这是我多年来第一次用中文来写作。感觉有点怪怪的。（热爱中华文化的人可别揍我哦~）
This is my first time writing in Mandarin after many years. Feel weird. (Those who are lovers of Chinese Culture, please don't beat me up!)
中学时候我很喜欢中文，一直都是用中文来写作。那时我还投稿去星洲日报，赚了不少零用钱。
During secondary school I loved Mandarin, been writing in Mandarin too. I also wrote some articles for Sin Chew Jit Poh, earned quite an amount of pocket money.
十六岁以前我不喜欢英文。三年级的时候因为不会拼写Wednesday被英文老师刮了一巴掌后就很讨厌英文。当时我觉得这是个老外的语言，学习英文等于是对自己文化的背叛。
Before 16 years old, I disliked English. When I was in standard 3 I got a slap by my English teacher because I was unable to spell Wednesday. From then on I hated English. I felt that it's the Whites' language, and learning English is equivalent to cultural betrayal.
十六岁的某一天，我在书房里看书的时候，突然心血来潮地翻开了一本英文小说。那是别人送给我的。我很喜欢看书，但是我从来都不买英文书。
One day, while I was reading in my study room, out of a sudden I just open an English novel. It's a gift from another person. I love reading, but I'd never bought any English books.
翻开一看就看上瘾了。里面有很字我看不懂，我还一个一个地去查字典，而且越查越上瘾。
Once open, I got addicted to the book. There were many words that I didn't understand, so I checked them one by one in the dictionary, and got addicted to it too.
就是那次之后我开始看英文书。那时看英文书的速度极慢，有时候因为要查字典看一页的小说要用上半个小时。久了之后就越看越快，因为很多生字都学会了。
Since then I started to read English books. My reading speed was quite slow. Sometimes in order to check the vocabularies I need to spend at least half an hour on a page of novel. However, after a while I read much faster because I learned many words.
我当时才发现，原来英文书那么好看，选择那么多！
I realized that English books are so nice to read, and there are so many choices!
到了上大学的时候，看英文书的机会就更多了。大学的图书馆共三层楼，什么类型的书都有。我常常都会在那里闲逛。没记错的话，那时我们学生可以借三十本书。我借书都是十本十本地借。
When I was in college, I had more opportunities of reading English books. The college libray is a 3-storey building, and there were all kinds of books. I always hang out there. If I'm not mistaken, during that time a student could borrow up to 30 books. I borrowed books by tens.
就这样，我越来越少看中文书，越来越少买中文书。越来越觉得还是英文书比较好看。
Gradually, I read less and less Chinese books, and bought less and less of them. I began to feel that English books are nicer to read.
突然有一天我发现自己想讲中文的时候竟然得先在脑海里用英文想好，然后再翻译去中文（但是写这篇文章我是一直在迫自己用中文思考，不过一不小心还是会用英文）。
And one day suddenly I realized that whenever I spoke Chinese I need to first think in English, then translate into Chinese (but I'm forcing myself to think in Chinese while writing this post. But I once in a while slipped into English thinking unconsciously).
英文的侵蚀能力的确很强，竟然可以在短时间内取代我用了十多年来思考的中文。现在用中文来表达自己的思想对我来说是有点困难，很多中文生字我都想不起来了。很多字我也不会写，只会打（我还是用五笔来打的，不是拼音哦……）。
English is a highly corrosive language. It could replace Chinese, which I'd been using for 10++ years. Now I find it difficult to express myself in Chinese. I couldn't remember many of the words. In addition, I don't remember how to write them, I can only type them (I'm typing with WuBi, not PinYin......).
我爸爸常说：“不要忘本哦！”但是我对他说：“不如你去学英文，以后我就和你说英文吧！”结果他去报名学英文。
My dad always told me, "Don't forget your root!" But I told him, "Why don't you learn English? Then I can speak with you in English." Then he enrolled himself into an English class.
很奇怪的是，现在我看中文书的速度还是比看英文书来得快。
Weirdly, I still read Chinese books faster than English books.
在教会里我常常当翻译员。把中文翻译去英文很容易，但是把英文翻译去中文对我来说有点难，常常都会想不起适当的中文字。
In the church I always helped in translation. Translating from Chinese into English is easy, but the other way round is quite difficult for me. Frequently I couldn't think of the suitable Chinese words.
就像写这篇文章 ，我用中文想了很久，但是翻译去英文却不费太多的功夫。
Like writing this post, it took me a long time to think in Chinese, but then translating it into English doesn't take me much effort.
我想我已经是一半的香蕉人了。哈哈！不过，下次我还是会尝试用中文来写的！
I think I've become a half banana (a word that is used to describe Chinese who couldn't read/speak Chinese). Haha! However, next time I'll still try to write in Chinese.
