华文课

Whenever people learn that I've enrolled myself into a Chinese class, their reaction is usually "Huh, why?" or "What for? Aren't you a Chinese?!"

The latter makes me feel embarrassed, especially when my work neighbour, a Filippino-Malay, exclaimed that it's like a Malay enrolling into a Malay class. The fact is that my Chinese sucks, and this was further reinforced when the class started.

My classmates are a pleasant surprise: their ability in the Chinese language and commitment to learning 令我佩服。I had expected lots of uncles and aunties with some spare time on their hands in my class, but as it turns out, we were from all walks of life. There's the pair of mother and daughter sitting in front of me. The mum works as a part-time taxi driver and is such as 开心果， even though I realised near the end of the course that she had single-handedly raised her 3 kids. Her daughter SY is a very nice girl who shared with us, for the class presentation, her 6-month work experience in the Yellowstone Park in the US after her graduation. It sounded so wonderful that it made me wonder why I had not thought of doing the same thing when I was younger.

Next to me is HQ, who is in advertising and dreams of opening her own restaurant. She too, seems to warm to people very fast and we were instant friends. During our dinner together after the exam last Saturday, she mentioned that one of the bonuses she got from this class was knowing me. That was so sweet of her.

Sitting behind us is JQ, in his 40's. Smart and friendly, his enthusiasm in learning quite impresses me. Besides this class, he is also attending a Chinese course on banking and finance, and wants to learn Malay next. On a train ride, he even said that he wants to take up "serious" studying (ie a diploma course) next year. How does he juggle a job, 2 kids and so much studying?

Then there are a couple of lawyers, a trainer, an accountant, the SSO general manager who gave us this fantastic presentation about the Western orchestra and instruments, and the ah beng who dyed his hair blond and wears wild boar's teeth as a necklace, but who always does his homework without fail and played "Jingle Bells" on the erhu for us in class. What a motley bunch, but what fun. I feel like I have learned more than Chinese with and from them. Now that the course has ended, I feel truly sorry. I had started the course feeling overwhelmed and grouchy, thinking that I will never be able to catch up. But now that my interest is fired up, it has to end, sigh. I'll be feeling a little lost every time Tuesday evening comes around, for at least a while.