All comments were posted in "comment response #9"

This one was posted by Anonymous

i agree that we've got to speak different 'types' of english with different people... but the part about feeling weird speaking English to Chinese people... hrmm... I guess it would seem weird to some, but it relly is normal, you know... I mean, for some (i only say SOME) - we grew up in english-speaking households, and therefore, English IS our first-language! The other Chinese dialects (and Mandarin) are usually picked up along the way either in school, or from relatives... Don't get me wrong, i'm NOT proud of the fact that I can't speak fluently in any Chinese language, but the circumstances that i grew up in have partly contributed to me being a 'regular'. We don't CHOOSE to speak in English instead of Chinese - it merely comes more naturally to us! (English, I mean). And I do converse in Chinese with my Cina friends, who's gonna be dumb enough to rattle on in English while all the rest are blabbing away in Cantonese/Mandarin?
I guess that all I want to say is that, some of us don't make a conscious choice to speak in English instead of Chinese (and definitely not just to show-off or anything!). It just so happens that English is the best language that we are able to communicate with, and that's why we use it.

Ok, about the part of speaking Chinese to Chinese people, I do mean Chinese who can speak Chinese. If the person can’t speak Chinese (ABC, banana) at all, then it’s an exception. I have friends who can’t speak Chinese at all. So I do speak English with them but if I know that person can speak Chinese, there’s no way I can be comfortable enough in conversing in English with him/her.

Chinese = Chinese who can speak Chinese.
ABC = Chinese who can’t speak Chinese.

Yeah, it may be normal to you. I read Moonlight’s blog and I got to know her reason on why she isn’t comfortable in conversing in English with Chinese. And for me, I have my own reasons as well. I often see a family with a bunch of kids in supermarket, KLCC, Mid Valley, etc speaking to each other in English. Yeah, this is what you might call an English speaking household. But if you listen to them speak, it’s broken. There are some family/household that can speaks good English and I am pretty sure they are genuine ABC. But for those with broken English, it’s fake and pretentious.

If someone tells me that they can’t speak Chinese but they speak good English, I accept it. But if the person says he/she can’t speak Chinese but speaks broken English, then there’s something wrong. You don’t spend your life speaking in English and end up still broken. That’s what I see a lot, Chinese speaking broken English with another Chinese. And even if it’s not broken and totally legit English, you could see the difficulty in them trying to speak the language. It’s pretty obvious that they are just putting it up as an act.

And to be honest, I don’t really fancy people like this. That is why I feel weird whenever I speak English with a Chinese because I feel like one of them or trying to be a westerner wannabe. Not that I can’t speak English but I just don’t fancy using English with another Chinese.

I started 2 years nursery in an English-speaking nursery home at the age of 4. At the age of 6, I went to a tadika, an all Malay tadika. I was the only Chinese there. At the age of 7, I went to a kebangsaan primary school. And for the whole 6 years in that primary school, I was the ONLY Chinese. The others are all Malays with 2 Indians. I spend more time speaking in Malay than Cantonese for those 6 years. At 13, I went to a boarding school in Perak which is a secondary school. And again, the ratio of Chinese to Malays is 1:250. 1 Chinese for every 250 Malays. I was the only Chinese in my batch. And there were never more than 3 Chinese at any given time/year. I lived there for 5 years.

By the time I was 18, I can count all my Chinese friends with 1 hand. When I started college (a Chinese majority college) I can hardly finish making a point in Cantonese without pausing several times and asking other the meaning of something in Cantonese. I would rate Malay as my first language and English as second. My Cantonese would come third. But still I try to speak in Cantonese with my friends and today, I am pretty happy with that way it turned out. I speak Malay better than even some Malays, but you don’t see me using that (except with Malays). And the majority of people in this country understand Malay, so why don’t I just stick to Malay and English? I am sure a lot of people will understand me even if I don’t speak Chinese. And the fact is, its actually better to perfect your Malay and English in this country. Cantonese doesn’t hold much weight.

Bottom line is, if 2 people can speak Chinese then they should speak Chinese. Unless one of them really can’t speak Chinese, then it’s obviously logical to speak in English or any other languages. And for those parents who want their kids to master English at a young age, you don’t have to talk to them in English all the time. Unless you can speak good English then just leave the teaching to the qualified. I’ve seen a lot of parents trying to converse in English with their kids with much difficulty and even some are broken. My parents can’t really speak English but still I end up the way I am today. It’s how you bring your kids up, not what language you talk to them.

And look at all those Chinese artists who “incorporate” English into their songs (part Chinese, part English). Their English lyrics make NO SENSE at all. They have grammar mistakes all over. They just want it to rhyme regardless of whether they make sense or not. And some can’t even pronounce it properly. I can forgive the pronunciation part since different background people have different accents but the grammar mistakes and the nonsense lyrics are just too much. It’s actually embarrassing.

I have more respect for these 2 guys in F4, Vaness and Ken (not sure the spelling). They speak really good English and their Mandarin is good too. They can’t really act but they speak good English. Even Nicholas Tse, he can speaks good English, Cantonese, Mandarin and heck, he can even write and read in Chinese. Daniel Wu and Edison Chen, if you look at this 2 trying to speak Chinese, you can see that they are totally out of their elements but still they try.

It’s not a choice if you’re born into an English speaking household, but it’s a choice on whether you want to learn Chinese or not. Till today, I still can’t really write my name perfectly in Chinese, but at least now I can speak in Chinese without pausing as much as before

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This one was from Moonlight.

You did write good stuff. That's why I'm checking them out everyday^_^ I guess I should refrain from giving you anymore comments..so that you could write stgh new instead of replying to comments...hehe.

Wei… bagi muka abit la. You can’t really expect me to come up with something new everyday right? I may be good *wink* but I am not really that freaking good. I'm still a little cute boy learning how to write... hehe ;p Speaking of which, maybe tomorrow I’ll post a story about a boy :)