Contrary to common beliefs, my favourite language is Mandarin.
My parents spoke only Mandarin at home, so growing up, my Mandarin, both spoken and written, has always been strong. Coupled with the fact that I attended a Chinese Church since the age of 12, so I read the Chinese bible and prayed in Mandarin for a good ten years of my Christian life. That of course meant that English was my weaker language. I remembered how inferior I felt when I stepped into my Secondary School - Tanjong Katong Girls' School, and everyone around me spoke perfect English. In fact, most of my friends didn't really speak Mandarin. Being in such an environment meant that I had to improve my English within a very short time to match up to my peers.
So my English did improve quickly. I guess in such an environment, it was hard not to. But my first love is still Mandarin, and I continued to excel in it. My only regret was that Higher Chinese was not offered in my school, so I couldn't opt to study it. Chinese Literature was another subject I would really love to take. Having said that, I loved English Literature, especially all the Shakespeare works.
Because Mandarin is still my most comfortable language of communication all these years, my kids spoke a lot of Mandarin since young. I still remember how amazed all my friends were when they heard Joey speak Mandarin fluently when she was 2 years old. In fact, before she started pre-school, she didn't speak much English. I was not worried about it at all because I knew she was going to catch on eventually. Today, under the influence of Singapore's educational system, Joey speaks more English than Mandarin as I expected, and while she breezes through all her weekly English Spelling, I need to spend more time coaching her for her Chinese 听写. They are not easy at all, even though she is only in Kindergarten Two.
This is one of her simplest Chinese spelling list this year. I saw next week's list, and it looks so difficult. Sigh, my poor gal. Thankfully, she keeps up her good spirit every week, and she's not scared of the language. At least that would mean she won't resist learning it.
I am mighty proud that my girls are effectively bilingual, and I know what a great asset that is to have in life. I just pray and hope that as they go through this tedious learning journey in languages, they will enjoy themselves and not see it as a burden.
Now, they speak Mandarin to their grandparents and automatically switches to English when they speak to other people. To Papa Isaiah and me, they do Singlish. haha! OK, I know I know. I'm trying hard to take that third unnecessary language away from them.
As if mastering two languages is not tough enough.
