cannot string words together...

The government should be happy. I cannot string a proper string of words together in hokkien. Today, an old man approached me to ask if I could read a banner declaring that the government run kindergarten was registering. That I could do in my broken hokkien. However, when he asked if it was for next year or the year after, I found it beyond my vocabulary to try to explain that there were different levels available which explains why they were registering kids born from 2004 to 2007. I could understand him, but I could hardly convey to him what I wanted to say. I tried Mandarin, but all he replied was that the banner did not explain that. It was frustrating to say the least. Embarrassing at most to say that I've lost my roots.

When I told mom this, she said that we use to be able to converse in hokkien and teochew. And if dad had been willing to teach his second language, I be able to speak Malay too. My mom said that by speaking to us in English, she improved her English as well. I guess knowing how to speak a language doesn't prove that I'm well-rooted in my culture or roots. Or that not being able to speak these languages makes me less than what I am today. But imagine, I could have been able to converse well in all these languages. Knowing them would have made reaching out to people so much easier.