Day 5 – The 3rd day in Nan He Elementary School

A brand new day! I wore a full set of formal wear for the graduation photo session for 6^th grade students. Also picked up by 田主任 to go to the school as the bicycle was not ready with a helmet yet. =D

I have 3 sets of breakfast today! 1^st from 田主任, a sandwich with a cup of milk tea, 2^nd is from 錦芳, a homemade dish from ham and egg together with a bottle of tea and the 3^rd set is from 毛護士(Before this I called her 毛老師， but I think it’s more suitable to call her 毛護士)， it’s a box of red beans soup!! All are my favorite food!! Oh gosh… I am so lucky.

By the way today is the Nurse Day. So Happy Nurse Day to 毛護士！ =D

Today is a rather free day. I did some planning and finally came out with a few simple slides for 1^st grade and 2^nd grade. But in fact this is not enough for the materials to be taught. Perhaps I went according to the text book given and actually the students can learn more than that. (Actually I get to know this in the next day from 錦芳)

After that I went for a walk with 毛護士 because I was too full of the breakfast today. I didn’t eat much. I just ate the 1^st and half of the 2^nd set. The 3^rd set I kept for my supper! Muahahaha…

While we’re walking, I could listen to the more specific job description of every staff in the school. There are all 14 staffs here including the principal, 2 directors, 2 chiefs of subjects, 6 home class teachers for each grade, a chef and a gardener.

One thing that I could strongly feel is that the students are so polite! They bow to the teachers not only when the class starts, but also when we met at the corridor. They are so curious of my existence and were asking whether I could speak Mandarin.

At 1pm, there is a talk given by the principal of 石光國中 entitled “性別教育宣導”. The only English class (13:10 – 13:50) for sixth grade today was cancelled because of the speech. So I have no classes today! I don’t know whether the lower grade students could understand the message delivered by the principal. However, a girl from the 2^nd grade can actually answer the question creatively! All I should say is they are more innovative compared to my generation. They are willing to raise up their hands to answer the questions and I think this is probably due to the prizes given by the speaker. ;)

I got a box of milk and a bottle of soy sauce from the school. Every teacher has one. Oh my god, there are so many goods in the school. I got to eat tasty fruits here, grapes and guavas. It’s icy cold and sweet!

It’s a rather cloudy and windy afternoon; I went out with one of the teacher to have a look at the caterpillar. They have different species of the butterfly here. No wonder I could see butterflies everywhere, as the school has another name, butterfly school! They even sew a butterfly on their cap.

I went home by 毛護士’s car. She dropped me at the 水汴頭 bus stop. It took me around 10 to 15 minutes to wait for a bus as the buses are quite punctual. Then the bus took me in front of the church, another 15 minutes taken.

In the church, I met with Medha, an intern for another school, Dong An. She is from India, who studies in Toronto, Canada. She looked so tired, probably because of her jetlag. Her school is much more nearer than mine as it takes only 10 minutes car journey for her to her school.

After a shower and one and a half hour nap, I woke up to walk to the Internet Café nearby to conduct my interview session. It was so successful that I can finally match the 2 forms of mine.

It was almost 10pm and it’s my limit of curfew. Because of the rain, the girl in the Internet Café gave me an umbrella to walk back. I took a shower again because my whole body was smoky! Well, of course I crossed Metha’s room with the softest step I could ever make as she was still sleeping. I think she will be all right the next day.

Gift from school: A bottle of soy sauce.

Day 4 in Taiwan - 2nd Day in Nan He Elementary School

07:20am, 田主任 came to pick me up at the front gate of the church.

Once I reached the school, the teachers told me that there will be an earthquake today at 10:21am. It puzzled me for a second, just a second… haha.. Luckily it was proven later that this was rumor… =.= However, 月玲(毛老師) told me that there is an old man in Taiwan who committed suicide because of this…

Early in the morning 08:00am, there is a simple and quick general meeting between the directors and all the teachers. It is for them to make daily reports for some any events or notices. For example, we would have a graduation photographing session on the next day. Hoho… I would be in the photo too!!

