Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Mission accomplished! I have conquered the "steam egg" dish!

Finally rolled my sleeves up to attempt my mother's version of home cook steam egg with minced pork.

Didnt know why I put it off for so long despite having seen my mum done it like a million times. Maybe I just was too lazy to mince the pork myself. So came today, I finally set my heart onto the task.

Not knowing if it will turn out good or bad in terms of flavor, had to cook a second dish Caramelised Chicken cutlet as backup in case steam egg fall flat. The proudest moment was when I lifted the wok cover and saw the perfect mimic of mum's egg custard.



The next verdict was the taste.

I was utterly relieved that it tasted perfectly like what mum's cooked though a little saltier would have been great. Still I was so pleased with myself. I so deserve that little pat on my back! I was so happy that the first thing I did was to send my "accomplishment" pictures to my brother declaring my triumphant moment! Another checklist crossed out!

Guess Mum's recipe will not be lost after all! Awesome! It will be a waste not to learn anything off her!

One of the secret joy in cooking, apart from feeding the people you love and them enjoying it, is the discovery that you could replicate the home-cook food you grew up with and identify with fondly.

I do sympathise with kids nowadays with parents too busy to cook as they may be missing out on this seemingly "unimportant" yet really significant family bonding moments. It will be something that will be a part of you, of who you are, and memories you will associate with in many years down the roll. People who grow up without home-cook food or a signature dish by either parent may find it hard to understand this strong affiliation and emotional attachment some of us have with food, our strong affection for "familiar tasting" food. Just like in my family, within my siblings, we each have our special mum's dishes.

For many of us, no matter how old we are, it is unsurprising that we still crave for our mum's cooking. However in modern society, nuclear families that cook which I know of have shrunk significantly. Alot of friends choose to "go back mum's place to eat". That is all great and jolly but the question I wanted to pose is, if you dont cook, whose house will your children return to in future? What sort of memories will your kids share when they grow up if all they eat is maid's food or too busy chalking up scores on those iphone/ ipad games at every single meal?

For me, food and memories come hand in hand. Just take the steam custard, I would remember how my delighted elder brother will go "wow wow wow" as he dig into mum's cook, as we all sat round the table to share the meal. All these will be priceless memories that are irreplaceable by those hawker or food court or even at grandparent meals.

So dont just have one day of "Cook a curry day" out of the 365 days... If you can, cook once a week for your love ones. The intangible return far outweighs the "convenience" of any takeaway food.

Monday, August 22, 2011

Lovely Skies

Always before a incoming typhoon, the sky looks spectacular in Hong Kong.

For a good 2 weeks, we had lovely weather and skylines.

Was watching TV when I glanced out of the window and spotted the lovely orangey colors spread across the blue skies. How can we not love Mother Nature?




Saturday, August 20, 2011

Food Review: Mandarin Grill@ Mandarin Oriental, HK

Didnt have class this week so popped into Central to have lunch with my partner.

He decided to treat me to this expensive place Mandarin Grill @ Mandarin Oriental Hotel. Hard to imagine how "gloomy" the financial industry had been judging from all the full house business lunch crowd for pricey meal.

My lobster bisque was nice but nothing to crowd about. However the langoustines starter is completely another matter. It looks splendid like a couple of sea foam slugs languishing at the bottom of a seaweed bed. It was utter lovely and it taste heavenly!



Main was ok. Maybe I wasnt too hungry but I didnt like everything that was on my plate. The crispy pork belly was great but didnt like the pork confit. Tasted odd.

For the OTT price they charged, I would have expected EVERYTHING on that dish to be heavenly but it isnt. The lamb dish fared better in my opinion. Anycase, without a perfect serving, that means I wont be having any more meals here in near forseeable future.

Day with kid. Nite with wine.

After settling down back home, my craving for wine was insatiable after my trip back to Singapore. It was almost like the drinking monster has been awaken.

Before my date with the drinks, we took off to Bel Air to visit a good friend whose wife had just given birth to a second child. The eldest daughter was relatively shy at first but gradually warmed up with a lure of biscuits and inviting smiles and waves. According to surprised MaMa, I should feel very honored because the little one offered me a slice of her biscuits since she doesnt share her food with just anyone. We asked her if she would share a piece with Daddy dearest and she gave that horrified cute look that only a kid can make, as if we suggested a ridiculous crazy idea. Haha! So for the next hour, I was elevated to Miss Popular with the little one, creating bones and stars with play doh for her doggy and me creating impromptu songs for the hell of it. Maybe she got a bit too comfy and happy and decided that she should decorate my jeans with her white play doh before her horrified and apologetic dad. I wasnt really too concerned though it wasnt the best "look" having white faint pokka dots all over the front of my jeans. I dont think I will be winning any awards or kudos for any Project runway season that's for sure!

