I’m really embarrassed about this, but here goes: Hi, my name is Lionel and I’m terrible at Mandarin.
No, really. I’ve had endless tuition sessions as a kid, I took my AO-level Chinese exam twice, but when people talk to me in Mandarin today, I still end up looking like this:
So when the girlfriend asked me to go for a play entirely in Mandarin last week, I was like, “Naaaahhh I think I’ll skip this one out.” Unfortunately, my girlfriend is also the toughest negotiator in the world, so I ended up going in the end (I know right, totally standing my ground here). The play was titled Fat Hope and the description said, “Inspired by a Chet Lam song, this Chinese language play is a light take on self-criticism and social issues.“ I settled into my seat and prepared for 1.5 hours of boredom.
But ......