B-A-N-A-N-A

This term, banana, is usually used as a degrading reference to a Chinese who is unable to speak the language but understands English (yellow skin but white inside). However, I’ve chosen to use it to refer to myself albeit with a slight fondness whenever someone casts me a shocked glance when I tell them I can’t speak Cantonese, my own mother tongue.

All my almost 7 working years here in KL have not made me much better at the language despite the being the majority language.

However, I believe that is all about to change. Just like in Alor Star where I grew up, I never bothered picking up Hokkien even though I was in a school filled with quite a fair bit of Chinese students. Instead, for the first year or so in secondary school, I mixed with Indians and Malays which enabled me to speak in my second language, Malay. After that, my closest group of friends were Chinese who spoke Hokkien to no end. My first Hokkien word was ka tow, which means scissors, to ka (cut) and tow (and throw). As I now mingle with a bunch of people who speak only Cantonese, I guess in no time, I would have to pick it up by force!

One of my weaknesses is language, I must admit. If I don’t use it, words get rusty and I forget how to form complete sentences. For example, I tried talking Malay yesterday and my sentences were abominable! I couldn’t even find the right vocabulary, substituting it in English instead. My Chinese teacher gave up on me when I tried taking up Mandarin classes when I was in primary school. I proudly hold a cert to verify me conversant in Japanese but of course, you can imagine how little of the language I still hold in my brain.

The irony is that I live in Malaysia where it is common for people to talk in at least 4 languages/dialects. Shame on me!