Thursday, September 10, 2009

The Ang-moh kia

Mei-mei is a real ang-moh kia.

Last Thursday, she surprised me and another teacher by calling him correctly. (She calls all teachers she sees as Yu-lao-shi not knowing that Yu is the surname. Not surprising though she calls him Yu-lao-shi only to have him repeating "wo shi Hong-lao-shi". After so many months, it finally sank into her lil' brain and she called him as he walked past.

Then she showed off her fishball to him and said "yu wan". He asked her in chinese if she could share with him, she stood there staring at him. Then he asked in english, immediately that girl turned her back to him and hid her fishball.
He later asked in chinese again her name. She 不明白 and again was dumb-founded. Asked in english, she told him her name. He asked her chinese name in chinese again, don't understand. Asked her in english and she pronounces her chinese name really well.

Ang-moh kia huh?

4 comments:

Karmeleon said...

You've not spoken Chinese with her ?

Lily Ann said...

Not that often. My grasp of Chinese is worse than English.

Karmeleon said...

Yeah, I failed Chinese in school. But I've tried my best to speak Chinese with baby. Hope it works. ;-p

Lily Ann said...

That lil one is really ... when I'm teaching her, I have to converse in Chinese. (feel so awkward myself)

I spoke little Chinese to Athena too, but she has better grasp of the languge. Flashcards = recognizes all Chinese words but difficulty in reading English words.
Lil' one = recognizes English words, jumble up the sequence she still recognizes. But when it comes to Chinese, she pretends to make some sound and then laugh.