Cultural Awakening: in the beginning

Zou San (good morning in cantonese)! I did it! I started my blog. For most people, it would have been a no brainer. Not for me. As a stay home mom (no maid, no parents or in-laws for help), it's been a uphill struggle for me to even keep awake sometimes. Especially this year with my daughter in Pri 1 (why must school start so eaaaaar-ly... yawn). Anyways, here i am... let's go go go:

This blog started because of a cultural awakening I had about 2 years ago. I asked my daughter (4 yrs old then) who (what race) does she think she is. She told me she was 'ENGLISH, mommy'. I was dumbfounded. And very ashamed. But could I blame her? I do not live with my parents or in-laws and spoke mostly English at home. Even my parents spoke only English to her then. My in-laws are Hainanese but I didn't see the need to teach her the Hainanese dialect. I'm Cantonese (dad cantonese and mum Hokkien) and have also taken my own cultural dialect and roots for granted.

This blog chronicles my days educating my two kids about their dialect and in turn, shedding greater light on me as a Singaporean Cantonese/Hokkien (and now) Hainanese Chinese. I've taught them quite a bit these past two years now. It took two months to get my dialect-speaking engine started (I lapsed into English countless times). From then on, I switched easily from cantonese to english to chinese (amid a few hiccups). I've still got LOTS to learn. I hope that you readers (anyone out there?!) can help me and in turn, my blog can help you in your cultural journey.