Since I came to Singapore, many have misunderstood me as Chinese from China, especially those food court uncles.

My friends guessed that I probably looked like Chinese (from China) to them.

“Haloo!! What should I look like if I don’t look like Chinese??!!”

That was when I was still very fair, just moved to Singapore from Australia.

I remember how confused my Aussie colleagues were. One day, a few of them asked me if I came from China.

“No, I am a Malaysian.”

“Malaysian??? But why are you so fair? I thought Malay was slightly darker….”

“Oh..Because I am Chinese.”

“Chinese? Then you’re from China right?”

“Mm..No no, I am a Malaysian Chinese.”


“How could you be Chinese and Malay at the same time..?”

At this point, I thought it couldn’t be more confusing…until one of them asked,

“Wait, where is Malaysia?”

-_-

And the other replied:
“Oh I know! It is at south of China!”

Come and think of it, he was actually “somehow” right, for once.

That made me a “legitimate Chinese” – as understood by them, didn’t it?

Posted under Random ramblings | 1 Comment 

It’s 12:45 am now and I still couldn’t fall asleep. Usually by now, my exhausted body would just collapse on my bed. A recent incident has gotten me thinking about my family – that my parents are indeed very wonderful.

I always thought this was normal that it happened naturally in all families – I just realised that my parents always ask us for favours nicely. They always ask in such manner:“Could you help me to…”. They never go “Eh!! Do this..”

Somehow, this has shaped how we communicate in the family since young. When we needed a ride from dad, my sister and I never ever said :“Come and fetch me.” We asked:“Daddy, are you free to fetch us?” We said sorry when we were late and had let our dad waited for us. Similarly, he apologised to us if he was late too.

I don’t assume that my dad SHOULD anyway pick us up even if he is tired.

When the house runs out of toilet paper, I ask my mom:“Do you mind buying toilet paper if you happen to go out?” In fact, I don’t phrase my question this way intentionally, it just happens because I don’t assume that it is my mom’s “intrinsic duty” to buy toilet paper for me.

A few years back, I remember saying thank you to a friend’s mom for sending us off somewhere. My friend frowned and said:“Why you say thank you? Family member don’t say thank you one.. same goes for sorry.”

I was flattered of how the family treated me like a family member but at the same time, I also felt very strange. I am not saying that my friend was wrong. It is just NOT IN MY SYSTEM.

I thought every family communicates like that and was not given any second thought about it, until I witnessed a difference in a recent incident.

We do take our families for granted – both consciously and subconsciously, just because “in the name of family”. I also didn’t realise how hard our parents have brought us up. Their hardship is only revealed to me bit-by-bit as I grow older.

After the recent incident, I texted my mom immediately- “You’re still the best mom that I have“. She just replied “Thanks..muaks.” I wondered if she would ever find out what I had gone through.

Posted under Family , Thoughts & musings | [2] Comments 

I know..I am 2 days late. But well, late better than never!

Unlike mother’s day and Christmas, teacher’s day is very quiet and subtle. In fact, I have to be reminded every year, always through my students’ wishes. Then, my church elders invite all the teachers to stand during sunday service and lead the congregation to pray for us.

Only this day, it knocks my head hard to remind me that I am an educator. It is a day that I reflect what I have done well and not, and what I could have done better in the following years. The students’ wishes often give quite a good clue. Mmm..

I must say, I have always been a lousy student and still am. I don’t send SMS nor bake delicious scone for them. I have to learn from my students of how to appreciate my teachers and lecturers. Some of them have impacted my life more than others. Unfortunately, none of them are in Singapore. So that makes a perfect excuse for not visiting them.

Recently, my mom told me that my primary school teacher has cancer (last stage). Though I am still afraid to see her till today, I felt sad for her. I know she does not want her students to know about her situation and thus, I am not even sure if I should pay her a visit when I go back to Penang.

She is one of the most unforgettable teacher, so unforgettable that we still ran away from her if we saw her from afar just a few years back.

She was a teacher who always pushed us to strive for A, and I mean 90 and above. If we score lower than 90, we had to get our parents to sign on our test papers. That was not the worst, after all, my parents understood how hard it was to score 90 and above for every test. But the humiliation came from being chased out of the classroom and , we had to pull our ears and do squat-stand for 50 times in front of other classes. 100 times if we scored less than 80. (see..I can still remember her rules vividly)

By the time we finished 50, we could hardly stand and walk.

Mind you, we had test EVERYDAY on different subject each day. Primary school….:(

One more NO-NO was bad handwriting. There was a left-handed boy in my class who wrote his 0 clockwise. I remember seeing him being canned on the butt each time he was asked to write the 0 on the blackboard. He had OK handwriting I think but relatively bad compared to the class standard. His exercise books were always thrown out of window or into the dust bin.

And guess what, he is a doctor today…from Cambridge some more.

She is the only one who impacted me SO MUCH that I used to wake in the morning feeling nausea before going to school. My classmate vomited his breakfast…we were stressed out for 3 years in primary school.

She made me stand in the class and scolded me in front of everybody just because I told my English teacher that I did not want to represent my class in elocution competition.

When the class did not win 1st prize, I was asked to stand and be scolded again. Reason being, our class could have won 1st but because of me. -_-

Nonetheless, she stretched our capabilities and built a solid strong foundation in every subject before going to high school. While others were struggling to adjust to high school, the transition was pretty easy for us. I am sure we have learned to manage stress better.

It has been 14 years since we left primary school. I hope she knows that she has contributed to who we are today. I know that we have done her proud…I hope..

Posted under Reminiscence | 1 Comment