Just before we were leaving, we jokingly asked kathy the little one if she wants to follow us. To everyone's surprise, especially the shocked parents, Kathy nodded her head and jumped off the sofa ready to venture out with us, a pair of "strangers" since 2 years ago where she should not have remembered us. Her mummy had to hold her back and explain why she couldnt leave with us. I must have done my "play doh" and "dog and bone" song too well....maybe I should be a nursery teacher. Ha like real!

That night, I took my partner out for a Sat night of Italian pasta@ Sole Mio in Soho, and had my thirst craving nursed at the restaurant. They didnt have my dessert wine, so I made do with a chill white.



Spaghetti. Wine. Dessert.
A perfect wine to end the date with a love one.
Though the next time round, am gonna try their pizza instead which is really thin crust and lovely.

Monday, August 15, 2011

Cathay Pacific. Did you dumped my luggage in a pool?!

Returned to Hong Kong on a rainy day in Singapore.

I had the bad unimaginable luck of having my Rimowa luggage content completely soaked through! I should have known something was amissed when I collected my bag from the belt and the hard casing was all covered in water droplets as if it had been dunked into the pool. However being that late at night after having my cathay flight delayed for hours, I just wanted to get home and sleep.

Imagined my shock when I opened up and both halves were wet! I was even more horrified to see my Tod leather heels drenched in water marks...F#*k Cathay Pacific!! What the hell did they do to my luggage?!!!! Was it leaking in the plane where they store their cargo???? It's a hard case! It's a freaking Rimowa, not bloody cheap leaky casing. How much water has there got to be to soak my content completely??!

The only good thing was I had all my cables in a zip lock bag and those were safe. Apple cables are shit expensive to replace for all my Apply playthings, my camera chargers etc. A good thing I had my dirty dry cleans in a bag too that kinda shield the damage extent. Still that doesnt change the fact that my perfectly good pair of shoes was exposed to water for no valid reason. I was not happy. Not happy at all.


Sunday, August 14, 2011

Prezzies day

Popped over to my best fren's place just to chill and have a swim together. Why on earth do we have so much to chat is really beyond me but I love E to bits and missed her dearly. Guess that is what frens of 2 decades does to u...those warm fuzzy vibes. Was a good thing she received my Sympathy card too since I wasnt sure if the hotel did post it.

Speaking of cards, it was so damn frustrating dashing around in Hong Kong in search of a proper sympathy / my condolences card. Everywhere I went it was like birthday, love, anniversary and birth. As if people around these store owners never have anything sad or bad happen and they live such red rosy life. I had to go from causeway bay to central to admiralty for 2 days before spotting by chance one pretty and apt card @ Kelly and Walsh for my purpose. I guess Hong Kong is still rather "Chinese"in their ways despite being a cosmopolitan city and find all these sympathy cards to be "inauspicious" to be sold.

On this return trip of mine, she surprised me with another load of presents for me...my favorite korean drama "Secret Garden" and the OST yeahhhhh!! THANK YOU GALFREN!!! Love u to biiiiiiitttttsss!

What was even funnier was that she struck a hard bargain and negotiation with the store just to get me those Hyun Bin mugs and OMG brolly! Hahaha! The brolly was rather unexpected since I dont know if i will be ever be insane enough to carry it out despite how much I do adore Hyun Bin...still...I have gone past the age of ever being a groupie! My hands were full and didnt have space to carry the brolly with me since I was meeting my brother and his family for dinner, so she will have to hold on to my precious gifts till my next trip. Ha!

If I ever do use that brolly, I really have to damn take a shot of that classic moment!


Friday, August 12, 2011

Dinner and Wine with the Gals, Singapore

Had not so great crappy food at 313, where calamari tasted like cooked rubber tyres, but had a great wine session at Kuriya penthouse. At the end of the day, it's the company that really counts.
Toast to a long friendship no matter where life takes us.

The night probably would have lasted longer if one wasnt sick and the waterhole didnt close at midnight.

The joke was on me when I didnt realise I had forgotten my keys.
So ended up calling up another one of my late owl friend and had round 2 starting at 1a.m. Ha! The night is still young! It's a Friday isnt it?!!!

Always handy to have friends who drive, and well stay up late and available at most times! 




