Santa Claus is coming today

EggEgg has just caught up with his speech development delay in Chinese, and now we are trying to work on his English. EggEgg's pre-teacher lamented, "EggEgg is such a funny boy. I wish he could speak more English at pre-school."

At night, Tonton seem concerned too. "Are you sure it was worth the money sending EggEgg to pre-school? Did he really learn anything there?"

I gave a little laugh and told him about the incident this afternoon: after picking him up from school, I tried to have a little afternoon nap with Cola. EggEgg thought nobody was listening and started to sing English christmas carols. I've never heard him sang those songs before. Merrily, he goes,

Santa Claus is coming... to-day...

Well, that English wasn't perfect, but it's a good sign that he's picking up something from pre-school after all.

Then I recounted my childhood story to Tonton...

"Do you know, when I was a kid, I would not say a sentence in English at home in Macau? When mum quizzed me about something in English, I just pretend that I haven't learnt that in school. Even at Year 8, I don't understand what the Simpsons said without reading the subtitles.

And to think that I've been sent to a private English school (SRL) since kindergarten!

One day when I was about 10 years old, one of mum's friends phoned us from Indonesia. Dad was at work, Mum was doing grocery shopping, and there was only my grandma and me at home. Grandma picked up the phone and asked in Chinese, "Wei?"

After a few moments of confusion, she said to me urgently, "It's an international call! Hurry, I don't know what she is saying. She is probably your mum's friend. Tell her your mum is not at home."

So gingerly I picked up the phone, dreading the worse: speaking in English to a stranger.

The female voice on the other line asked in an Indonesian-flavoured English, "Hello? I want to speak to Christine (my mother)."

I could see my grandma hoovering around the telephone, eagerly waiting for me to resolve the situation. I ducked into a corner and whispered as softly as a mouse. "... Mother... go to... market."

"Oh, you're Ah Hung. Where is your mother?"

I was highly annoyed! Why can't she hear me the first time? I looked around and make sure that my grandma couldn't eavesdrop on my fine command of English. I repeated just as softly this time, "Er, Mother... go to... market."

"Ok, I call later."

What a relief that she hung up! Before my grandma asked what I have just said, I ran to the bedroom and hide."

"And you see, these days I could do public speaking and business presentation in 5 languages. So don't worry about EggEgg, he'll turn out fine."

And so I hope.