讲话

Recently, I've had the privilege of meeting some really rude people. Lol that's not because I enjoy being spoken rudely to, but because these ultimately harmless encounters were actually great lessons on how not to behave.

The thing is (I assume), it's not like these people lack education. Well, this one speaker for a Friday lesson was clearly of high caliber, judging from job title as well as past achievements. But why on earth, in all of his fluency and competence, did he speak as though addressing a room full of... I don't even know what kind of people deserve to be spoken to in such a condescending manner. He's gonna get the lowest marks possible if there's feedback. In another situation, a stranger made her grievances known to me (it wasn't about me, but something in front of us) in the form of vulgarity-laden sentences. Firstly, every word has its rightful place and usage, including expletives, but it simply displays a lacking vocabulary when these appear multiple times in a single sentence. Also, I don't feel like it's nice to vent on strangers just because they're sitting and staring at the same thing.

Bad taste, good learning opportunities, as with every other nasty encounter in life. Not everybody is blessed with great language skills, in English or whatever other language. But sometimes I wonder how some people can speak so well, and yet speak so much worse than a void deck hokkien beng.

Not that being a hokkien beng is bad actually. Education does have an impact on the way we speak or express ourselves, but it matters more what is being said. People can be torn down in great fluency, just as much as positive messages can be delivered in the "粗话" of the neighbourhood. I happen to be a bit more proficient in written English, but I don't really speak in the same way haha. It's very tiring to have to keep up measured tones and proper diction, so outside of necessary situations, it's always a great relief to go back to normal singlish. Also, I speak differently to different groups of friends, and there are a few which I speak predominantly mandarin to.

I actually really enjoy conversing in neighbourhood mandarin. I dunno why, but it's more fun? My Chinese is not good lol really I got a C for A levels, and sometimes my 音 a bit off, but who cares hahaha. Some things somehow just flow better on channel 8 (but for anything too cheem to handle I just switch back to english). [It's a bit funny though when ppl cannot speak chinese despite having taken higher chinese?? Haha I cannot understand.]

It is also uncommon to find people who speak this way naturally in REP. So I'm glad that a random event like IVEC actually managed to bring closer a bunch of neighbourhood kids - it's almost like secondary school once again. There's a sort of connection between people of similar backgrounds (relative to whatever situation so it's kinda like finding a Singaporean while overseas), and communication is one of the ways in which this is most obvious. It's great fun to lim <insert favourite kopitiam beverage> and talk about all sorts of random nonsense in a language where we're all extremely comfortable. On exams: "this sem you got 几张纸?". On the thin walls of North Hill: "这里的 walls 不 soundproof..." *cow's epic mishearing* "谁不穿裤??". And that's just the gist of it.

Seems like a pretty weird post I've just written haha. I guess with graduation looming and all, these are just some of the simple, happy times that I want to remember. Also, it's a reminder to myself to use language positively, in whatever manner of speech I choose.

Ought to breathe

These days, it feels like my sense of time's gone a little nuts. Whether this is a cause or symptom of stress I have no clue. Things that happened before this sem, though it's really only been about 3-4 months, feel like they passed a lifetime ago. Things that happened in this sem, however, always feel like they happened "yesterday" or "just 2 weeks ago". This definitely ain't accurate given how we've given September, and oh look October too, nothing more than a glimpse. Whoever/whatever's playing with the flow of time please stoppit.

Well, it's an amusing topic to talk about at least. It's unbelievable how much disbelief there can be in discussions with always the same running topic. 2016, where the heck are you rushing off to?

While it's well and truly the second-last month of the year, let's take a moment to look back upon RE60XX October.

... What actually happened?

The transition from September was pretty fuzzy, and it was only at 10 days deep that realisation hit like a tsunami: "the first third of October's already gone?!" True story. I have no idea anymore what happened back then [but according to my previous posts I'd done some reflection and had some enjoyable meals at least]. And then I think there was a flood that lasted some 20 days before washing us up onto the shores of November.

So really what has happened? Some interviews, some meals, generous helpings of projects, a sprinkling of sleep, and a tiny precious drop of climbing. Yup seems like it. When you live life like a zombie I guess everything's vague at best.

But we make the best of things, we were trained to be strong. Mealtimes become break times, and same goes for the simple act of non-work-related communication. Stress sometimes brings out behaviours which can be amusing to watch. [Though stress for me tends to manifest in ways that cause difficulty in eating, which is a pain. Nice food deserves to be enjoyed :(] Also I've learnt to be savvy or firm about structuring in breaks and things I have to do to keep going. The stage of "don't care anymore" acts as a natural assertion that it's time to go and have some fun; no such thing as "finishing everything" before going out to play - don't try that in Y5 it's dangerous.

I actually lived the perfect analogy for this over dinner one Sunday evening (steamboat with the family). As always, my partiality lies with cheese tofu. For those who haven't seen the way I eat, my preferences are usually observable - leave the best for last right? Turns out in steamboat, "last" is pretty ambiguous with the food continuously streaming in either by my chopsticks or by the parents piling it on. So there I was meticulously chewing on everything else and making sure to keep my cheese tofu to deserving intervals. The turning point came when I was notified that the cheese tofu sitting in my bowl (only my second piece!!) was the final one (no thanks to le sister). I had actually been planning to eat that sooner, but that was no longer to be. And when the time finally came, I was full and it was cold :(

Aside from being a story about a nice dinner, the above proceedings made me realise that the value of respite stems not just from its form, but also its timeliness. Just like that chinese saying 休息是为了走更长的路 - you don't walk until your legs break before you take a break right? In every week that passes, I'll write what needs to be written, and I'll write what I want to write. If spending another 30 minutes or so eating means I get to laugh a little longer with my friends, so be it. Even if it's just once a week, I'll never pass my climbs up for anything that "needs" to be done. There's always time for the cheese tofus of life.

October taught me that I ought to breathe.