I was born in Hong Kong and moved to Singapore at the age of 10. I grew up speaking Cantonese for almost half my life, so it wasn’t easy for me to pick up two new languages (Mandarin and English) then. I had trouble in school trying to understand what the teachers and fellow classmates talking about. Luckily, after I attended English and Mandarin tuition, I managed to get promoted to primary 5 next year.
What makes my first lesson so memorable was this. The teacher asked me to introduce myself to the class in English but I couldn’t understand a word he said. So I just stood there and stared at the floor. Then the teacher translated what he said into Cantonese so I could understand. It was an embarrassing moment and at that point I just wanted to hide.
Article migrated from original My Story Portal 2007.
Author. Mantou28