The first class starts at 08:40am, I went to 2^nd grade (We call Standard 2 in Malaysia) Hakka class. It’s a brand new experience as I have never seen or known that there would be a formal and systematic Hakka class being held here. I took this opportunity to learn Hakka with the students as well. There are also Taiwanese classes held in other schools too but since the area is mostly occupied by majority Hakka community, so the school provided only Hakka classes.

Soon after the first period, the second period would be my first class with Judy, the English teacher to the 2^nd Grade class. Oh yeah, the school has only 57 students in total. 1^st grade until 6^th grade are 6, 9, 9, 12, 11 and 10 students respectively. That means there is only one class for every grade. It’s a mini school indeed. There are 3^rd grade and 6^th grade students who said “老師眼睛好大哦！” I wasn’t sure was it a compliment… Haha… but I will take it as a compliment anyway.

These are the classes I entered with Teacher Judy:

09:30 – 10:10am 2^nd grade class

10:30 – 11:10am 3^rd grade class

11:20 – 11:55am 6^th grade class

There is a small girl from the 2^nd grade who was shy enough to ask the teacher’s help to come together with her to the staff room and handed me a candy. This makes me feel that the children are so pure! As return, I gave her a marsh mallow.

One more fun thing is that I left my camera in the 3^rd grade classroom, and there is a small boy called Jason, who brought the camera to me! It’s so sweet of him.

At around 1pm, I went with Brandon to take the bicycle that I’ll be using in the next 6 weeks. It’s for me to cycle from the bus stop 水汴頭 into the school area. It’s actually a bicycle owned by a teacher in the school, Brandon Chen. He added me in the facebook and he can speak good English.

At around 2pm something I went out with 田主任 to buy a bicycle pump. At the same time, we went to 7 Eleven to buy some food, tea egg (which costs only 60sen if converted into RM!), yam flavoured milk and 咔辣姆久(a kind of snack which is famous in Japan.)

田主任even gave me the body shampoo, hair shampoo, set of reusable chopticks, fork and spoon. He said these are the prizes for Sports Day. They had their Sports Day on last Saturday. That’s why they only start their school on Tuesday instead of Monday. That’s the reason I spent my first two days in Taiwan with the AIESECers.

Not long to go, it’s time to go back to my home here, the church. The teacher called 錦芳 send me home by her scooter. That’s such a new experience. I can’t drive here and can only go along with people’s car. I appreciate the teacher’s efforts on me so much.

Went back to the church – Sleep time! Slept for 3 hours!! 4 till 7pm =D Che Kai called me but I was asleep so the time is just not so suitable!

Then I just took a shower and did some blogging. My cousin sister called me up at 8pm. Hehe… I know she’s busy and by the way she asked for the address of the church. That’s so sweet of her to think of me even when she’s busy with her career. Then I chatted with Che Kai for a while. Got to know that he’s now a VPFN elect.

Congratulations to him!

Day 3 in Taiwan -- 1st day in Nan He Elmentary School

It was quite nervous of me for not yet knowing the exact time to prepare to be received by the director（主任） from the school. Luckily Che Kai called me up in the midnight to confirm that it won’t be that early. Then, I continued my sleeping. LoL, I can hear that he felt sorry to know that I woke up from the sleep to answer his phone.

At 7am, I woke up. Again, I can’t sleep for more as the sky looked like it is 10am if it’s over in Malaysia. Okay, by the way it’s good for me. =D

All right, then we took again 20 minutes for shower first then we went out for breakfast. We went to the Laya Burger(拉亞漢堡) which is at the front gate of the campus. We had a combo set of 豬肉漢堡 again, with a cup of iced tea, total NTD 55. While waiting for the burger ready to be served, I received a call from Che Kai that the director from the elementary school will be coming to receive me at 11:30am. It was almost 10am. Of course, we chatted in Malaysian English again.