Sunday, August 7, 2011

Food Review: The Black Sheep Cafe, Singapore



UPDATE 2012:


THIS PLACE HAS CLOSED DOWN AS THE CHEF HAS BEEN HEADHUNTED TO WORK ELSEWHERE.


Tired of always eating in town, decided to try a non fussy "local" french cusine place better known as [The Black Sheep Cafe].

My definition of non-fussy means no Atas Ambience and all that Jazz. Smacked within a small street, facing a mosque and served by staff and kitchen of Indian, a truly "authentic" experience to take away with. The decor was simply put - simple though I do like some of the cute sheep and piggy painting he have got up there.


Being our first visit, we didnt have any expectation nor know what to expect really. The menu was small but decent choice. What was a minor damper was perhaps one of the new serving staff who didnt know anything except maybe to clear the plate. He was utterly hopeless. I always frown upon food establishment or retail counter being front by absolutely clueless staff. Ignorance by claiming "I am new" is really not excusable because it is YOUR job to know the menu at least. You are not the cashier, not the dishwashing guy, not the animate ornament to decorate the living space, so you as a serving staff should know your staff or at least what are the ingredients that go into it. Looking lost and helpless is really not the way to hold on to your job. Having a little self motivation to ask more about the dishes that is being served will be good, rather than constantly passing the bucket to the more experience senior staff and not willing to learn.

Anycase, all said and done about the less than-ideal service, the food was pretty good. The main and starters were well seasoned and cooked perfectly well. The drink list could be improved though, and not too impressed with the dessert especially when we found a hair in the middle of our tiramisu. We told them to take the item off the bill but for some reason, the waiter decided to ignore or didnt register what we said and plate another load of fresh dessert to us. We didnt want to stomach anymore food as we were really full and told him to give it to another table. The waiter looked half confused and abit lost saying that he cannot serve the item to another table because he had already put it on out table.




We told him it was less than 3 seconds and we didnt even touch it, who would mind? We have better things to do than contaminate food for other people esp when he was there all the while. In the end, he took the dish reluctantly back to the kitchen, only to serve it to another table behind us which is rather silly really.

That said, for food alone, minus all the weird experience with ill-trained staff, I would go back for the food because the duck confit I had was really yummy. The slight inclusion and hint of indian spices in the  sweet chutney worked really well for me personally.


Canx get enough of this fella

My partner is incredibly "jealous" of my (brother's) dog since it had stolen all my affection. Who could not love this adorable ball of joy that basically is joined at the hip with me all day long so long as i am within sight.

 who can resist those big brown eyes?

the way he wait for food handout possibilities...


he hates taking shots...:(

my darling!

It was quite funny when we played dead one day and he snubbed my brother and mum to lay next to me. What can I say. I am quite a "doggy" killer. Haha!

Thank u to those that had once mattered, and still do.

Do u still hang out with people u used to date?

I do, though if things dont work out, I have to do the icy queen bitch thing for a year first and not do the "let's be friends" route till at least half a year of "cooling off" or "mourning" has passed. (sorrry!) If we survived after that interval, then yeah most times, things tend have a happier ending and work out better after the wound had healed. Sometimes questions still lingered in the air as to what had gone wrong but in life, we just move on and leave the past behind. 

In a not-so-recent rare dinner with a couple of friends brought together to share a meal thanks to "my return", my gf finally asked me a question she had been itching to ask for maybe say last 10 odd years when the guy stepped away. "Seriously you have to tell me. Did you two ever dated?" she begged for an answer.

To be honest, I was rather taken aback because I didnt see that coming and I didnt know how to reply her. People who are close to me will probably know I guard certain aspect of my relationship privacy rather fiercely like an air-tight container. I dont usually let on who I had dated or were dating saved for the inner circle. "Kiss and tell-it-to-all" is so low. So this question stumped me because I didnt know how honest I wanted to be with her and I didnt want to lie in case word get back to him creating misunderstanding. Yet I had to think of the implication of a flippant answer that may draw a wrong conclusion since his wife whom I knew, didnt know we had once dated. Damn these moments that sneak up on you.

Technically I really didnt enter a serious relationship with him. There was a spark but it was snuffed pretty quickly after a few dinner dates, mainly from a mis-sent sms. The bane of technology and a hand that pressed a wrong button....So there was a period of coldness, disdain and hurt primarily from his side and "apologetic-ness" on my part. I didnt want to rehash or describe the uncomplicated moment we had shared with a third party but I didnt want to pretend like our path never crossed either. I suppose my hesitation and contemplation on how best to respond to her was an answer enough and my gf went "I knew it! You two had something going on."

