happy chi new year!!!

GONG XI FA CAI MINNA!!!!

Im only part Chinese. I wasn't even able to meet the man (my Chi grandfather) who gave us his surname coz my dad was still young when he lost him. My grandmum who is pure Filipina re-wed another man. My lolo Artemio stood as my dad's stepfather from then on 'til he himself joined the Creator when I was around 10 years old. Bless his good soul. So my dad only knew very little Fookien when I started asking him if he knows any Chinese at all. It was around this time that I decided to take a year-long study on Mandarin. I guess I've always been interested in languages and it's just so happened that my fascination with Mandarin was also mixed with my fascination with my F4 boys ^__^ Well, it helps to have a good motivation specially that the language Im learning isn't very easy. In that one year, I was just able to reach level 2 and I thought I was sweating blood already. Too many words, too many intonations and the CD I was listening to was too fast. I guess there really isn't any easy way to Mandarin unless I'll be left to fend off for myself in Taiwan or Hongkong alone. I've always believed that immersion is the best way to learn it. It has always been for everything. When one is faced with no options and his/her life depends on it, one will be forced to move heaven and earth to make things work. I was so willing to do that. Even considered to work abroad but then the nihon wind just brisked me away *lol* That'll be another story so let's stick to this one for now.

Aaaah, I actually learned Mandarin at ADMU and my class had a very interesting mix of people. Im so delighted to have met them all--- an NGO director who flies out every so often, a manager who deals with Chinese clients most of the time, a Liberian who is now stationed in the Liberia Embassy in China, a young journalist who accessorises himself with Dao Ming Si's headband in class, a mom who wants to teach her children Chi characters, another Mom who works for the government and is just in it like me--- for the sheer earnestness to learn Mandarin and there were others too. We would always have a good laugh at each others' mispronounciations and wrong tones. I still cant really stick to the tones when I speak it myself. I remember that we had an assignment in class one time and we were grouped into 3s. We have to come up with a good script for a situation and present it the next meeting. I volunteered to do the script myself as I was getting into it but I also consulted my good pengyou Jac on this and then before I know it, she was so willing to make the whole script for me instead. I even asked her to give me the translations for each line so when laoshi asks, we'd be able to know what those lines meant. I thought I was doing my groupmates a favor since they have hectic scheds themselves but when we presented our script, the NGO director was reading her lines including the translations! *slaps forehead* Good thing laoshi is a very good laoshi that she pretended not to hear but I knew exactly what was going on in her head then... "these peeps will never learn by cheating O_o" I think what she said is just true *lol* Last time I checked, Mrs. NGO director was off to England and her Lonely Planet english-chinese-english dictionary she says, weren't much of a help. Oh duibuqi madam ehehe... To sum it all up, my Mandarin class though not much stuck, was a fun learning experience ^___^

So why was I telling you about this? Besides from it being so apt these days, I just want to say that more than it being nice to get back to your roots and be proud of your origin, one should broaden knowledge and do what you want to do. I once was asked by a friend if all the efforts of learning Mandarin was one of my attempts of embracing my Chinese ethnicity. I just said no, I think it would really be fun to know more languages than English and Filipino. Probably not the answer my grandfather would have wanted me to say but well, with all the tongue twistings I had gone through in my Mandarin class, he would have appreciated the efforts.

On that note, dajia, wo yao zhuni xinnian kuai le!!! wo xiang jinnian nimen duo ai huo xingfu! (what do you think? bad Mandarin? hahahaha)