Behind the burger shop, there are plenty of students’ apartments. We were attracted by the design of the buildings.

After breakfast, we went back to Mr. Song’s house to take my luggage. Of course, it took us some time to pull the luggage to the campus and to meet with the director and Che Kai. However, we can still have a clearer look at the street that we walked up and down for the last 2 days. We see again 李奇英文. Haha, from the town to the campus, it’s really annoying la…

Because of the hot weather and the slope, we actually tried our best to be in the campus on time. Of course, sweating! Luckily we arrived safely and punctually. Then, Che Kai showed up at around 11:35 and we waited for the call from the director.

I forgot how long we waited but it wasn’t that long before we received the call from the director that they had arrived at the front gate of the campus. Then, Che Kai and Ming Foong helped me to carry my luggage. Haha… How lucky I am to have all these good people by my side.

It was definitely a surprise for both representatives from the elementary school 毛月玲護理師（School nurse） (I will call her teacher as it’s easier, =P) & 鐘青青主任（Teaching Director）to know that I can speak very good Mandarin. Of course again, I try my best to explain what kind of education I had gone through for the past 20 years in my home country. They went to the bank with me to change some NTD (New Taiwan Dollar), as I had only USD and not much NTD left.

After that, we went to 满福園 , a local Hakka style restaurant which is in 竹北，the school nurse’s home town. She recommended this shop and of course I need not to spend any money over there eating as both of them ran to the counter to pay. At first, I thought of ordering 3 dumplings (水餃) but 毛老師 laughed at me as there’s no one in Taiwan that will order 3 dumplings and the menu there was stated that at least 10 dumplings per order. LoL… I had no choice but to finish all the 10 dumplings. Again, big portion.

Besides that, we ordered a big bowl of 酸辣湯 （sour spicy soup）and Hakka people eat dumplings together with this soup. Both of the teachers, they ordered 炸醬麵. It tasted not the same with the one I ate in the campus. This time the taste is stronger than before, so I can accept it. =D

Then, we depart to the school. On the way, no doubt the views are fantastic and we talked a lot as well too when 鐘主任drove the car while 毛老師talked to me.

We reached the school after around 30 minutes, I met with other teachers and the principal as well. I delivered some Penang local food to them too.

Then Judy, the English Teacher took me to have a look at their school compound. I notice that they have audio video room, projectors in their classroom. All in all, they have newly equipped facilities if compared to my own primary school last time. Then, the principal told me that it’s better to have an English name here if we’re speaking English, and I will be teaching English so it’s better for me to have one as all the students have their own English name too. Normally the English teachers will think of an EngIish name for them. Therefore, I think this is quite different culture if compared to Malaysia. It will still be okay if we don’t have any English name and we will just use our directed translated English name from Chinese name. Of course there are Malaysians that have English names as they are named by their father in the church or their parents. Then, we discussed about the job description. The principal was very cute and polite as he cared for the students’ English as well as my transportation. He said he’s going to buy a bicycle for me. Then, he held a meeting with the director first then with all the teachers to discuss about my job and to introduce me to the fellow teachers. It is a lovely school, no doubt.

Then, I spent some time to chit chat with the teachers talking about the weather in both countries and some languages. They started to know more about me. They especially stunned when they knew that I can listen and speak a little bit of Taiwanese. Great, I could learn from them, I told myself. =D One thing very surprised me is that they have Hakka classes! All right, I told them I am going to show off my Hakka when I go back to Malaysia.

田主任 is the General Affairs or Director in the school. He takes care of everything like maintenance of the facilities and some benefits of the students and teachers. So, he will be picking me up tomorrow from the church to the school as I don’t have a bicycle yet.

Che Kai and 有志 came to visit the school, for as so called 3 parties meeting in LCUSM. ;)

The time they came was the time we’re leaving to home.

