Ты Говореш па Русскй?

Russian is so much fun, I studied it for 4 years for GCSE, though I'm afraid I've forgotten most of it by now. I taught my sister a silly little ryhme which I can type in the Russian but loosely translates as "We speak in Russian, in Russian, in Russian. We speak in Russian, in Russian we speak." However after a week of singing it to herself it had morphed into something more along the lines of "Me gathering prusskies, prusskies, prusskies...." She was all of 6 at the time.

Admittedly, the course I was on at the Sidgwick lasted only seven weeks (and I'll be going back for the next session), but given the short time it probably took for her to learn, I can only assume that your sister's capacity for Russian far outweighs mine.

Sitting through Russian classes makes me feel a little obtuse, in the same way that pure maths at A-level used to. Of course, I'd rather be neutered than sit through pure maths again, so I guess Russian must be fun, else it appeals to my love for hammering my own ego... sigh... Mandarin would have been far easier..!

As a long ago student of Mandarin (parent's insistence) who can only now remember a handful of characters and a few phrases... I would pointedly disagree. Unless of course you're saying that Mandarin would be easier in jest, which is acceptable. Because Mandarin - while a beautiful language (and supposedly my native tongue, though I speak it not) - is absurdly difficult to master.

Perhaps over in Europe they are more lenient and patient taskmasters. But my dislike of learning the language can probably be traced back to memories of a red faced Mandarin lecturer who was equipped with a rattan cane and fully empowered by my parents to use it. Any poorly written sentences seemed to have been punctuated with the sharp rap of the cane across my bared palm. Conducive to studying yes, but hardly conducive to a love of the language. To this day (and it was many years ago), I still get chills up my spine when I set my eyes upon a chinese manuscript.

In this instance, it is experience talking; I didn't study Mandarin for long, but in the few short weeks that I did it (I was leaving the school in question, and couldn't take it up at my next institution) I picked up far more than I have managed to in an equivalent time doing Russian.

Yes, it is a difficult language, but my ears find it easier to discriminate between words in Mandarin than words in Russian - perhaps because I grew up with many people speaking it around me. Given equivalent time, I think I'd go further in Mandarin than Russian simply because of my natural affinity for it. Then, my teacher was all smiles, encouragement and moon cakes. Loving a teacher can make all the difference!

Speaking of moon cakes... it's only two more months till the Lunar Festival. Mmm... I've missed the taste of mooncakes.

And yes, a loving teacher can make all the difference. For now, while I can speak passable Cantonese and Hokkien, I have learnt to despise Mandarin, even though I can understand it fairly well.

I really don't see how you could find Mandarin easier to understand than Russian, most people complain the opposite. Mandarin, like all the Chinese dialects, is a tonal language - different inflections mean totally different and unrelated things.

I cannot remember the Mandarin equivalent at the moment (yes, my mandarin IS that bad). But in Cantonese, the difference in pronunciation between hae, haie, and hai, makes all the difference in whether you are talking about a crab, a shoe or someone's vagina! Which can lead to some really embarassing moments indeed - I once had a friend who tried to order the waitress's vagina in a restaurant, the rest of us were pretty much all laughing our asses off, but luckily the waitress took no offense as my friend was a malay trying to speak cantonese! ;)

People demonstrate remarkable plasticity, so don't be too surprised by the odd-folk that you come across from time to time ;) ...the one Singaporean in my lab claims that I have one of the best Mandarin accents she's heard in a Westerner, even though my vocabulary is tiny. I even used to watch the Mandarin news when I was little just because I loved how it sounds (yes, an odd child), so it seems entirely plausible to me that I might not be overly phased by the tones. Listening to a native Russian chattering away is far more intimidating to me; I can't easily pick out the words, there is no tonality, and the grammatical rules, declensions and so on are relatively rigid. All I can say is that I know which one I prefer studying!

I miss all the festivals back home; the lion dances used to be mesmerising - I know where my love for solid dance beats comes from; the rhythm used to make me want to tap my feet and clap my hands even then. Mmm, dan hari raya, open house, makanan makanan, kari puf, roti canai, murtabak, kwei, dodol, assam laksa, sambal goreng, mee hai lam ... alamak - saya nak makan! Jumpa lagi!

Eh? Kamu betul betul boleh faham akan bahasa melayu. Dah terlalu pandailah kamu ni. ;) Kan dah berapa tahun tak balik .my ini? Haha, kalau kamu balik, beri amaran dulu, mungkin kami bertemu... kalau kamu tidak takut di jemput oleh orang pelik. ;P

Hehe... you _would_ be one of those strange foreigners that also likes spicy food huh? :) Yeah, I'm gonna miss the food myself when I continue overseas for my studies. Everything you named there features chili in one form or another as part of the dish. Except for the desserts of course. :)

Hmm... as for people, they surprise the f*** out of me all the time. You for one. ;)

Jaga diri baik-baik hingga kami berjumpa lagi. :)

Oh, awak boleh cakap bahasa? Cool... saya boleh cakap sikit sikit - tak bagus - saya tak balik .my dua tahun, tetapi saya tinggal di Ampang dua belas tahun. Terlalu pandailah?! - terima kasih... but so wrong, lah!

Well, you have to consider that I did grow up there, so I only became a foreigner when I left to go to boarding school... I still think of it as home, and things like kankong belacan are, to me, what sunday roasts and fish n' chips are to many British. Saya cinta makanan makanan pedas dan ...gasp... saya suka buah durian!

Regarding your suggestion; who knows, but if I do balik, you'll probably find out. I can deal with the occasional orang pelik.

Cheers ;)

Bisakan aku keseorangan, asalkan tak ada orang yang bencikan ku....

I live in .my... speaking Malay is a prerequisite to survival. You need to be trilingual just to order food here. ;)

Hehe... if you want to meet me you'd better get here before 2004 then. :) Cuz I'll be in .au next year. Sweet, sweet freedom.

Really? I'm stranger than I sound. ;) I just had nasi lemak for breakfast... :P~~~~

I always tell people that they only need English to survive in Malaysia, which is pretty much true. On the other hand, 'survive' versus 'live, enjoy, die of good eating' is a big difference - I'm with you on that one.

At home, we always used to eat cereal for brekkie, but last time I was there, I had nasi lemak for every breakfast that I could... you learn to miss what you once took for granted.

Oz is great - I can see you enjoying it immensely.