On Polishing the Mandarin

When I was in Taipei last year, we went out to the Peace Park nearby the conference venue. It was a clear afternoon where all the Taiwanese came out and play. Mothers brought their toddlers out for some outdoor activities. Old married couples hanging out in the park. Or some old gentleman or lady just sitting on the bench enjoying the afternoon sun. It was after all, winter time.

See, as much as I don't like paediatrics, I do love active toddlers. I thought they're cute. Those cheerful happy wiggy woobly doobly gaga doo... But of course, I don't like to play with them. I just like to watch them entertain themselves.

So I took a shot of this little toddler running around on the grass while his mother sat on the picnic mat. I turned to look at his mother and gave him a smile.

"Very cute son."

"Thanks. You're not local are you?"

"No no..."

"No wonder you have that big camera."

"Haha.. yeah."

"I mean, you're from other parts of Taiwan?"

"No no, I'm from Malaysia. I'm here for a conference."

"Oooh... Okay. Malaysia. Wow. But the way you speak is like a Taiwanese."

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA Flattery! Considering I haven't been speaking Mandarin for ages, I'm surprised I picked up the local slang quite easily. Although I kinda hate it that they have a lot of suffixes in all their sentences.

对啊！没有啊！是啊！有啊！

Many 啊s.