"WOW! You can SPEAK MANDARIN??"

Hello, I don't know whether will anyone ever read my blog but before I start, I just want to say thank you for reading my blog. :) 

Just a simple introduction from me. I am currently studying in Germany and probably most of the stuff i will be writing are about things happen to me in Germany and maybe some useful guideline on how to apply university, blocked account or visa to Germany... and some other blah blah blah stuff... 

It has been a month in Germany and i have met a lot of people from different parts of the world. Normally, when I meet a new friend, I will introduce my name and where I come from. Well, is normal procedure i guess...and we use international language, English to communicate. So yeah, it's all fine and well. But not so well when they overheard I speak in Mandarin.

 "WOW! You can speak Mandarin?" *with the surprised face and blink blink eyes*

 "Your Mandarin is so good and I didn't expect that!"

 "Erm...Malay language is your mother tongue, uh-huh?? or maybe I got it wrong?" *?? popping out* "People in Malaysia only speak Malay and English, right?? In your case, I don't think so.." *scratching the head* 

Well, I took it as a compliment in the beginning because it is a compliment, right?? But as time passed, the same thing happened to me and sometimes it happened a few times in a day. So, this is also why I started my very first blog and I hope I don't need to explain much in future if they read this blog. XD Then I slowly think that maybe it is not a compliment at all. (well, like i care?hahahaha..)

Slowly, I start to think is it very weird or surprised that as a Malaysian Chinese, most of us are able to speak fluent in Mandarin? Yes, I am a Malaysian. 

To be more specific, a Malaysian Chinese. 

Question number 1: So are you a Malay or Chinese? 

Most people will misunderstand and think that we migrate from China to Malaysia. It is true but is our ancestor migrated from China to Malaysia, not us. We are born and grew up in Malaysia. So here,I am referring to a race, not a nationality.

Question number 2: Then why you can speak Mandarin? 

Erm...To be honest, it's a very awkward question to answer. Well, at least for me. Normally I will answer "Because Mandarin is my mother tongue?" "Because my parents speak Mandarin with me since young?" "Because my parents sent me to a Chinese school?" 

Question number 3: Do other Malaysian Chinese speak Mandarin as fluent as you? 

I would say mostly but it depends. I do have some Malaysian Chinese friends who cannot speak Mandarin at all or some maybe a little bit. In Malaysia, we(the Malaysian Chinese who can speak Mandarin) will call them banana or ABC. Some might feel it is racist but some will take it as a compliment. So again, it depends. 

Question number 3.1: Why banana?Why ABC? 

Because banana's skin is yellow and inside is white. Chinese has yellow skin and according to our older generation, English is the mother tongue of the Caucasian who has white/fair skin. So as a Chinese, you have yellow skin but speak English, isn't just like a banana?? and ABC in full is America(n) Born Chinese. (p/s: I am not sure is American or America. Sorry about it.) 

It has the same meaning as Banana. So, please don't think we are not discriminating or what. Some of the Bananas are proud to be a Banana because they can speak English fluently and some of the non-Bananas are envy of the Bananas. 

Question number 4: Do other Malaysian Chinese speak Mandarin at home too?

 This depends on our parents and own family background. If they speak Mandarin with us then of course we will learn how to speak in Mandarin. If they speak in English then we speak in English. But in general, we normally speak more than a language at home such as Malay, Hokkien, Cantonese, Hakka and some other Chinese dialects. 

 Question number 5: Then how do you learn how to write and read Chinese characters? 

Some Malaysian Chinese can only speak and listen and some can read and write. I am able to speak, write, listen and read in Mandarin because I am Chinese educated, it means I went to Chinese school for my education. In Malaysia, there are 3 major races: Malay, Chinese and Indian. Of course not to forget our Indigenous friends, mostly from Sabah and Sarawak.

You may refer here for the statistic data: http://www.livepopulation.com/country/malaysia.html or just google it for more. 

 So once upon a time, each race wanted to preserve their own mother tongue and so today, we have three types of primary school in Malaysia: 

Sekolah Kebangsaan(SK) - taught in *Malay and English

Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan Cina(SJKC) - taught in *Mandarin, Malay and English 

Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan Tamil(SJKT) - taught in *Tamil, Malay and English 

* indicates the main language the school uses.

So that's how we are able to learn how to write and read in our own mother tongue. And you might be curious why all have to learn Malay language and English. Well, this is because Malay language is the official language in Malaysia. 

As a citizen of Malaysia and regardless which race you are, you are ought to learn and know the official language. Kindly exclude those older generation. Here, I am referring to the younger generation who are born and grew up in Malaysia. English is the international language and so yeah, we have to learn it too. 

So basically, average a Malaysian can speak in at least 3 languages. 

Question number 6: What is the common language Malaysian speak when they meet? 

In my personal opinion, the common language that we, Malaysian speak when we see each other is Bahasa Rojak. Rojak is a traditional mixture dish of fruit and vegetable in Malaysia. In Malay language, Rojak simply means mixture and Bahasa means language. 

 In general we communicate by mixing all the languages we know. Sometime we will suddenly change into another language, from Malay into English, then English into Mandarin, then Mandarin into Malay and etc. It is our culture. But of course we are able to converse in one language too just that we embrace our Bahasa Rojak too well and personally i enjoy it very much. 

So if you plan to visit Malaysia one day, don't worry about language because we speak English too and Malaysian are helpful. And in order to understand a Malaysian conversation, you need to know at least 2 languages or more. The major languages are Malay and English, and maybe some Mandarin/Hokkien/Cantonese? Because sometime we will mix some Mandarin, Hokkien and Cantonese into our conversation too. 

I guess that's all from me. Hope you enjoy reading it and know a bit more about Malaysia and Malaysian. Feel free to comment or write email to me if it is not clear or anything mistake I had made.

Have a nice weekend. p/s: Sorry that I am long winded.