I didnt want to encourage her wild imagination so I had to tell her it was something a long time ago and we didnt really go very far, by that I meant emotionally. However I asked her why did she ask and she said "because I can tell that he is always extra nice to you even till now. He wouldnt make the extra effort if you aint here."Moreover, her line of question was also mooted by something I did unconsciously earlier. While sharing different meal set, I had offered a spoonful to him for tasting and he had just simply ate off my outreached spoon. Honestly, it didnt even occur to me that it should mean anything but my gf said he would normally just grab the spoon off the other party than be spoon fed. Oh ok...food for thought. I never read that much into simple acts as such especially since we are all settled down with our own partners happily. Do we need to draw such a distinct line amongst friends? Seriously, dont other people eat off a friend's outreached spoon? No? Really?? Thankfully his return to the dining table was her cue to stop badgering me and a topic left dead for good.

My gf's statement however did leave me pondering and reflecting on the guys I had been with. I must say most of the guys I had been on dates with are decent lovely blokes that will make any mother proud. Am I getting older and hence more sentimental? Come to think of it, would I have felt offended if he had taken the spoon from me instead? Hahaha. Maybe I should try this on different guy friends in future to weigh in on their responses for the sake of evaluation.

Jokes aside. The fact that I am still able to sit down together to share a meal with some of these chaps without awkwardness, share a joke like old time friends and leaving the "broken past" behind is something I truly appreciate and cherish. A few still take me out for meals whenever I can spare the time on my return trip and I hadnt even think twice about how fortunate I am to be this "pampered". Sometimes I may even have forgotten I had once dated them because over the years, our relationship had evolved to a comfortable friendship like a snug old T-shirt u want to curl up in. I suppose what my gf had said, about them still being that super duper nice to me really struck a chord and had me realised these guys I had dated really have one sweet common trait -a big care-bear heart.

My partner was sharing with me just last night about gals he had dated in the past due to some facebook updates. It was quite funny really hearing him describe the incidents he had with them though some he would shudder and say he rather Not spill the beans. Only spike my curiosity more...heee... I will worm it out from him one day...However unlike mine, he dint seem to share so much positive memories about this exs as I do about mine, maybe because he was more in a hurry to get rid of them or like I teased him, he was just a dating-whore! LOL!  


Saturday, August 6, 2011

Life as I know it or sometimes... hear about it.

Time flies. 

End of August after my Jap paper was time again to make a quick escape back to Singapore. Primarily it was to escape the renovation noise from my neighbor, secondly was just to see my dog. Damn I miss that rascal too much, and I know he missed me too judging from the way he endlessly seek my attention, affection and presence.

It was a short trip of a week. Tried to squeeze as many people but as usual, didnt get to meet everyone I wanted to see but most of those I wanted did materialise. Caught up with some "new" people, by that I meant people I have not seen for a mighty over-a-decade interval in between. I almost couldnt recognise some. Pretty sure if I had bumped into her along the streets, I would not have called out to her coz I didnt know how much the years between us have changed her. 

For anyone, I tend to stay clear of certain topics I think its up to the person to bring up since I know how it feels like to have a meal with nosy people who loves to provoke me by asking stupid questions about kids and work. I only wish some people could have afforded me the same courtesy. As if I need to live my life to match anyone else's measuring yardstick or in accordance to "social norm". 

It wasnt on the way back when my other gf was giving me a lift back that I learnt that our common fren did get married but I suppose it wasnt a very happy marital life. I dont know if it has to do with inter-racial Indian-Chinese marriage thing or people just drift apart after awhile. Pretty sure it has nothing to do with the recent "Cook a pot of Curry" incident. heh. I didnt probe but I do pray they work it out somehow. 

This trip back, having chat with several people, I discovered that many friends of mine who married early in mid twenties do not seem to be very happy in their marriage. Maybe those who married later are still enjoying their "honeymoon years"or they already had enough fun and mentally ready to settle down.  Hearing so much of those unexpected stories have really immunised me from being surprised. My eyes dont even blink anymore when I hear anymore of those "straying" stories. Then again, I am pretty liberal so not many things will unfazed me.

I dont judge my friends, not because they are my friends or that what they do is really none of my biz, but rather perhaps with age, one learned that every man or woman has a reason for making their choices in life and we are in no position to maintain our moral high grounds and impose our values and beliefs on other people. It's not like we are still 16years old or even 26years still craving to have a wild time or fun or "searching for love".

