just a blog

Saturday, January 31, 2004

Was chatting with Yah Yah and Grace yesterday about mother tongue. Think I really sucked in my mother tongue and am quite embarassed by it sometimes. Yea, afterall how can I be considered a Chinese if I am not able to speak good mandarin? Kind of agree that if Singapore was not so rigid about us taking our mother tongue as second language, many Singaporean Chinese would had taken Malay. Wonder if I would had also had taken that step if it came along. Think Malay would be easier to grasp because it involves alphabets. Yea, but that's just for the sake of grades. Had no regrets taking mandarin in school though I had struggled very much through it simply because it brought me closer to my roots and made me proud of my race. Was quite shock to read a forum letter yesterday or so about how this girl wrote in recently to say that she will not converse with anyone who spoke to her in mandarin. Did not manage to read her letter and am really curious about it. How can a Chinese actually say such things? Especially if they are local Chinese! You mean you are actually so ashamed of your very roots? Does your own race really make you that sick or so shameful that you rather embrace another races?? You rather be the lowest form of another race than to be your own race? I'm not only referring to Chinese who "claim" they are not Chinese but all other races as well. Sometimes I really pity and despise those people. Or maybe I'm just being rigid and old fashion. Or maybe in other people's eyes I'm just one of those people who say other people but is actually the kind of person I ridicule.

John Magnier is probably the most hated person in Man U now and he rightly derserves to be so. He is allowing a personal dispute with Sir Alex to spill over ann affect the morale of the team. He ought to be shot. If he really gets his way and sacks Ferguson, than I think Manu U is in for some really turbulent times. Ferguson is really probably the best manager in the world. No one comes close to his tactical game plans. Arsene Wenger is not really Ferguson level when it comes to tactics but I admire him for being able to bring the best out of players. There's talk saying that his latest buy, Jose Antonio Reyes maybe a flop but I think the odds of that happening is not very high. Hive Wenger time and he will work his magic.

Elwin, this is for you!

he spoke at 10:53 pm

Thursday, January 29, 2004

Australian Open has thrown up quite a few surprises so far, at least for the Men's category. Who would have thought that Mark Philippoussis who had played so well during the competition would have been knocked out of the Open in straight sets by an unseeded player who is ranking is three digits? Who would have thought also that the World number one Andy Roddick would have been knocked out by Marat Safin who had taken a year's break to nurse his injury? Even the women's side was not sort of surprises. Justine Henin-Hardenne's victory over Lindsay Davenport did not reflect the battle she had to go through. During the first set, she was down 4-0 but came back to win it 7-5. Last night's men's doubles too was quite a surprised. Yes, third seeds Jonas Bjorkman and Todd Woodbridge were expected to win eighth seeds Wayne Black and Kevin Ullyett. But a thrashing was not expected at all. Who would have thought that Bjorkman and Woodbridge would have won 6-0, 6-2?

he spoke at 9:03 am