Banana

Well we're pretty much settling into the new routine now. I think I've finally figured out the best route and sequence of events to streamline our daily schedule.

Anyway, the kids have resumed their twice weekly Chinese classes. The teacher comes over to our home on Mondays and Fridays for an hour and a half each time. The classes are very informal, because I found out, through the dreaded Chinese classes of my youth, that forcing kids to write pages of Chinese characters in little squares once a week amounts to nothing but a huge waste of time! I went for lessons for a couple of years and as of now, I can only write my name! Lol!

I can remember one day, while suffering through Chinese extra class in school, we looked out the window to see a couple of boys from our class climbing over the gate! Lol! How I wished I was escaping with them!!

So anyway, like I said, the kids' classes are very informal. I just want them to be able to converse in mandarin first. So the teacher tells them stories and sings them songs in Chinese and slowly teaches them some words. He's young and fun and can relate to them better than the old Aunty teachers we had ever could! So when they complain about Chinese class, I just threaten to send them to an old Aunty who will make them write pages of characters! That shuts them up pretty quick! :)

Well, my kids are quite "banana", meaning yellow outside, but white inside! When Annie was small, she used to insist that she was "English" not Chinese, because she spoke English! I can't blame them, since neither mummy nor daddy can read and write Chinese!

I guess it is important to know your mother tongue, but I am still in the opinion that English comes first. This is why we did not send them to Chinese school, but it is still important that they can converse in mandarin and hopefully they will learn the written language in the future.

Hubby has had to teach himself mandarin for the sake of his work. I have always spoken mandarin, albeit a rojak version which has some corrupted foochow words mixed in, and even some words from God-knows-where! Which only me and my siblings can comprehend! Lol! Anyway, I at least know bit of mandarin and hokkien, whereas for Hubby, it's mandarin, Hakka and hokkien. The kids however know none, and this is where Lim lau she, their Chinese teacher comes in.

I love eavesdropping on their classes, because they're so clueless, it's hilarious especially when they're guessing the meaning of chinese words! Eg.: Ji tan (chicken egg) can become "tortoise"!

I'll listen out for more funny examples and remember to write them down!



So anyway, this was a funny incident regarding an English word though. The other night the teacher was telling them the story of Moses.

Teacher: Moses was God's servant.

Eva: I know! Kakak!

Hahaha...


Kakak means "sister" in Malay and is what we call our housemaids!