While I am sure we have all at one point or another done some really crazy things in those moment we just wanted to feel free but as we get older, we know this isnt it. Being older over 30s, most of us will have common sense, we know the stakes and we know the consequences. So for someone to do or be tempted to do something "out of the extraordinary" that is probably "unforgivable" to many others esp over a period of time, there is always a root cause, a reason not for outsider to play judges.

So my role is to listen and be a neutral company. Sometimes I would ask more just for curiosity sake, sometimes for conversation sake, sometimes to allow the other person to unleash their inner thoughts and emotion struggles. One dont go around bragging or offhandedly tell someone else "Hey by the way I had an affair with someone else." It's not something one would say easily unless u think you can trust that person, not necessarily to sympathise but rather not to lay blame on you when the cat is out of the bag.

For some reason, I somehow earned myself the privilege to be a magnet for such confessions involving "Matters of the heart". Most of the time, I would eventually forget those stories not because I didnt care but rather I shouldnt hoard on to other people's stories. However some are truly too surprising to wipe clean especially pertaining to the people they cheat with. I had to go "Seriously?! Really?! HIM?!HER?!!" 

Some stories left me more pensive when one of them told me how her exposed affair nearly destroyed her career and her mental stability where she attempted to take her own life. Luckily she failed or I wont be able to have that drink with her. It was a good thing her husband loved her so much to take her back despite all the storm. Now the only thing that stopped her from ever repeating history was the fact she didnt want to inflict anymore pain on her partner. One thing she said stuck in my head, being that "Some of us out there neither loved our partner nor our lover, we just love ourselves the most." I still havent really fathom what she meant by that. If she only loved herself, then why did she fall apart from the betrayal of her lover? Perhaps there was something she didnt share with me. Looking at the beautiful woman laughing before me, no one will ever guess about the emotional scars that is hidden within her.   

Then another friend shared that she suspected her husband was cheating on her. Ok if he wasnt cheating on her, then someone need to explain to me why would he be partying every Fri, Sat and sometimes not even come home for a few days. Someone told her that there were twitter clues to his cheating with someone from his work but my gf seem to shut down and prefer to live in denial. When she told me her story, I didnt jump on the usual "divorce" him wagon. Instead, I asked her "What do you want? Do you still want to work on this marriage?" It's easy to feel hurt, get angry by betrayal but at the end of the day, one has to figure out if the marriage is worth saving. Sometimes, second chances work in life. That's what I learnt from all these martial affairs stories. 

Anycase, I didnt say much except the choice is in her hands. It's one thing to want to remain blind and married, but another to remain stupid and unprepared. She should investigate the truth of matters and armed herself with information rather than be a stupid sitting duck and go hysterical the day he choose to initiate a divorce and stand to lose everything. She told me his religion would forbid him to divorce her, I told her to wake up. His religion would have prevented him from cheating on her too if it had meant anything to him. 

So the week came and went. A myriad of stories. A friend first shared her joy of being preggy only to share few days later the devastating news of having to terminate the pregnancy due to complications. Another friend shared his woes about his recent divorce and child custody battle. I then have my own share of family drama with the loser leech that refused to exit gracefully. I suppose every family have our own unpleasant skeletons to deal with. I suppose this is life as I know it.


Friday, August 5, 2011

Something new to remember in Cantonese

Once again I learnt something new in Cantonese from my classmates today.

I had wanted to say "I wont be here next week.= 下個禮拜我唔" but I was told I couldnt say it literally like that.

 I had to say "I wont be in Hong KONG next week." instead. (下個禮拜我唔係香港)

I was told "I wont be here next week (下個禮拜我唔度)" in cantonese is taken to mean "I wont be alive/ or dead next week" Wow! Ok! I certainly dont want to be dead next week!

Also learnt a new "term" in Japan for all the foreigners who took flight and ran out of Japan during the Tsunami and radioactive incident.. "Fly-jin" Hahahaha

Still ploughing on with memory work...

I must be crazy...trying to memorise new 600 Japanese Kanji in two days. That is 1200 if I include having to remember the corresponding hiragana that comes along with each kanji words.  Sometimes I wonder why I inflict such torture to myself....at this age...

My partner asked if I wasnt being too hard on myself, the fact that even if I didnt know the 600 new words, I would still pass rather well from past records. However I tried to explain to him that studying a language, Japanese in my case, isnt about "pass/fail". It's about getting the grammar right, and expanding one's vocab wide enough (that is when hard core memorising comes into play here) to be able to converse well with a native Japanese. Well, I have a more humble wish, which is to learn it well enough to be able to watch and read my anime/manga without translations for starters.