So, I was with 鐘主任 with the luggage in the car and both of them was following our car. On the way back to the church, we saw a peacock with a very long tail on the road!! It ran up to the road side when it saw our car. I quickly took its picture. 鐘主任 said this is the first time she ever seen a peacock in this area. So how lucky I am. =D

Then we reach the church and met with 張修女 and 孫修女. It was a little bit disappointing that I can’t online at the church. However, I don’t think it’s a very serious case for me. Just a little bit out of expectation.

After went out for dinner with Che Kai and 有志 nearby the restaurant to eat 臭臭鍋, I came back on my own to the church as they had their own class to attend. Thank them so much for coming all the way long to here.

So, I took a shower and did unpacking of my luggage then I went out for Internet access.

I bought a Pearl Milk Tea at NTD 30 at 85°C, a café that sells some cakes, tea and coffee. Who knows it didn’t provide any Internet access when I asked for the password of the network. I was depressed a bit but soon I got up and walked to the Internet café.

I paid NTD30 for 1 hour Internet service but soon I realized that I won’t get used to the computer there as I have a lot of information in my own laptop so I went back to the counter to ask if I could use my own laptop to online. It was unbelievable that the uncle there said “You don’t have pay for the service if you’re using your own laptop, but you have paid already and it’s recorded in the system now, so I can’t return it back to you.” I immediately showed my gratefulness to him as it wasn’t his fault. I should have asked him about this before I pay. That’s why I was so touched by his friendly service. It warmed my heart immediately from the depression just now.

After around 1 hour of online-ing, I walked back to the church. I have to be there before 10pm as I don’t have the keys and it doesn’t that good if I go back late. They will have to open the gate for me.

Then, I went back to take another shower as the Internet Café is full with the cigarette smoke. I can’t sleep if I didn’t take a shower. Then I took 2 hours time to do some record and blogging.

--Sleep—

Day 2 in Taiwan

It was 7am, Ming Foong and I woke up and we took a shower before going to meet up with Chen Chi at 9:30am at a bus stop in the Chiao Tung campus.

Before that, we went to 阿根早點for our breakfast. I love the 豬肉蛋堡so much! I did the right choice and it lightened up my day immediately. =)) It was NTD 30, which is RM3 equally to Malaysian Ringgit. Haha! It is my habit since I reached Taiwan. It just appeared automatically that I will convert it to one decimal place smaller.

After that, we decided to go the 7-Eleven shop in the campus. See, people have 7-Eleven in their campus!! There are all kinds of food….. It actually took us some time to decide which one to drink. Finally, we chose soya bean. I took the one which is made from golden (good quality) soya bean and Ming Foong bought a high fibre soya bean drink. We walked to the bus stop after buying the drinks. It was 450ml per package, costs only NTD 18!! OMG, we noticed only the serving is 450ml so it took us a long time to finish the drink.

After that, we went to the computer lab in the campus under the guidance of Chen Chi. Haha, they require a pass to go into the lab. By the way, it was nearly 10am. I did some facebooking (XD) and some blogging at the computer lab. It quenches my thirst of going online actually. However, I am more comfortable with my own laptop as I have a lot of installed softwares and got-to-used applications. XD Not to say I’m not grateful, but I’m just nagging… XD By the way, it was a very good experience to be with all the students there using the same computer room. Everyone one of them was busying with their own preparation of lectures, just like me before the semester break. They printed notes, and I notice that there are printers beside some computers to let them to do printing; it was quite different compared to USM which has DAMN cold air-conditioner and with 2 printers that doesn’t need to insert coins. By the way, it’s a bit worrying that we need a matriculation card to scan to get out from the computer lab. Ming Foong was finished with her e-mail checking and she came to me, but I was busying with my 1^st Day half blogging! LoL… So you guys now know that when and where did I actually blog.

