Paid SGD28 to get my hair trimmed by one inch. I'm not complaining. I have had extra caring service by a really personable guy Max (I usually am poorly amused by mandarin-speaking hairdressers not because they're not funny, but because I don't really get their more profound jokes spoken quickly - e.g. those with the use of chinese idioms.) He only speaks Mandarin Chinese and his English is about as good as my Chinese haha but he was sharing with me his youth days and his hair issues (that I am currently facing, oh sob!) in a very hilarious way, and I did like his friendly, natural way of chatting instead of those calculated I-am-attempting-to-be-friendly-because-I-am-trying-to-practice-relationship-selling and they're just trying to say all the right stuff and literally amuse you. Well it's not really amusing cos it's so calculated... but I know it's your job... Fine.
It is this reason that I have a terrible fear of hair salons, hairdressers, hairstylists yada yada. Everyone understands it when someone says "The hairdresser never gets what I want right." For me, that risk is vastly increased due to miscommunication or the fact that I don't understand the Malaysian hairdressers mandarin, and I don't know how to clearly express what I want to say in Mandarin Chinese. (Most hairdressers in Singapore are Malaysians, and they do speak slightly differently with different intonations in the words.) I also dislike the relationship-builiding-attempts conversation which makes everything so damn awkward. My pathetic chinese is not a tool with which I can have a long conversation with, and any prolonged conversation in mandarin chinese is tiring ok! Haha.
My mandarin chinese is poor. It is inadequate, I admit, and I wish I was better at it. But in my opinion (only mine... ha ha), I am not that grossly inadequate to the point that I can't survive. I still know how to order my chicken rice and minced meat noodles and hawker fare, and in the past two years (with my extremely bilingual boyfriend), I have somehow subconsciously learnt a lot more casual conversational mandarin language. (I say that because it is duh to say that people who are bad at a language tend to speak more "formally" and robotically because the language is clearly calculated when expressed and super unnaturally spoken. They do not often use "slang" or phrases that sound friendly, but rather speak in very fixed sentences.)
Honestly, I'm quite thankful for that. Haha. At least I also have a handy on-the-road translator with me!
For people who are blessedly bilingual, I am so, so happy for you and I really wish I could be you. (I watch Channel 8 dramas just like you too, if I like the storyline.) So don't bash me in your hearts and think "don't act yi ge ang mo la, so proud cannot speak chinese, you think so cool one geh ang mo?" (singlish style) which translates to "Don't act like a Caucasian and be too proud that you cannot speak Mandarin Chinese. Do you really think it is that cool to be a fake Caucasian?"
Yay, go bilingualism!!!
(Although I am not effectively bilingual le sigh, I would love to be!)
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