My friend who actually works in Japan told me she hates Kanji. It's so tough for her. Personally for me,  Kanji is much easier than Katagana because the former is like a bunch of foreign symbols that tries to sound like English phonetically but it doesnt always match what it sounds like in English, say Video...it's more like bi-deo in Japanese... sigh.

I was doing my assignment while having my hair cut by my Japanese stylist and he was like "Oh dear, now u make me feel like I should go back to school and polish up my Japanese.." I was tickled...

While having lunch with my Hk classmates, they had a very bad grasp of the Godan basics. I realise that Japanese when taught correctly, cements a better foundation too. In Singapore when I was with Bunka, we were taught the 7 different forms from the start and taught to use the "dictionary form" first. In HK, my classmates were only taught with "masu" form and now they are struggling with the other forms as we progressed into more advance stages because they didnt know the order of how to change the form. I suppose even with Japanese language, taught differently, yield rather different results.
 
Oh well, gotto stop wasting time blogging and get back to mugging....about time I make a new bunch of flashcards. Damn those Keigo....if only the Japanese will not make so many variations for the same sentence and phrase. arrrggghhhh 


Wednesday, August 3, 2011

We are not bi-linguals, we are half-bilinguals.

One of my galfren who is living in Japan was sharing about her "horror" of having to relearn or refreshing her mandarin. She was asking if our mandarin was closer to china or Taiwan, apart from the obvious fact that the characters are different and we emulated China's system.

As the discussion progress, only then did I realise the disparity (in level and accuracy)  between the way I was taught versus the way the others were taught. I didnt know if it was due to the schools we went to, or the fact that they were born several years after me and thus the visible "lack" of standard and mastering of the language. Actually, sometimes I find it depressing when Sg retail staff asked "Where am I from?" It's like a "big thing" if I dont have Sg-accent in either tongue, I must be foreign bred. Strange.

I wont profess I am superb in my Mandarin, in fact compared to my elder brothers, mine is shamefully pathetic. Yet compared to my peers, I realise that my command of mandarin from using 成语
,谚语,诗歌朗诵 were definitely there. This, I supposed is attributed to the fact that I had went to a "Mandarin centric" primary school where the "old school" mandarin teachers had spoken IMPECCABLE mandarin. So much so that when I went to Junior college, even though I had went to a "English centric" convent school later, my command of Mandarin was still far better than those who had come from Dunman High or Chinese high which were perceived to be Mandarin oriented secondary schools. This is how 6 solid years of hardcore, accurate, stringent Mandarin lessons in primary school benefited me. (On this note: I pay great tribute to all the mighty and honorable Chinese teachers who had taught me. 恭宽信敏 is indeed a great school motto though I could have done without the cuckoo mushroom shorthair cut imposed.) Of course, all those great Mandarin story books our teachers recommended were an added bonus.  It cemented my foundation. In fact, I suddenly had a flashback where my mandarin teacher was even teaching us the "original" character of certain words on how it derived from caveman drawings....to traditional font to simplified font. Perhaps that was why I am able to alternate easier between the two fonts. (of course with my ploughing through stacks of Taiwanese version of Doraemon helps too) The core language and pinyin is so drilled into our head that I am rather thankful for it now even though I didnt think much of it then. Do higher level primary school kids still read short novels by 尤今-散文 like we had back then?I seriously doubt it huh...

The sad thing is that the language was "killed off" or died a slow painful slow death under the regime of the "anti-mandarin-anti-dialect" education system where little focus was given to the language till it is too late now. Again whose fault is that? The very same man who insulted the "pedigree" of our ancestors who had migrated to Singapore but yet singlehandedly, eradicated the existence of proper use of common dialects and mandarin in Singapore. I wonder as he wrote his memoir describing that our migrant forefathers had less than desirable "educational level" as compared to those who stayed in China, did he even remember how POWERFUL the CHINESE educated people were back then, and how anxious he was about the former NTU so much then that the school had to be closed down, not exactly peacefully as described by older generations who were exstudents.. Those people, will turn in their graves hearing him insult them.