After that, we took a number 2 bus from the bus stop (as shown by the direction given by Huai-Yu and Chen-Chi, thanks so much!) in the campus to depart to the Hsinchu town area. Haha! I was quite uneasy as it was long long time ago that I took a public bus to go to a place. Moreover, I had to adapt to the $15 for a bus ride is not expensive enough! Haha… And I had to take care of the coins… $50 is RM5! I really scared of spending the wrong coins. Luckily, Ming Foong was there with me and she lent me her $5 for the bus fare.

I was quite ready with my camera as I knew there will be very typical Taiwanese building appearing. By the way, it took both of us to laugh in the bus as along the 28 minutes bus ride from the campus to the town; we saw plenty of advertisements with poles along the roadside showing 李奇英文. I was so surprised and thinking whether is this the reason that Chen-Chi being called in that way? 李振奇—>李奇Hahaha… Really “Laugh Die Me” …

And after we went to the town, the view in the town with colourful signboard met my expectation. It reminded me again that I actually in Taiwan at the moment. The big clock tower showing the current time, the big junction with zebra-crossing at each side, shops that are “tall and slim” attracted my eye balls. Oops, I really didn’t get used to the all traditional Chinese characters signboards yet, especially those colourful ones.

We walked into a Pearl Milk Tea shop called Coco to buy my favourite Pearl Milk Tea. I wonder did I make the wrong order as the milk tea I got finally was the one without the pearls. Haha… Oh ya, I think this is also the shop that Chen-Chi bought us 百香果 drink (I forgot the exact name, it was 4 characters, hehe) last night when we first met in Taiwan. We then went into the SOGO at the part of the town. It was 12-13 storeys, I can’t remember. Then we spent our time there in the 誠品bookshop to read for 1 hour. Haha, crazy right? But from that moment, Ming Foong and I, we found the similarity between us! We like to read, and one of the aims of coming to Taiwan is to buy books! LoL…

Then we walked along the street and we saw a shop selling CDs. Hmm… we didn’t get to know that it was the shop that actually selling all kinds of things, CDs, stationeries, toiletries, presents and etc. It has 5 floors if I’m not mistaken. The shop is called 光南大批發. Haha! It is the shop that Chen-Chi used to buy the CDs to bring to Malaysia for Christine and me. Then I think the prices of the goods there should be reasonable enough. Of course, I bought a book written by 戴晨志. I like his books and it is RM7-8 cheaper here compared to Malaysia.

After some walking, I started to feel hungry as the Pearl Milk Tea had all been digested. However, I only had my lunch at around 3 or 4 pm. So, you can imagine how full it was to drink the Pearl Milk Tea and again, I can’t finish it all. =.=

Ming Foong and I went into a shop (it seems selling local food, hehe), and I ate 魯肉飯. Actually I wasn’t sure that was it 滷肉飯 or 魯肉飯, hehe… But who cares, I just ate and it costs $30. I don’t know why, perhaps it’s due to my nervousness of start working tomorrow or the big portion of the food, I just can’t finish it all too. By the way, luckily I have Ming Foong all the way long to be with me.

It’s been 3-4 hours walking in the town. Both of us were so CLEVER enough to carry all the way long with our laptops. It made us felt tired!! We made a decision à Go back to the campus online to make the efforts of carrying the laptops worthy.

Again, when we sat at the bench at the bus stop, we see again 李奇英文，李奇英文，李奇英文！ LoL, I have nothing to say but just taking photos and laughing.

Then we went back to the campus by bus 2. =D

At the moment we’re walking into the dining hall for Internet access, we’re so tired. Luckily Ming Foong bought me an isotonic drink,舒跑. It was so nice of her still remember that I don’t like cold drinks.

I got energized up with the isotonic drink. Yay… I think it’s all the laptop and charger’s fault. So, I immediately online after I record down the expenses in my diary. Hehe… (Yoke Ying, it is to report to you)

Then Che Kai again, haha… He greeted me in Skype and came to meet us. We chatted a little and 心凱 was there too. Hehe, 心凱 is actually my TN Manager, another tall guy with 187cm!!!

