Improving my Chinese...

Last Thursday, while Elaine was still here in KK, and i was post call...the 2 of us 'ah lians' went to K Box again for our Chinese tutorial..hehe..guess we didn't have enough of it in Miri...we asked Suet Lai along but she only came for a while...so the 2 'ah lians' who can't really read Chinese were singing Chinese songs for almost 4 hours..with only few toilet breaks in between...Elaine commented that we can open a concert already...yea, we'll just fill in the blanks (i.e. words we can't read) with la la la...

When i was younger, i went to sekolah kebangsaan where the teaching medium was Malay language and second language was English...so i never had formal Chinese education...my only exposure to Chinese lessons was when i was in kindergarten...even back then, learning Chinese was a nightmare to me...i couldn't remember the characters that were too complicated...well, for me that is...coz even 我 (me, I) was too difficult for me to write...yea, i'm that dense...

But about a year back, i started listening to Chinese songs on Chinese radio...so i started to learn how to sing Chinese songs...initially i had difficulty looking for the lyrics in pinyin form...then Kok Wei introduced me to an add-on in Mozilla Firefox called Chinese Per-akun....it's a very useful and convenient tool for me...coz now i can use it to read chinese...and then i found a website www.mojim.com which i think, has a non-exhaustive list of lyrics of any Chinese (or even English) singer you're looking for...that's how i learn the lyrics to Khalil Fong's songs...now i'm widening my scope to other singers also...as to improve my repertoire the next time i go for karaoke again.. hehe...

Don't ask me why the sudden desire to improve my Chinese..i mean i've lived almost 2/3rd of my life knowing only very rudimentary Chinese and i've never had much problem...and it's definitely more difficult to learn Chinese than French..but i guess it was time to dig deeper into my roots...i am Chinese after all...

So anyway, this is the lyrics of a song by Michael Wong 光良...the title is 'you shou bian'...or right hand side...i love this song..very touching...I'm going to attempt to translate it as best as i can...

静静的坐在　你的身边　还会有多少　这样的时间
(Sitting quietly beside you, how much more of such time do we have?)
我要迎着车窗外的光线　牢牢的记住　你微笑的侧脸
(I want to welcome the rays of light from the window, remember firmly, your smiling face)
＊我说了离别　不会伤悲　这是我对你　唯一的欺骗
(I said our parting will not cause grief, this is my only lie to you)
　因为我最喜欢你的双眼　那么美　不适合　掉眼泪
(Because I really like your eyes, so beautiful, not suitable to shed tears)

＃你要好好的去飞　不需要对我想念　我会默默的留下　右手边的座位
(You must go on and fly, please don't miss me, I will silently keep the seat at my right hand side)
　有一天　当你看过世界　再决定　你降落的地点
(One day, when you've experienced the world, and decided your place of landing)
　而我也会继续的　奔驰在这长长的街　左手边是我的心　右手边没有谁
(And i also will continue to run down this long road, at my left hand side is my heart, there's no one on my right hand side)
　为了你　再寂寞我都可以成全　因为我相信　说过了再见　一定会再见
(For your sake, i can bear this loneliness, because i believe, we've said see you again, then we will meet again)