Happy Birthday Big Brother
Weather: Fair
Temperature: 13 c
I am going to write briefly about two things.
Yesterday was a big day for my big brother. It was a day when he has no choice but to kiss goodbye to his 20’s. Yesterday, he finally turned 30. My father now has a son who just joined the group of 30’s. In 2 years time, I will be joining the 30’s club too. I’d better live the remaining 2 years of my life before I turn 30 to the fullest, so I can kiss my 20’s goodbye with no regret and move on to enjoy my next phase of life.
Of course, a happy birthday to my big brother who is now happily living his life in LA. I hope you had a wonderful birthday party in LA last night. But, take it easy my brother. Today is a working day, and a serious hangover will not do your career any good. : )
I am now in my office room though the time (and my body) indicates that it is time to go to bed. The patrons of Xintiandi are slowly getting out of the pubs to go home, yet I am still in the office figuring out where to insert 1 particular clause into the termination agreement. But I am not going to write about my work, I am going to write about something else, which is more interesting than a lawyer’s life (Oh, father, why did you encourage me to do law?)
An hour ago, my colleagues and I were discussing about foreigners (老外) learning Mandarin. We don’t find it strange anymore to see a foreigner speaks fluent Mandarin. In fact, all my Angmo colleagues speak good Mandarin. The truth is, the only one who could not read and write Chinese in my firm is a Malaysian Chinese. Well, that’s another story for another time.
One Australian Angmo told us that his prime minister can speak fluent Mandarin. He was talking about Kevin Rudd, the newly elected prime minister. Quickly, we went to youtube to look for Kevin Rudd’s Chinese speech. It was amazing. It made me speechless. We are not talking about half-past six Chinese here; we are talking about good and proper Chinese with correct pronunciation. He can speak pure Chinese without referring to or borrowing from English words like we always do. For example, we like to say “你可以send sms给我吗？” or “这个agreement once 你terminate 了，它就没有binding effect 了”. After listening to his speech, I started to doubt whether Kevin Rudd can actually speak English. I thought his mother tongue is Mandarin!
If you do not know who Kevin Rudd is or have not seen him embarrassing the Chinese with his Mandarin, I suggest you click here to have a good look at it.
After watching the video clip, my Australian Angmo said he is very proud to have such a prime minister. He wanted to write his prime minister an email to tell him how proud he is to be an Australian because of Kevin Rudd. Here we have an Australian who wants to write to his prime minister to say he is a proud OZ.
He asked me whether the Malaysian prime minister can speak Mandarin. Oh no! I was hoping he will not ask this question. It was so embarrassing! Australia has only a handful of Chinese yet their prime minister can speak Chinese; but Malaysia has more than 25% of Chinese, yet our prime minister can’t speak Mandarin at all. Not only my prime minister can’t speak Mandarin, it is the government’s policy to make Chinese schools the second choice.
Yesterday was a big day for my big brother. It was a day when he has no choice but to kiss goodbye to his 20’s. Yesterday, he finally turned 30. My father now has a son who just joined the group of 30’s. In 2 years time, I will be joining the 30’s club too. I’d better live the remaining 2 years of my life before I turn 30 to the fullest, so I can kiss my 20’s goodbye with no regret and move on to enjoy my next phase of life.
Of course, a happy birthday to my big brother who is now happily living his life in LA. I hope you had a wonderful birthday party in LA last night. But, take it easy my brother. Today is a working day, and a serious hangover will not do your career any good. : )
I am now in my office room though the time (and my body) indicates that it is time to go to bed. The patrons of Xintiandi are slowly getting out of the pubs to go home, yet I am still in the office figuring out where to insert 1 particular clause into the termination agreement. But I am not going to write about my work, I am going to write about something else, which is more interesting than a lawyer’s life (Oh, father, why did you encourage me to do law?)
An hour ago, my colleagues and I were discussing about foreigners (老外) learning Mandarin. We don’t find it strange anymore to see a foreigner speaks fluent Mandarin. In fact, all my Angmo colleagues speak good Mandarin. The truth is, the only one who could not read and write Chinese in my firm is a Malaysian Chinese. Well, that’s another story for another time.
One Australian Angmo told us that his prime minister can speak fluent Mandarin. He was talking about Kevin Rudd, the newly elected prime minister. Quickly, we went to youtube to look for Kevin Rudd’s Chinese speech. It was amazing. It made me speechless. We are not talking about half-past six Chinese here; we are talking about good and proper Chinese with correct pronunciation. He can speak pure Chinese without referring to or borrowing from English words like we always do. For example, we like to say “你可以send sms给我吗？” or “这个agreement once 你terminate 了，它就没有binding effect 了”. After listening to his speech, I started to doubt whether Kevin Rudd can actually speak English. I thought his mother tongue is Mandarin!If you do not know who Kevin Rudd is or have not seen him embarrassing the Chinese with his Mandarin, I suggest you click here to have a good look at it.
After watching the video clip, my Australian Angmo said he is very proud to have such a prime minister. He wanted to write his prime minister an email to tell him how proud he is to be an Australian because of Kevin Rudd. Here we have an Australian who wants to write to his prime minister to say he is a proud OZ.
He asked me whether the Malaysian prime minister can speak Mandarin. Oh no! I was hoping he will not ask this question. It was so embarrassing! Australia has only a handful of Chinese yet their prime minister can speak Chinese; but Malaysia has more than 25% of Chinese, yet our prime minister can’t speak Mandarin at all. Not only my prime minister can’t speak Mandarin, it is the government’s policy to make Chinese schools the second choice.
Nevertheless, I did answer my Angmo colleague’s question. Sorry, my prime minister can’t speak Mandarin. Further I would break coconuts at Batu Cave if my prime minister could speak good and decent English without “rojaking” with Malay words.
Am I a proud Malaysian because I have Pak Lah as my prime minister? You can help me to answer that.
Spring is here. 花开了
.
Labels: Daily Experience, Opinion, 随心挥笔
posted by harnniann at
12:24 am
2 Comments:
Toh, I knew Kevin Rudd even before he become PM during APEC-07 when I was in Sydney, at that time TV keep airing his conversation with Pres China - Hu therefore I know about his fluency in Chinese, but likewise as what my experience in Jordan speaks, I'm competely not surprised.
On the 2nd part, i still proud if our PM doesn't even know a single word of chinese but well-delevered in his scope of responsibility.
Thank you.
saw the video clip u sent too.. Nicely done.
My advice as to fully capitalized your last 2 yrs of your 20's.. work hard, play a lil harder..
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