skip to content skip to navigation

Archive for January, 2007

January 31 2007: Mandarin vs. Cantonese

My mother is currently doing an open university English course via correspondence. She spends a few evenings each week going through her textbooks and the “Learn English in ten minutes!” clippings that she gets out of the local Chinese newspaper.

During her study hours, she often enlists my help. “What’s this word mean?” she asks. (Of course, you have to imagine her asking me in Cantonese, and myself responding in the same.)

Last night was no exception.

“What’s the difference between basic and basics?” she asks.

“One’s a….” I trail off, not knowing the word in Cantonese for noun, nor the one for adjective. Undaunted, I plow on, finishing my explanation in Mandarin. “…one’s a noun, and the other’s an adjective. You would use each in such and such a situation.”

The point? I love the fact that having studied in Shanghai for a total of four months in the past two years has improved the standard of my Mandarin Chinese to beyond that of my conversational Cantonese, learnt informally at home. I feel validated, as though those hours of study and sweat I poured into my language studies are all worth it.

…maybe now I don’t need to rely on my body to communicate with Jay Chou, should I be lucky enough to meet him? *cough*stalkhim*cough*

Filed under Asian-ness & Family with 10 Comments

January 30 2007: Dammit, I am mature!

After having had my mother manage my business and money affairs for the past twenty years, I decided to take things into my own hands.

I spent the majority of last night collating and filing all official correspondence that I had received over the past ten years - bank statements, superannuation account statements, government Youth Allowance statements, tax returns, correspondence about the shares I own, mobile phone bills, Internet bills, university bills, paychecks from the three ‘official’ jobs I’ve had since turning fifteen…basically all money-related matters.

All this correspondence is now contained within four folders, strategically filed under certain categories (monies received, monies owned, future monies, monies paid) and placed in my bedside drawer.

I wonder what an archaeologist would make of one of my standard bank statements if they were to come across it in fifty years time:

That’s part of my statement from November last year. Looking at that…my god, I have a lingerie fetish! It seems like half my expenditure is on lingerie.

Filed under Fashion & Money with 10 Comments

January 29 2007: No Condescension Please

Please, do me a favour. Just because I work in retail, doesn’t mean that I don’t have a brain. Treat me like a normal human being. Better yet, treat me as a superior being because I have no doubt that I’m better than you.

Today, a woman came in that I recognised from serving…ooh, about eight months ago. She had been shopping for her daughter-in-law who was pregnant, and I’d helped her pick out a few items.

“Do you sell breastfeeding tops?” she enquires.

“Why yes we do,” I answer. “They’re just on the rack on your left. By the way, how did your daughter-in-law, M. Kelly right, like the pants and top that you bought for her last year?”

“My, aren’t you a smart cookie!” she coos. “I can’t believe you remember that far back!”

Yes. Well, it’s not exactly hard is it? It was only eight months ago and someone with your sneering condescension is quite memorable.

Filed under Uni/Work with 12 Comments

Next Entries »