And after that, Che Kai was heading to his working place in the town for his tuition and I went to Mr. Song’s house with Ming Foong.

It was so nice that I got to know Mrs. Song finally. She is very friendly and in fact Mr. Song is a lame joker with the presence of a cute 11 year old girl from the next door. The cute girl from the next door liked to chat with us very much. She gave us a lot of presents even if her parents didn’t like her to leave the house to visit us. She has a sister who is 17 year old. We greeted and it was so warm to meet the small cute girl. Even though I was tired of walking the whole day, I still kept myself awake so that I could actually talk to her as I know that I will be heading to the primary school (they call it elementary school here) tomorrow for the internship. We played with her treasures – shoes(it’s high heeled!), camera and some stories from Malaysia.

There is another person that I must mention, Mrs. Song. I think she must be very pretty when the time she was young. She told us the affairs that she had last time with a handsome man from Malaysia 30 years ago! Mr. Song became funny with his lame jokes (Hey, KC you have a competitor now! XD). I think it’s due to the presence of Mrs. Song as the night before he was quite shy and the sense was so awkward that Ming Foong and I kept saying thank you when he took us a bottle of detergent.

A good sleep tonight…

-Stay tuned for Day 3-

1st Day in Taiwan

Everything in Taiwan is new to me.

It took me 6 hours of flight from Penang International Airport to TaoYuan International Airport.

It was so touching when I was stepping out the gate of the immigration office of the aiport, I heard my cousin sister shouted my name.

I turn around, oops, it's not around, I could figure out where she is in just a second. Then she was in front of me. She gave me a paper bag. I saw a cup of famous brand Pearl Mik Tea with half-cup full with pearls and 3 tea eggs!!! This is so amazing!! I thought I told her not to come to receive me, and she was there with my favorite foods!

Then I see Che Kai, my project team leader, a very tall guy with 188cm!! He wore the same colour shirt with mine, Red! He is as talkative as the time I was chatting with him online.

During the time we took the public transport to their National Chiao Tung Campus, we talked a lot. It was a very fun chat with him indeed!

We took a bus from the Airport to the HighSpeed TaoYuan Train Station, then we took a train to Hsinchu. We're able to meet another intern from Thailand, Le Hui. Had a very brief introduction with her.

After we went off from the train, we took free shuttle bus from the station to their campus.

From the drop off point, we still have to walk around 10 minutes to reach their campus.

Just imagine, we walked all the way long with 2 baggages!! Thank him a lot for this.

Well, after Che Kai and I met at the National Chiao Tung Kuang-Fu University Campus, we went to the dining hall nearby their hostels after he helped me to locate one of my BIG luggage into another AIESECer’s hostel room.

Then, I just carry my own “precious” bag containing laptops, money, etc and another bag which was draining out my energy for carrying all the way from the Southeast Asia part to East Asia. This bag is 8kg plus. I was quite stunned of the “accuracy” of my own home scale! It was only 7kg!

After we arrive at the restaurant, it was almost 6pm. I was carrying the 2 bags including the Pearl Milk Tea and the Tea eggs by my cousin sister. It’s too bad, I ordered a bowl of 炸醬麵 and it wasn’t really my food. One thing is the portion is big and I can’t finish it all. I was overwhelmed by the feeling of guilty for not finishing it.

After that we met Chen Chi (Jacky), my 1^st interviewed EP. He was there by 6:30pm and another girl from Malaysia reached afterwards. She was accompanied by her TN Manager, her name is Ming Foong, from KL. I was so comfortable to speak with her with our own Malaysian accent Mandarin. From that moment, we started to become close friends and roommates immediately. You can’t imagine how fast it was!

A few AIESECers that showed up on that night are 志群 and 有志. Well, 志群 is Ming Foong’s TN Manager and 有志 is the author of the reception booklet. It was written well and detailed, especially useful for EPs.

