Our resident siuyeh from the previous post, otherwise known as the brother, is also known for his selective hearing (and comprehension). His first language is English, and especially now that he is finally speaking in sentences and can communicate (read: argue!) with us, he is speaking more than ever. Come to think of it, I miss those days when he was silent. But that is an evil thought.
So, back to the subject, selective comprehension. He picked up Mandarin on his own through watching TV, which is a considerable feat when you take into account that #1 he is ADHD with speech problems #2 he doesn’t attend regular classes in the mainstream school and #3 his teachers use Malay and English to teach him. But miraculously, this kid, who can really pick up anything as long he puts his heart into it, has picked up Mandarin, in both the written and aural part of it.
But he just flatly refuses to speak Mandarin to me and my sister. nuh-uh. We’d tease him and he’d proclaim "I don’t want to speak Mandarin, I want to speak English." Same thing goes for Cantonese, which we use at home as often as we use English. He understands some Cantonese but refuses to use it as well. He’d proclaim that he didn’t understand what we were talking about.
So just now, my mom was shouting to me, in Cantonese, from downstairs: "Do you want to have lunch now?"
"YES!"
That didn’t come from me!
Selective comprehension, indeed.
