Sunday 21 December 2008

You know you’re an Au Pair in the USA when…

Recently joined this group in Facebook. The points below are so appropriate and applicable. To let you know more about the lives of au pairs in the USA, I decided to post this in my blog. Of course, not all the situations are true for all au pairs. This depends very much upon the kind of host family you have and the family situation they are in. I would say that about 60-70% of the points stated are true for me. The point about napping…oh, so true! Ha!

You know you’re an Au Pair in the USA when…
…you always introduce yourself with : ‘Hi! my name is (your name), I’m from (country) and I have (number of children you are taking care of) children!!’

…everybody is greeting you with a ‘Hi.How are you?’
and you can’t respond fast enough, so you say it first!
…the worst thing is, when the dad is working from home
…you know what a S’MORE is
…you spent all your money at the MALL and you still have nothing to wear
…you hate Dora, The Wiggles and Thomas
…you say silly instead of stupid
…you go to PLAYDATES
…you’ve seen more movies in one month than in your whole life at home
…you drive over 30 minutes to a friend and you think it’s not far
…you only have other Au Pairs as your friends
…you can make bacon
…you say ‘like’ and ‘totally’ every three words
…someone has asked you stupid questions like:
- ‘do you have cars in your country?’ - ‘You don’t have Valentine’s day?’ - ‘Where is your country?’
…you don’t think it’s wrong to have cake AND ice cream
…you park as close to the store as possible so you don’t have to walk even one yard too far
…you cherish moments of silence more than ever before
…you notice yourself saying ‘GOOD JOB’ a hundred times a day
…you wonder why you slept the whole night long so uncomfortable and you notice the next morning, you slept on a barbie, a lollypop, sandtoys etc
.…you need to be creative to find new punishments because a time-out doesn’t work anymore ;)
…you have to admit to mistakes you never did or put the blame on you day for day
…you’re sure you don’t want own kids within the next 100 years
…you know now exactly how difficult it was for your parents to have little kids and you feel like saying thanks for all you’ve done to your mum and dad every day
…you’re ready to drink anytime of the day
…you start to love disney movies again and can copy every passage of them
…you’ve learned what it means to be patient
…you know what a LCC is
…you know that you should never SHAKE A BABY !!!
…you take a nap after you drop off the kids at school(even though you just woke up 2hrs ago :D)
…you are DRIVING to the busstop to pick up your kids, which is only 200 meters from your house.
…the kids call you mum cause you spend too much time with them
…you think $160 every weekend just for shopping and coffee are not that much
…one cup of coffee doesn`t make you awake anymore, it just makes you alive
…you or your friends are KELLERKINDER!!!!
…you miss the good ol’ days when you were able to go to the bakery and get real bread w/ real butter (not that American shit called bread..haha)
…you don’t walk into the bank, you use the drive in to get your money
…you use Purell instead of washing your hands
…instead of singing songs from the radio, you’re singing childrens’ songs

Tuesday 16 December 2008

Andy Lau’s Wondeful World Concert is really…wonderful

Went to Andy Lau’s concert last Friday Had a great time! Although I went alone, all by myself, I surprised myself by having a very, very good time there. I think the main reason was that I sat next to some cool fans like me and they allow me to be able to express myself in the concert. Had been a long time since I let myself open up so totally and so freely. I screamed myself hoarse, sang together with Andy and just enjoyed being an adoring fan. Andy is just so handsome and charming beyond words!


Well, everytime I see Andy Lau in person, I find myself falling in love with him all over again. It happens everytime. It is very different from watching him on tv or in movies. Seeing a person in person really makes the difference. Me, being a person of extreme fantasies and imagination, will often fantasize about what will happen if I had really see Andy in person, i.e I’m able to touch him and he’s able to touch me. I’m too proud a person and I like to think myself as extraordinary enough to not want just a touch. I want to be more than just a normal fans, like so many thousands of fans around the world. I want wish that I can be someone that if I do meet Andy in person, he would remember me. Positively. That’s the key. I don’t want him to remember me negatively, like the fan who committed suicide because her family disapproves of her affection for Andy. I want him to remember me in a positive way and not think of me as an ordinary fan. Anyway, it’s all in my head. Never would happen. Well, the world in my head often is the key to helping me survive in the real world.

Thursday 11 December 2008

Confused about language

I have been in contact with a lot of people lately. The latest one was with an American Korean. He has a localised American accent and when speaking with him, I discovered that I’m able to speak good English too. It also always amazes me whenever I hear Chinese/Asian children speak English in perfect American accent. This is the same for K and B. Whenever I talk to them, it sometimes makes me sad that they speak American accented English effortlessly but struggle with their Mandarin, which is their roots.

In my previous post, I mentioned that S came to S’pore recently. Whenever I talk to her, I struggle whether I should switch to my American accent English or just be myself and speak in my Singapore accented English. It was no problem when we were in USA, because everyone around us are having the same accent. In S’pore, I always feel so phony if I try to speak American English.

Now, I realise that I can speak English in three ways. One, I can be super Singlish. Most of the time, I do that when I talk to my very close friends, i.e, my best friends and friends from church and their children, especially to the children. Those children, influenced by their parents, speak very Singaporean English. If I try to speak good English to them, I don’t think they would understand me.

Second, I speak better English. This is when I try to leave out the ‘lah’s, ‘loh’s, ‘leh’s. I also try not to have a flat tone to my speaking. I heard from a friend while in USA that the reason why people can’t understand Singlish is because we speak too fast and we speak with a flat tone. This second type of better English is when I talk to my English-speaking friends, i.e, people from work or friends from JC. These people are all still Singaporeans but they don’t like or don’t speak Mandarin well.

The third kind would be too try to speak in American accented English. I speak this when I talk to my host family, to my overseas friends or to people from Western countries. I enjoyed watching American shows partly because I like how natural to them that they can pronounce their words correctly with all the ‘th’s and ‘r’s. When I try to speak American English, I do get my tongue tied sometimes and even misplaced my ‘r’s in some words but you can make up for it by highlighting the tone of your sentences. Just be more animated and not have a flat tone, then the words would come out right.

A friend recently told me that when I first came back from the States, I had a bit of American accent when I speak English. I didn’t realised that myself. I did struggle with myself whether I would want to speak proper English when I came back but it’s very hard to do that without sounding totally phony and being fake. I also didn’t want my friends to think I was being snobbish too.

Anyway, after my travels abroad, I really dislike people who can’t speak good English. Not that I look down on them, but the biggest turn off to me in a guy has become that he speaks in Singlish. I have always been the quiet sort who doesn’t speak much but I’ve always known that I can write better. But a guy who can’t speak good English when the occasion calls for it, needs to brush up on himself. That being said, I’m not saying that I’m far superior in my language skills. Just that I’m proud to know the difference between good bad ones.