Monday, June 23, 2014

"Your English is difficult to understand. Maybe because you are Malaysian"

Yes. I got that A LOT. But surprisingly all those comments were from non native English speakers or those who do not speak English that well. Nevertheless, they really damaged my self-confidence.

Am I that bad? Gee, I don't know. I wish I can tell whether I am good or not. I have never set foot in a country where the national language is English. And the native speakers that I know, I can only count them with my right hand. 

There was the late Kevin Cleary, American professor, who taught English in my university.

Mr McKenzie, another American who taught us English when I was in first and second year in Dental school.

Mr Nuttall, another English teacher from my University year. He's British though.

And of course, Bobby Thompson, who came to Japan to do his internship at Yoshida company. He was supposed to check English translations done by Yoshida staff but went back with a larger tummy courtesy of Japanese hospitality.

Mr McKenzie kept on praising my English every time he saw me. In one of his homework, he asked us to record ourselves reading poems. So mesmerized he was by my recitation, heh, he asked my permission to send the recording to the author (which was his mom actually). Apparently, I was the first Malaysian he knew and he was so amazed to know that Malaysian spoke English so well.

After half a year, Mr Nuttall and Mr McKenzie excused me from their classes because they said that my level was too high for the classes they were teaching. Mind you, I was not that great, but in Japan, they started learning English when they were in junior high. So what they learned in the first year of college was equivalent to what I learned in secondary school in Malaysia.

Kevin (as everyone here affectionately called him) used to tell me several times that he did not feel like speaking to a non-native when he was talking to me. He also told me that my pronunciation was good. May his soul rest in peace. He passed away recently due to heart problem.

As for Bobby, I still remember when I first spoke to him. Well, we were at a party.. sort of... It was rather silly because we were supposed to watch the famous Tsumida gawa fireworks display in summer 2012 but the old guy who was supposed to book a good spot (read: a spot with good view of the firework) somehow managed to book a spot with zero view. Yes, zero view of the fireworks. We could only hear the crackling sounds. But there was absolutely nothing to see from our spot. Nothing, So we ended up eating and drinking while entertaining ourselves to the sound of the most well known fireworks display in Tokyo. And Bobby being the blonde guy from America who spoke almost zero Japanese caught the attention of every one in our group. They were all like waiting in line to speak to him. He was definitely treated like a celebrity that night. Little did I know that he actually did not understand more than half of the conversation that night. He later told me that he just smiled and replied 'Yeah...' here and there..to everything said to him. Ah, so young and so polite... You've got to love that boy.

I was 'enjoying' the sound of the fireworks when I saw he was having difficulties trying to get the direction to the nearest public toilet from one of our friends. So I went up to him and offered my help. His first reaction was, " You speak English!" Well, I told him, the guy who was trying to explain where the toilet was to him also spoke English. To which he laughed and added "But you speak English like you have been speaking English for the rest of your life". Coming from a native, I took that as a compliment. And that really made me happy. So happy that I still remember it in detail. I doubt Bobby remembers what he said though. Anyway, just a trivia on Bobby, his sister used to represent the states for fencing. Cool, huh?

I am not writing this to brag about how all the native English speakers I knew praised my English ability. But I am here to highlight how most of the time people judge your language ability from your appearance. Especially people who know very little about the language. That is why I can never win a job offer for teaching English in Japan if my competitors are blonde and blue eyed. Even if they sound like Hitler when they speak English. 

Ah well, it's annoying but, I don't really care.. I don't teach English for a living anyway.

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