Wednesday, August 09, 2006
The chorus of The Click Five's "Say Goodnight" is stuck in my head for no reason. Baby just say goodnight, I'll be gone tomorrow. Anyway, I've been listening to more Chinese songs lately (but it's still quite few compared to English songs). But you know, it's weird listening or trying to sing along to Chinese songs when I don't understand the whole song. I mean I understand a few words and a few phrases here and there, and probably can guess the meaning from them, but it's not the same as knowing the meaning of every single word and understanding the whole song. It's like a jigsaw puzzle..you only have a few pieces, but not all the pieces to complete the puzzle. It's kindda a pity cos I think the lyrics of Chinese songs can be beautiful too.
You know, sometimes I find it amazing that I can no longer speak Indonesian fluently. Considering that I've spoken it for the better part of twelve years before I left for Singapore. Just shows how easily you can forget a language if you don't use it very often. Same with Chinese, though I think Chinese is probably much worse for me. I used to learn Chinese when I was in primary school, but I forgot almost all of it after I left cos I didn't really speak much Chinese when I was in Singapore. Well, I don't think I'll forget my Indonesian entirely cos I've used it for a long time. My conclusion from all this? To learn a language well, you must use the language regularly (as in speak the language). There's no point in learning a language, regardless of how many times you've learned it, if you don't try to speak in it cos you'll forget it if you don't use it after a while.
I almost forgot that today is national day in Singapore. Second straight year I've missed national day celebrations in Singapore. I was in Singapore last year, but I forgot that it was national day.. Pity I missed the fireworks too. Instead of seeing Singapore flags, I'm seeing Indonesian flags everywhere. Well, Indonesia's own national day is not too far away..on 17 Aug.
Anyway, off to watch Apprentice 4 finale now.
posted by vivien at 9:44 AM