Incident for thought (4)

Venue : cab stand, Suntec City

I was approaching the cab stand, where there was not a queue at all as a lady had just got on a cab and it was driving away. So, I walked towards the cabs as they were slowly driving in to fill the empty space. Then this slightly plump guy in spectacles, who looked to be about in the late twenties (but could actually only be early twenties, you know that kind), appeared from my right and was approaching the cabs moving in to the stand. I was about 3 to 4 steps away from getting onto the cab when he just moved right past me and got on. And to think I still gave him the credit of maybe being gentleman enough to ask if I'm in the queue, or to offer to let me go first. I couldn't stop staring at his back, and I think he knew I was looking coz he seemed to be doing a bit of a crab walk so as to pretend either not to see me, or to make eye contact with me.

WTH is the world coming to?! To be honest, I'm more upset about his manners than his cutting into my queue. Is it the much polluted air that had gotten into these people's lungs, or the increasing amount of artificial ingredients in the foods and drinks we are having these days? Or is it just me that always happened to meet such people?

Speak Mandarin

A sequel to Levynn's Post.

(Disclaimer: Juz my personal opinion, if you feel offended in anyway, please leave. If you don't understand what I am typing becoz Mandarin is the only language you know now, please call 1800-WHO-CARES)

First of all, I think I am juz that little teeny weeny bit smarter bah.. I know Teochew, Hokkien, English, Mandarin and along the way, picked up a little Japanese though its all gone now.. LOL..

Anyways, jokes aside, I simply dont understand what or where are we going now, after being recommended to 'throw' away our roots. Abandon dialects to go for Mandarin to reach out to 1,300 million Chinese in the China? I recommend everyone to migrate there, why work here with a population of only 5 million where everything is saturated, everyone should migrate to China, you can tap on the 1,300 million people there.

No doubt the World is changing, but the way I am getting the message is: 'Cut those traditional family ties, go seek $$$ where it matters the most..' 六亲不认? I thought the Moral Education has always been teaching us '饮水思原' which is never to forget our roots??

Seriously, is our education system flawed nowadays? Or are Sillyporeans getting 'stupider'? Many years back, English & Mother Tongue were 2 languages that were considered very important.. Soon after, it became clear that English was the main priority and slowly, Mother Tongue language suddenly became VERY difficult.. Was it becoz we added millions of new characters in it?? No. What happened?? Juz a few years back, it suddenly became that children are having difficulty picking up and learning Mother Tongue, instead of pushing across the importance then, we suddenly agreed that its very hard and relooked into the way its being taught. And now, they say its important again, and we have to stop talking in our own dialects so that we can practice Mandarin?? Anyways, I think our education system has gone haywired since a few years ago and no one is getting it back on track.

Actually, how come we cannot think this way.. If you are going to develop relationships with 1,300 million people by speaking Mandarin, everyone in the World would be doing that, but IF you knew a certain dialect, say example Teochew or Cantonese, no doubt the market size is smaller, but doesn't it bring the customer closer to you?? You feel greater affinity in that way??

Indians and Chinese flock into our lands and work here as Foreign Talents or Foreign Workers, they try very hard to speak our language here, English or Singlish, but why aren't they being treated like they are part of us?? Hey, they are speaking our language here leh.. I am very lost now.. I am very worried, should I re-format my brain and delete the Teochew.lng, Hokkien.lng files and upgrade my Mandarin.lng program so I know more?? LOL

Let the dialects die?

Were you one of those who was nodding in agreement when last night's news were talking about this, and this? Or were you like me, feeling disappointed that this is happening?

Honestly, I couldn't count the times when I really regretted not picking up at least one of the common dialects spoken in the house. Even though I'm one of those lucky few with grandparents understanding or speaking Mandarin, there were still times when ah mah talked to me in Teochew, and I replied in Mandarin, there was this feeling of a "broken link". No doubt we understood what each other was trying to say, but somehow I always felt that if I knew Teochew, I might get my point across better, and the connection between generations will be stronger.

What about those grandparents who do not understand Mandarin at all? And their grandchildren do not understand their dialects? How are they going to communicate? Among the many campaigns that Singapore has, I'm sure there is one about family togetherness somewhere. So, how do these two generations, who do not understand each other, get together? Will the grandparents feel that they have "lost" their grandchildren? And will the grandchildren feel that their grandparents are "extras" who just happened to be around?

And the argument about learning and speaking Mandarin at home early is :

"With Mandarin, the reach is far greater than dialects: 'If you speak Hokkien or Cantonese, you reach some 60 million in Fujian and Taiwan, or about 100 million in Guangdong and Hong Kong. With Mandarin, you can speak to 1,300 million Chinese from all provinces in China,' he said. "

Does that mean that, if I managed to speak Cantonese, I will be able to talk to another 100 million on top of the 1,300 million... isn't it better than someone who only speaks Mandarin?

But at the end of the day, whether to let your children learn dialect or not is really up to the individual family. The husband is one good example. He speaks wonderful Teochew, and it didn't seemed to affect his ability to perfect Mandarin and English. In fact, the same goes for his two sisters and other cousins. If the child can pick up a dialect, why stop him/her from learning?

Although I don't speak any fluent dialects, I do understand a few. And I'm going to make sure my future kids (if there are any) to know some dialects too. At least they will know whether people are scolding them or teaching them any bad words.

Eat for your eyes

Now that most of my friends, the husband and including myself, are almost officially and/or unofficially into our 30s, I realised that, whether consciously or not, there are times when I'm halfway through eating something that I began to wonder what effect will that food have on me. Hmmm... I'm not sure if this is a good or bad thing. But sometimes when the craving comes, especially for junk foods... I'm ashamed to say that the cravings win most of the times. Haha.

Anyway, just like to share this article : 3 foods to help you see clearly. And I'm so glad to know that eating 2 eggs daily is actually not bad too! :)

Perfectionism

The following was taken from Wikipedia :

Perfectionism, in psychology, is a belief that perfection can and should be attained. In its pathological form, perfectionism is a belief that work or output that is anything less than perfect is unacceptable. At such levels, this is considered an unhealthy belief, and psychologists typically refer to such individuals as maladaptive perfectionists.

- Burns (also in Parker & Adkins) defines perfectionists as "people who strain compulsively and unremittingly toward impossible goals and who measure their own worth entirely in terms of productivity and accomplishment"

- Perfectionists may be workaholics who cannot relax; people who reproach themselves for days after the smallest error, such as a word out of place; the person so intent on finding the perfect mate that they never settle down; the procrastinator; the finicky person; and so on. Perfectionists tend to be exceptionally sensitive to criticism.

- Perfectionists are focused on personal integrity and can be wise, discerning and inspiring in their quest for the truth. They also tend to dissociate themselves from their flaws or what they believe are flaws (such as negative emotions) and can become hypocritical and hyper-critical of others, seeking the illusion of virtue to hide their own vices. The greatest fear of Perfectionists is to be flawed and their ultimate goal is perfection.

I can't believe how accurately these points described someone I know to the T. To be honest, this is not the original edition of this post... after some quick consideration, I've decided to change it, in case this someone happened to stumble upon here, and I might be accused of scarring him for life. I guess Sam is the only priviledged one to have read the original. ;p