Dear Diary,
I haven’t felt so lost in my life. No, I’m not talking about knowing meaning
of life and things you experience when you’re going through midlife crisis. I’m
not sure how that feels like yet. I’m only 7. Well, it’s the first day of my
school today. Mum decided to send me to a Chinese primary school to study for 6
years. I think she made a really big mistake. I had no idea what my teachers and
classmates were talking about. They were ranting in Mandarin which is an alien
language to me. I haven’t heard people talking in Mandarin before. This is my
very first time. I feel like I’m in another country except the environment is
in Malaysia. I feel like an alien on earth, or rather a human in mars. You get
what I mean, it feels weird.
And it can’t get any worse when teacher arrange for me to sit next to
Brian. There’s only word to describe Brian and the word is “annoying”. Actually
I think annoying is an understatement. Well luckily for Brian he understands
Mandarin and doesn’t feel alien to this and unfortunate for me I have to depend
on him to translate what teacher is saying. Let’s say he’s the most “helpful”
translator and what I meant by helpful I’m saying it sarcastically. Sometimes,
he refused to tell me what’s going on or what teacher is saying.
And the teacher is not helping either or that’s what I think according
to Brian’s translation. She said: “In this class, you can’t speak English,
Hokkien or Cantonese. Only Mandarin.” So how am I supposed to talk anyone and
ask for help? I’m so doomed. What if she asks a question? Hopefully she won’t
call my name cause I totally won’t know whether she’s asking a question or
telling me to do something let alone answer a question. Actually how does my
name sound like in Chinese again? Then how am I supposed to tell whether she’s
calling my name or not? Maybe Brian would tell me. But seeing that she always
has a big long stick or cane in her hand for beating students who didn’t pay
attention in class, I think being quiet when being questioned doesn’t solve the
problem. She might be thinking I was not paying attention in class and cane me.
Oh no, what am I going to do? When the bell rang, I was so relieved that Brian
told me school was over.
So I quickly packed my bag and walked to the school gate. I saw students
still hanging out in school and I was the first to rush out of class but I didn’t
care. It was all too overwhelming for me. So I sat at the bench near the school
gate. Then I never felt so happy to see Mum. But Mum had a strange look on her
face. The look when I did something wrong. Uh-oh, what did I do wrong? Then Mum
finally asked: “why did you pack your bags? It’s recess. Not time to go home
yet. I’m just here to give you some pocket money to buy food at the canteen”. Oh,
no. It was going to be a long day at school.
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