THE BANANA PEOPLE

I'm Malaysian born Chinese. I went to the English elementary school ( St.Ronan ) the first four years but i would say Mandarin is my first language since i was being sent to a Chinese primary school and that's when i learned the most of it. I just can never be thankful enough to have the opportunity to pick up a really difficult language as a child effortlessly. I speak both English and Mandarin at home ( my dad is Chinese but he can't speak nor understand Mandarin ) so i am not strong in either language because i don't have a proper one to speak daily since i was little, which, i do not have native-like control of either English or Mandarin. And in this case they regard this as semi-lingualism.

Apparently i notice, most Asians, particularly the Chinese, they have the very strong admiration towards white, western, Caucasian, European or those native English speakers living in the same part of world. There's a lot of Chinese families choose not to teach Mandarin to their children and send them to the English school to make them fully fit into the social group because most Chinese parents are so ethnocentric that they kinda make assumptions and judge other group based on their own limited experience, thinking that people who can speak good English are way more superior to those who don't or even can't. So, they sorta wanna make their children to be "banana-people." People like this tend to think that they are smarter and more capable in many ways as compared to those who can't speak the same language fluently. It's just too sad to know that most of the non-native English speakers are insulted and feel disrespected by others because they are not good at speaking their second language.

Having said that, it's understandable for those Chinese who are born and raised overseas without having the chance and ability to speak their own language, it just seems a little sad because they lose a sense of belonging but again of course, this is just an individual choice, not all Chinese has to know how to speak and write in Mandarin.

It's so pathetic to see that there's a lot of people taking great pride in their ability to speak fluent English and these people normally being regarded as "banana-people" - yellow on the outside but white ( western thinking and speaking their language ) on the inside. People just don't realize that English is just part of the tool communication and it doesn't define how smart, talented, great and rich you are as a person in the society. They just afraid to be a loser and want to live up and fit into society's expectation whereas the true losers are those who force themselves to regardlessly follow the rules and leading a unhappy life with the paths they have chosen just to be socially accepted.

But hey, why not think about this, when you're making fun of someone who speaks broken English, at least they can speak more than one language and they could have more friends than you do.because of their ability to speak more than a language?

Everyone deserves to be treated equally living in the same society. Never look down on someone based on your own judgement and assumption because of your limited exposure and experience. Instead, learn how to be bigger than yourself by keep learning to improve and be a better person to gain respect of others.