. mandarin is buried deep in my brain, and it's japanese instead that's right on top. i'm still know less japanese than chinese, but the problem now is that i can probably communicate more fluently and quickly in japanese than in chinese, although in terms of comprehension japanese cant beat mandarin of course.
so pple if u see me on msn, please talk to me in mandarin or something and i'll try my best to respond .. haha. i have no one to speak mandarin to and i think this really sucks!! it's not like i spoke much in sg anyway, but still. i heard chinese on tv every single day!
anyway, back to this chinese girl. she's not quite a girl anymore, but well, this PRC lady. there're quite a lot of them in this japanese class run by volunteers that i attend, and my.. all of them are super good in japanese lah!! prcs everywhere are THE SAME! in terms of how quickly they pick things up and how good they are at what they do.. it's amazing. and this girl, she told me how she studied for JLPT last year, and you wont believe it. for 3 months, she studied japanese everyday from 9pm to 1am - or sometimes even 8pm to 1am - and she was also working at that time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
like SERIOUSLY.. that is damn ridiculous can!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!!?!?!?!? but it's EXACTLY the sort of thing that you can imagine a PRC person doing, and it's proof that it's not only the ones in sg who're scarily motivated, energetic and focused. it's so scary!
but anyway, she asked me if i have a chinese name and so i wrote it out for her. and then she said something like oh, so as long as you're a 华侨 you have a chinese name? and cos my chinese is bad, when she said that i knew that something wasnt quite right, but i wasnt entirely certain if 华侨 had the implication i thought it had. but anyhow, somehow i managed to recall the words that i was meant to use, and said that no, i'm 华籍. and then she was sort of taken aback then, and asked me whether i consider myself 华籍 or 华侨, and after i answered her, she had to confirm that she understood me right - and probably to confirm that i understood the difference between those two words too - by asking me something, to which i elaborated - to make things easier for her - that y ancestors are 华侨 but i'm 华籍.
actually i think that's the first time that i've experienced this first hand. haha. but i find it odd that she thought that "土生土长" singaporean-chinese have chinese names.. like, why not? it's part of our heritage. just because i'm not 华侨 doesnt mean that i cant adopt aspects of chinese culture.. it's just weird i think, that there was that little confusion in class today. haha.
and my chinese really sucks. 各位，请你们多多跟我讲华语！
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