Chocolate Banana Milkshake

"Wah so you're a banana lah!" said my Props master.
"Hmmm yeah..." I hesitantly replied.

Which brings me to say is it so wrong for me not to be able to read Chinese characters? And so what if my Mandarin and Cantonese is pan tong sui? Yeah I do understand that my colleagues are just joking with me but I can't help but feel the pinch. I'm the only one who didn't study in a Chinese medium school, which explains why my Chinese is totally not there.

This is my first job of the year and my colleagues are primarily Chinese. In the past, I've had Malay and Indian colleagues, that's why we abstain from pork and sometimes beef. But this time, I've lost count of the number of siew yuk & char siew lunchboxes I've had thus far. I guess it's easier to manage when everybody eats the same stuff. Other than that, communication wise, we can converse in Cantonese or Mandarin and a mixture of English and Malay (this is after all Malaysia whereby everybody speaks rojak language).

At the very least I made an effort to learn Mandarin from my friends as well as attend Mandarin classes at YMCA and Erican. When my colleagues asked me to write my Chinese name, they were stifling their laughter coz my strokes were all wrong. I was like, what do you expect, I know that's my name for sure. Anyway I just wrote according to memory. Remembering the strokes is something different all together. All this while I've been memorising Chinese characters and am able to read some. It's kinda easy to remember especially when it's the name of celebrities.

When I told Papa about my nickname, he laughed it off. We all grew up in different backgrounds and this sets me apart from my colleagues. There's no way I can change the past and I'm not interested in doing so. Will I continue taking offense or just laugh it off? Hmmmm it depends. My colleagues have offered to give me Mandarin tuition. I'm seriously considering it. Who knows, my next job might be in China or Taiwan and it'll definitely be an advantage to be conversant in English and Mandarin.