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"Why do you suddenly switch to English? I understand Japanese, you know?" Labels: family
Sometimes it irks and puzzles me why my dad does that. He will be in the midst of relating some incident to my mom, and because I'm sitting there eating my plum, he will throw in some English sentences. Or he could be telling her the story while I'm standing nearby guzzling down my juice, then when I walk nearer he'll proceed to start telling me the same story, in English. Hello?! I grew up listening to Japanese, I took lessons, I was immersed in it - my Japanese proficiency is okay. How did he think I survived a year in Japan? -.-'''
Anyhow, my dad just returned from Hainan Island, China. As he and my relatives were chattering in the car on the way back from the airport, it reminded me anew that Japanese is not the only language I want to brush up on during the holidays. My aunt asked me in Hainanese, "do you understand what we're saying?" To which I answered, "I understand, but I cannot speak." I think most of my Foo family relatives know that my generation's grasp of the language is going downhill. We were all relatively fluent when we were younger, because we were often at my grandmother's house and it was the only language she could speak. Old age brings with it a barrage of problems and the bottom line is that we lost our main conversation partner. Having Hainanese in our lives has gradually become a thing of the past.
I don't like losing things which I had firmly in my grasp. Especially things like language, which I'd spent years practising, fine-tuning, improving. More than just pride, I want to retain my command of languages because language is culture, and it holds memories which I cannot recreate today. As long as I can still speak it, I'm keeping the link between us open, the avenue is there. It helps to keep certain memories alive.
One language is for the past; The other is for the present and the future.