Everything that went wrong today was a result of his short-vision for the future of Singapore. I cannot grasp his ill-advised vision really. I didnt understand why he felt so compelled to de-prioritise Mandarin use in Singapore back then. (By this I meant the removal of Chinese Schools, Chinese teachings like Confucian ethics, Chinese History etc. I dont mean eradication of language in all schools. I am not highlighting the other race for as far as I know, most Malays and Indians still retain their own native tongue at home). So what if half the nation was not proficient in English but was good in Mandarin back then? Just like Hong Kong now, there are a segment of the population who can only speak Cantonese, a segment who spoke Cantonese and varied levels of English, a segment of Cantonese and Mandarin, and then the segment of linguistic genius who are equipped with tri-languages. In the end, it is a good blend where people find jobs that suit their "language skills". Their economy remains vibrant and the social integration works perfectly well all these years. There is a unity in them, a Hong Kong spirit which is so hard to pen down but you feel it in their bones. It all boils down to the identity they had form from a common Cantonese language bond. What has eluded Singapore is this same sense of identity which was there for a while in the 80s and early 90s, then in a blink gone.

The Singapore now cannot decide if it wants to be a western or eastern country. It's neither here nor there, just like our language skills. Is that why there is a huge influx of China students and migrants now? To get the drawing board back to square one so that some man can right his own mistakes and try to have "round 2" attempt of his vision with a new Chinese crop because he had realised his past idealistic experimentation had gone awry?

Anycase, another sg friend living in China posted in the facebook discussion that Mainlanders used 上午 vs to Singaporean 早上 and said it was our own version of chinese. But the truth was, we were TAUGHT to use 上午, think morning session class and afternoon session class. How do u say it in mandarin?  上午班 right? Also, I was taught to say 整个上午 instead of 整个早上 used now but what the hell, go with the (main)flow right? Then there are 用膳/用餐时间 instead of 吃饭时间。Plus I have no idea how 早上 instead of 早晨 creep into our language, except to put it to the fact that that with the widespread lack of accurate and proper teaching of Mandarin foundation, the majority of the population ended up using the wrong mandarin phrases and it became prevalent and norm, and then they blame the system for producing localised version of Singapore Chinese.

(PS: Someone commented my mandarin is shaky because China people also use 吃饭时间/早上 etc. Please note that i did not say that these phrases are not used in Mandarin speaking countries except that I was taught that there is a difference between causal speech and formal speech, and the phrases that I had mentioned above are also being used. I would be surprised if someone from china or Taiwan tells me that 用餐时间 is wrong.  As for 上午 vs 早上, its more than the A.M (period/range) vs Morning isn't it, so at times its interchangeable but at times not.  In the end, the post is not about MY mandarin, its about the state of Mandarin or English medium in our nation today. )

However to be fair, unless the syllabus has changed (which it has I believed), for once this language weakness arises more from the people than the system. However, the system also is greatly flawed. Unless the system has changed again, the tweaking to only "recognise" and converse without having to learn to memorise and write them at an early stage is a grave mistake. My Australian partner had been trying to learn Mandarin for years on and off. He just couldnt get it in his head until I forced him to memorise and write each characters starting from the basic verbs and nouns. Painful for him but it worked and he often proudly point to the subtitles to tell me what he knew. The point is getting the teaching technique right, and then motivate the kids with things that interest them in that language. Read comic books, listen to songs, watch cartoons whatever it is, exposure is the key. If parents continue not to pay equal attention to the language due to the "lower priority" and thus resulting in the lack of focus and understanding of the correct grammar and vocab uses then we will always have this current unbearable scene of "ill-equipped" Mandarin users.

While many Asian countries (used to) say Singapore has a very successful education system of the bilanguage system, I personally think its a bloody failure in some ways because while predominantly people can understand both languages, they suck at both too. A good portion of Singaporeans are not a master of either language, least of all both. They can speak well (not necessarily fluently) in a specific language but because they are a jack of all trade, its almost hard to find one who are fluent in both. Throw in fluent in dialect, is that like 1% of the population (and by that i mean the BORN AND BRED locals, not the invading locusts). Many couldnt pronounce the words correctly in English, and they couldnt even converse in Mandarin properly throughout without having to mix and jumble it up with English. We have Sg stars/ singer wannabe like Derrek from Superstar who lament about struggling in Taiwan...I wanted to ask him, what language are u actually proficient in and you speak funny?  So that is precisely what I call a Failure. Where people think they are good enough in both but really, they are neither fluent nor reasonably good in both. Singaporeans are just passably good in both. One will be lucky to find a local school sg kid actually being fluent in one Language, with a wide range of vocab and correct pronunciation. Of course there are always exceptions, there will always be kids who are very good, but like i said, it is not a high percentage judging by what I hear around me.

