Me in Shanghai
I am a Malaysian born “Banana” Chinese; I can't speak Mandarin despite being Chinese; Cantonese despite being based in KL (well technically Subang isn't KL); Hokkien despite Hokkien being my mother's tongue. I’m one of the many growing number of Chinese who can’t hold conversation in a Chinese language as a result of being educated in either a public school or a private school.
For the past 22 years of my life, I have primarily relied on English and Bahasa as a medium of communication and have always been the receiving end of jokes from people ranging from Aunties, to friends to the road side peddlers. The commonly used quote amongst this group is:
Huuuh? Ni shi hua ren ma? Wei shenme ni bu hui jiang hua yin a?
Huuuh? 你 是 汉 人 吗？为 什 么 你 不 会 讲 汉 语 阿？？
(哈哈 HaHa take that!!)
It’s very frustrating and demeaning to be placed in a position of futility. It’s similar to being tied to a chair and being slapped in the face by a kid and then being given the Haw-Haw Nelson laugh (Simpsons).
So what I did right after I graduated from UNSW for BCommerce, was to go straight to China on the weekend after my graduation and enroll myself into a language course at one of the most reputable universities in Shanghai, Fudan University and start learning some mandarin.
Fudan University
This blog is dedicated to other unfortunate souls who are in the same predicament as me or for anyone else who wants to know more about learning mandarin in the Where East meets West of China (you can just go to the nearest Chinatown if you are in a Western country), interacting with the locals, the do’s and don’ts, places to eat or check out, useful bits of information that can come in invaluable or maybe learning a useful character/phrase or two.
Hop on board!!
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