I always preferred conversing in mandarin, more so than english. And I always thought I excelled in it. This is especially so when I think I have caught my customers by the balls, speaking to them in their preferred language, ie Mandarin, building strong rapport with them HAH!.. until my girlfriend Shu Yi told me that my mandarin sucked.
Truth be told, Shu Yi isn’t the first. It was first my army mate Norman who asked me why my mandarin sounded funny, to which I retorted, “really meh?” I did Higher Chinese right up to the end of Sec 4 okay. But I dropped it in the end to try get an A1 for Express Chinese which I eventually did get my A1 okay.
After much, well, not quite much, discussion and pondering with Shu Yi, we arrived at a conclusion. Considering my school, it wasn’t that my mandarin is good, but rather, the school mates around me sucked in it.
Keching 