Language learning

You might have it forgotten but I haven’t. 15 years ago, I got up at 6:30am and had a McDonald’s hamburger on a 47X bus to that school. I was wearing a T-shirt on which the characters of The Flintstones were printed with a pair of light blue jeans. Once I arrived the school and picked a place near somewhere on which I could put my textbook, I started to memorize the whole passage of 醉翁亭記, the last that I hadn’t yet memorized for the city-wide exam, despite I had done it many times of reciting that wonderful piece of prose before. I took about 20 minutes to have the prose recited. During the course of memorizing the piece, I had had the writing style and contents fully comprehended. It’s just easy. It already made me feel confident in attending the exam.

Obviously I have excellent short-term memory. That I clinched an A in that exam is compelling proof of many, and that’s the only one I have in my life ever.

Actually I don’t do recitation very much. The exam has 65% marks that do not require memory but usage of Chinese Language. That’s why I could top in this subject. Other subjects, in my opinions, need brilliant recitation. For lazy students like me, it’s tough.

However it’s all gone. If I were able to switch back the clock, I would have put more efforts in my English. That’s actually an area none around me could help in my primary school days or even secondary school days. So it’s just a question of if. If I could realize there’s room for improvement in English, what would I have done? I have no idea. None could tell what I should have done. None – at all! Shakespeare would have been a stranger to me until I was at HKU when I began reading his great works, with difficulties of course. George Orwell, the creator of Animal Farm, wasn’t much mentioned in my school years despite we were required to study his most comprehensible and least heavy works of all. None told how his mindset marks the 20th century of English Literature. Not to mention the iconic female writer – Jane Austen. Neither her sharp eyes for details nor her pioneering role in history had been talked in English class. I don’t mean to blame anybody. However it’s quite true that no light towards better and quality English was offered in my young age until F.4 when I paid to meet Archvictor Wong who gave me a skeleton of English grammar with which I can write grammatically-correct English but of no prime quality – that earn me credits to enter university. If I really have to thank somebody, it's Archvictor Wong. Credits aren’t enough for me to get a language-related job nevertheless. Too bad!

It’s good to keep my Chinese as good as it's 15 years. It should be worth celebrating. I guess so, but the cruel fact is that it isn't as good as it was.