Oh My Chinese!

I had my primary school education at St Augustine’s Primary School in Binatang. It was a Roman Catholic mission school and English was the medium of instruction. Chinese was a subject that I studied but I did not like Chinese lessons as I found Chinese difficult, especially writing in Chinese.

My Chinese teacher was Mr Hsieh who knew my parents and who would occasionally tell my parents especially when I did not do well in my Chinese (and that was something that happened very often). I only put a half-hearted effort into my Chinese lessons so naturally my foundation in Chinese was weak.

Upon entering Kai Chung Middle School, I had the choice of either taking Elementary Chinese or Malay for my Sarawak Junior School Certificate exams. As I had never studied Malay before, I opt for Chinese.

I remember Teng Luen Da teaching me Chinese. He was the son of Kapitan Teng Tung Hsin and he was the Binatang guy who achieved fame when he married a beauty queen from Sibu. I remember he had a funny habit with his lips and tongue when he was teaching. It was as if he was trying to spit something. But he was a reasonably good teacher but I was the not-too-conscientious student in his class.

After Luen Da. it was Miss Lu Siew Kiew who taught me Chinese. She was a good teacher but again I did not put much effort as I was biased against the Chinese language in those days.

To remember how to pronounce Chinese words, I would write the approximate pronunciation in English next to the Chinese words. It was my own way of pinyin. Of course there were Chinese words for which my pinyin was a bit off, resulting in me pronouncing the words in a funny way. I wish I had kept those Chinese books as it would be fun to look at all my pinyin scribbling again.

I can still remember some of the chengyu (成语)that I learned but I have forgotten most of them. Chengyu are often referred to as Chinese idioms or four-character idioms. We were required to memorise them.  Only some of the easier chengyu are etched in my memory, some of which are as follows:

五花八門 (5 flowers 8 doors) which means a lot of varieties.

五颜六色 meaning colourful.

包羅萬象 meaning all-embracing or all-inclusive.

亂七八糟 meaning in a mess.

一清二楚 meaning to be very clear about something.

一鸣惊人 meaning to become famous overnight.

一日三秋 meaning missing someone greatly that one day is like 3 autumns 马马虎虎 (horse horse tiger tiger) meaning a mild degree of something or doing something with average results.

对牛弹琴 meaning addressing the wrong listener.

守口如瓶 meaning to keep one’s lips sealed.

一无所有 meaning to own not a thing.

自由自在 meaningto be carefree or peaceful and relaxed.

半途而废 meaning to give up halfway.

司空见惯 meaning something that is commonplace and nothing unusual.

不可思议 meaning inconceivable or unbelievable.

问心无愧 meaning not feeling guilty.

I got a 4 for my Elementary Chinese in my Sarawak Junior exams, the poorest result among the subjects that I took for the exams.

After Form 3, I did not study Chinese. But I was able to read Chinese romance novels especially those by Chiung Yao (瓊瑤) and Yi Shu (亦舒) as my sister Lim Kim had a big collection of such books then.

After my Kai Chung days, my Chinese standard deteriorated badly due to lack of usage and not reading any Chinese book.

I remember when I was studying in Canada, I wrote letters to my parents in Chinese once in a while. It took me over an hour to write a one page letter and even then I need to refer to an English-Chinese dictionary all the time.

I envy how proficient my brothers Chin Tian and Chin Kiong and my sister Lim Kim are in the Chinese language. Despite studying in a Chinese primary school, their standard of English is very good too.

I wish I have been more conscientious in studying Chinese when I was in school. Chinese is now a very useful language given the meteoric rise of China as an economic superpower.  If my Chinese is good, I could have explored a lot of business opportunities online.

Should I start learning Chinese again? I guess not.  I am getting old and forgetful. It would be too stressful for me.  But I am comforted by the fact that I can carry a conversation in Chinese.  At least I am not an OCBC (orang cina bukan cina) and nobody would accuse me of being a banana (yellow on the outside but white inside).