Thursday 21 August 2008

Ni Hao Ma? 幫助我!!

It is a requirement for all undergrads in my uni to undertake at least one foreign language in their syllabus. As the choices were limited, I opted for Mandarin hoping to impress my family and friends with my linguistic capabilities. Anna, my 7 years old niece is very fluent in the language as she had been studying it since her kindergarten days and I plan to do a bit of "showing off" to her, to let her know that her 'old' aunt has still got what it takes.

However, I find myself struggling a bit with the language. Unlike Lea, I am not as proficient as she is. It would take me quite a while to grasp the vocabularies and I find the task of translating sentences very daunting indeed.

We have a test coming soon in two weeks time. This would be my final Mandarin paper. I barely passed my previous 2 exam papers and by god, I will not fail this one either!! In order to 'motivate' myself, I have decided to embrace everything that is Chinese to help me achieve my objective. For the past couple of weeks, I ate halal dim-sum, I drank hot Chinese tea, read the history of People's Republic of China, and religiously watched every game and reruns of Beijing's 2008 Summer Olympics. Taking my efforts to next level, I am currently watching the re-run of Bodyguard from Beijing and listening to songs by famous Hong Kong artist - Leon Lai . I have been a fan ever since my high school days when I first watched him in the TVB Series "The Breaking Point" back in 1991/1992. The series was shown on the local channel for one hour weekdays between 6-7pm. I can still remember how we girls (back then I was in an all girls boarding school) will sit close together and often fight for the best spot in front of the television just so that we could capture all the romance and drama.



video courtesy of KTPhimbo.com

*Sigh, those were the good ol' days when my only concerns in life back then were to make sure that I pass all my exams and whether Leon Lai and Kathy Chow would end up together or not.

Well, I hope my efforts will pay off. Here's crossing my fingers and praying for the best.

*p/s: Lea, as usual, you are my walking Mandarin dictionary. I am "reserving" you until our exams are over, thank you very much , heheheheh ;)

5 comments:

shikin razali said...

Oh my god, this was one of my favourites too!! I remember fighting with my brother for the tv's remote control,to make sure I get my dose of drama for the day.

If am not mistaken, they did not end up together, dear. Still, they had some nice songs in the series. My favourite was by Leon Lai - don't know the title of the song. But it was a sad tune. Gosh, that was a long time ago. More then a decade.

Suddenly, I feel so OLD....

Zara in Germany said...

bagus ler blajar mandarin...skarang pun byk job opportunity require bahsa mandarin. hrmmmmmmmmmmm

Anonymous said...

wo hen hao..... :)

xpe darling... this sem kita target pass jer. how hard it gonna be... kita redah jer. if kita pass huayu 3 ni,kita carik tmpt makan paling best pastu kita melantak puas2. hehehe

from now on byk2 la tgk berita mandrin.daijian....

lea xiaojie

Aznita@Terk said...

aku penah amik mandarin kat uitm dulu wey..sangat horror nak2 bila ada oral test..hahahah!!pass cukup2 makan jek =p btw selamat bermandarin la ye..

yg aku ingat 'wo hen e' le.' hahahaha

Anonymous said...

You write very well.