Second chances

I suppose it is just the time of the year where everyone stops to take stock of what they've done for the past 360 odd days because I've come across Top Ten lists and review lists on almost every blog I've been on.

I'll always remember 2005. Some of the reasons are too personal to be posted up but I thought I'd just post on one significant shift in my interior landscaping.

I'm trying to re learn chinese.

For those who know me in real life and who do not know yet, I realise it comes as a bit of a shock. I've always been the biggest anglophile around and until 3 months ago, I had no idea who Jin Yong, Gu Long or Jay Chou were, which just goes to show my utter disconnection with the Mandarin cultural universe. I could barely read even the simplest words in Chinese and I think I had trouble even writing the easiest sentences. I had and still have the Chinese linguistic abilities of an 7 year old.

I don't think I could read Jin Yong and Gu Long yet...because right now, I'm trying to read my sister's Secondary One Higher Chinese textbooks and I seriously cannot even get through ONE chapter without running into a gadzillion unknown words. It sounds so ironic, after all those years of hating it and wishing it would go away, but right now, I would give anything to have chinese tuition again.

All this just proves God has a huge sense of humour.

There were a great many reasons for this shift. One of which is the fact that I've finally grown out of my hatred for my secondary school and the language I associated with it. Another is that the usefulness of being fluent in written and spoken mandarin was discussed by several bloggers I greatly respected such as Mr Wang and being a practical person, I grasped the fact that it made no sense to refuse to learn just because of petty old hatreds. Besides, it helps that every other magazine I flip open talks about China, the economic powerhouse and I'd hate to think of myself missing out on career opportunities just because I was too stubborn to back down from my Sinophobia.

The final reason is a sentimental one.

I'm chinese. And I'd really like to at least try to reconnect with my culture.I don't know if I will be reading Tang poetry anytime soon or ever. But I'd like to at least try not to be so enormously handicapped at even basic reading and writing of the language.

So if anyone out there has any practical hints/ suggestions/offers to give me free tuition, I'll gladly listen. But please keep in mind that I live in Melbourne and I may not have as many Chinese language resources at my fingertips.

And hey, just to throw in another shocker for my friends out there... I'm now a huge Jay Chou fan! I have succumbed to the charms of the chief mumbler of Mandopop! I hope Jay Chou learns to enunciate soon because trying to figure out the words from his singing is proving almost impossible. Of course the upside is that it forces me to read the lyrics and improve my reading so I suppose it all works out

Uh, and if anyone would like to suggest other Mandopop singers who don't quite mumble as much, that would be helpful too. I'm hoping that if I play chinese music night and day, by process of osmosis, at least some of it will soak in and my chinese language abilities will magically be raised in a matter of months.

Well, it could happen...

Happy New Year everyone! May 2006 prove to be a fruitful and interesting year for you!