Of course, we had chatted a lot and it lasted for hours. Till 8pm, Che Kai was off for his 火棍training. We switched our venue from the upstairs to downstairs. It left only 3 of us. We got online for a while (In fact it was only me to update in facebook that I had reached Taiwan, XD), Jacky and Ming Foong were there chatting. After that, Huai-Yu came to meet us after Jacky phoned her. Haha, she’s fast enough to reach there. We started to talk about the history of Malaysia and the different accent and language usage between both countries. It was again a very nice talk. (In fact, I really talked a lot! OMG~~)

It should be around 10pm if I’m not mistaken, 3 of them volunteered to carry my luggage to Mr. Song’s house. This is the place for me to stay for 2 days 2 nights before the departure to another part in Hsinchu for the real internship.

We walked for around 15 minutes with the damn heavy luggage as I saw Huai-Yu and Ming Foong took turn to carry the “food bag” and Jacky was pulling my BIG luggage which is also heavy enough. Thank you so much for carrying heavy baggage! I wouldn’t be that relax if you guys didn’t help me out. Luggage carrier: Che Kai, Chen Chi, Ming Foong and Huai-Yu. XD

After that we went for a sleep at 12am after a shower. It was quite weird that I didn’t feel any tiredness, and I forced myself to sleep. Zzz....

-To be continued-

有時

有時我沒有把話說明，

是因為我不想打架撕破臉皮。

有時我沒有直接拒絕，

是希望讓你知道你可以改變一下你的請求方式。

有時我沒有反應，

是因為我真的需要一個人的空間。

有時我沒有回你的下一封信息，

是我認為事情後面有很大的誤會沒解決。

有時我好聲好氣和你說，

不代表我真的忍受得了你。

有時我真的受不了了，

那是我千辛萬苦平衡過來才能笑臉迎人面對大家。

有時你覺得我何必這麼憂鬱時，

也是時候想想自己有沒有過這樣的時候。

簡體與繁體

最近和朋友談起了簡體和繁體字。

一直以來，

學校華文老師的燻陶致使我覺得（不，應該是到我認為的地步了）簡體中文就是學得理所當然啊！

我深深覺得身為華人學華語、學中文是非常值得驕傲的事。

這還包括了從小到大在學的簡體字。

學好華文，是我生命中值得驕傲的成就。

這個想法，

在我腦海里已經多少年了。

屈指算一算，

小學一二三年級學的漢語拼音，

三四五六年級學的一大堆成語諺語，

直到中學時期學的名句精華，

沒有人告訴過我為何會有繁體簡體的差別存在。

有時走過街邊看到舊式招牌，

看主流華文報章頭條，

老爸心血來潮寫的心得，

都會覺得那些繁體字那麼似熟非熟。

不禁很好奇中國那塊占了世界地圖有一大半面積的地方，

到底發生了什麽事情造成繁體簡體之分。

一直以來都很好奇。

直到最近有機會和一位朋友談起了這個問題。

當然這位朋友並不是馬來西亞人，

因為馬來西亞人普遍上沒有中國歷史的根基，

說不出個所以然。

不過，

那些修讀中文系或對中國歷史有濃厚興趣的馬來西亞人就另當別論。

因為在馬來西亞，

隨手在街上抓一個來問關於繁體簡體的由來，

應該不會問出個所以然吧！

朋友的一番言論，

讓我開啟了世界之窗。

這一扇窗，

讓我感到很震撼！

原來我一直以來自以為很不錯的華文程度，

師長引以為傲、朋友頻頻稱羨的華文造詣，

相比起來真的微不足道。

真的真的，

很微不足道。

我想了好幾個形容詞，

應該就只有震撼能夠恰到好處地形容我那一刻的心情吧！

我開始發現繁體字的美，

再不被簡體字帶給我的光環給遮蓋掉繁體字的美。

這是我心底深深的感觸，

所以我特別用了繁體字來寫這篇文章。

無論如何，

中文，

不管你是繁體還是簡體，

我都愛。