I have no idea how the education landscape will change. However, I really dont quite get why they are importing all the Mandarin speaking China teachers, and yet they do NOT import native English speakers from UK (since we are on a UK syllabus and I suppose American teachers are not ideal with the different spelling like "S" and "Z" usage). Must we suck up so BADLY to China? Do they realise whatever they are fucking around with, it will take 10years to reap their errors and lack of judicious policy making strategies. (Think 2 child policy, think degrading of Mandarin to get the drift) It's disgusting... I almost canx wait to see China fall so that I can see people scramble to tweak or make new policies.

Afterall, our main medium is in English, wont it make more sense to spend more on recruiting English teacher to get our kids the right fundamental in linguistic basics? Bombarding the minds of young kids with grand sounding words isnt the right route, especially when they cannot even damn say the words right without sounding awkward or off from base. (eg: I have to correct my friends all the time when they say "colleague", "buffet" incorrectly. It's not "ker-lick" and neither is it "bull-fey"...sigh)

Having friends with kids, their common "laments" are that it's too much to overload the kids with so many languages. I beg to differ. Kids absorb languages like sponge when they are kids. I too disagree that bilingual is impossible. Living in HK currently, I had met several HK and taiwanese friends who spoke fluent English and yet retaining their perfect Cantonese or Mandarin. I have also known of American raised Koreans who spoke fluent Korean and English AND German language. I have had other friends who are from France who had a good command of English (with a slightly twisted french accent) and French. So the point to drive home is that it CAN be done. It's just not happening in Singapore because the people you place in schools are important. I am NOT saying local teachers are not good. I have good great Singaporean teachers too but the point is, we need to be stringent. Dont just train someone for the job and neglect the fact that this person is going to impact the next few generations to come.  Dont just cast all the excellent teachers in the so call "top schools", and parents do your kids a favor. (On the English front, I have always wanted to advise Singaporean parents that if you are not fluent in the language, please refrain from using it with your young kids because you are indirectly/ inevitably having them pick up the wrong grammar and pronunciation from you. Unless you are an 80yr old granny trying to communicate with your grandkids who only understand English then I suppose that's understandable.)

In the past, being enrolled into a local convent school then, I know I had the good fortune of benefiting for years, from a series of foreign native English teachers which allows my peers and I the grace of speaking reasonably non-singlish English. Yeah sure the flip side of having varied foreign teachers also means I have a "jumbled" accent toggling between the UK and American pronunciation but hey at least its not the wrong pronunciation. I only wish this had been a benefit for the rest of the children of Singapore. Will my wish ever materialised? Till then, the rest of the world and Sg alike will have to put up with our half-bake linguistic skills, where we are half-bilinguals. Meaning, we are only partially good in both languages. It's really an "open stigma" for many out there, that Singaporean speaks bad English and Mandarin. Yes, a fact known even way before that idiotic cowardly China freak openly mocked his host nation on a public media platform.

Then again, it depends on what is the definition of bilingual. Does it only apply to understanding it but not having to speak or write well? Or does being bilingual constitute being effective in both verbal and written? I think that may be the point of contention here.

PS - 5th Aug: In case I get misunderstood, I am NOT saying every Chinese must speak good Mandarin. I recognise the fact that some are brought up to in all English speaking family. It is fine to be fluent on one language, but my article is not to "attack" people who are fluent in English but bad in Mandarin. My post questions about the current situation on the lot that are neither here nor there, who speaks both inaccurate English and Mandarin (primarily more form chinese speaking family), and that the current system brags about us being "bilinguals" when actually alot are only passably good in both and not proficient in either and why the govt continues not to spend any effort in correcting that aspect...It just seem strange to me that we having growing import of teachers from China because of the growing influence of China, but they do nothing about the level of English teachers as in why not import UK teachers as well since English is our "professed national Business medium"?

As well, by proficient, I meant pronouncing words correctly, obeying grammar structure (eg: the way to use May I, Can I correctly etc)  In Mandarin aspect, I think structure is fine but we just cannot seem to get the eg: "zao" vs zhao, "cao" vs "chao" right. Not to mention conducting meetings in Mandarin, just pull anyone off the street and leave them in Taiwan or China and ban them from speaking English, can we speak without stutter or pauses with our minds blank searching for ways to express ourselves etc. If most of the population cannot, then effectively to me, that is half-bilingual.

That is the gist of my post about being half bilinguals. Please dont be offended if you happen to fluent in at least one of the medium and think this is an attack on you. It's not.