MozCamp Asia 2012 (Singapore) – My experience in 5 languages: English, Mandarin, Cantonese, Singlish, Korean

MozCamp Asia just finished a few hours ago. ~200 of us gathered in this small rainy and humid city-state, at the Scape (at Somerset) and the Hub just across, and raining consistently every afternoon at approximately 3-4pm was probably an interesting experience to some folks unaccustomed to it. Welcome to a tropical climate!

Anyway, I just thought to blog my experience in the 5 parts, each containing 1 part of a spoken language that I actually spoke. I apologize in advance if parts of the upcoming multilingual paragraphs are incorrectly expressed, but plowing through 5 spoken languages at MozCamp to different communities was an incredibly extraordinary experience that I wanted to share with everyone. The regions in parentheses were regions where people I personally spoke to, actually came from.

Here goes:

1. English (for Westerners/Others): When I first arrived at MozCamp, it had a homely feeling. I studied in Singapore for over 20 years, and after moving to the States for work, coming back was a surreal experience. Was I a local? Was I a foreigner? I just had to adapt.
2. Mandarin (for Chinese/Taipei friends): 很快的，我又遇见了好多旧朋友，也很幸运能够遇到很多新朋友。能够说普通话／国语／中文的朋友不只来自中国大陆或台北市，我也碰到法国和澳洲朋友，能够相当流利地说中文。好神奇的世界啊。
3. Cantonese (for Hong Kongers): 有d活動都幾得意。我特別鐘意我美國寫字樓o既一位同事o既一個活動，session名叫做 “Help the UX Team Understand Security and Privacy Concerns in Asia“. 佢個名係 “Larissa Co”. 依個活動都係幾有趣，好好玩。之後我好幸福能夠認識Sammy Fung，佢係我來自香港o既第一位Mozilla朋友。幸會，幸會！
4. Singlish (for Singaporeans/Southeast Asian friends): And then after that I was vely vely lucky to meet people from Southeast Asia, some again and again these few years. They all very very friendly, make me sometimes miss the times when I was around here. I super enjoyed my time leh, got good local food, got many friend, all vely vely happy.
5. Korean (for Koreans): 저는 한국친구하고 저녁식사를 먹었어요. 한국친구가 싱가포르 동네식사하고 싸다하고 좋다음식을 좋아해요. 저도 좋아해요. Night Safari 에 택시로 갔어요. Night Safari 가 재밌어요.

Note: All of the phrases, including the translations, are off the top of my head, with virtually zero references from anywhere else. I make no guarantee to their grammar correctness / colloquial updated-ness at all. Once again, I apologize if I had inadvertently made any errors.

Note 2: Cantonese and Singlish are largely spoken languages, and as such may make absolutely no sense when written down. Also, Singlish is not exactly a new language of its own, but it’s unique enough to be understandable by folks from Southeast Asia and relatively not to someone from anywhere else / the Western world, so I’ve included it in.

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English version/translation (may not be 100% accurate):

1. ENGLISH: When I first arrived at MozCamp, it had a homely feeling. I studied in Singapore for over 20 years, and after moving to the States for work, coming back was a surreal experience. Was I a local? Was I a foreigner? I just had to adapt.
2. MANDARIN: Very quickly, I met up with a lot of old friends again, and was very fortunate to be able to meet a lot of new ones. Our Mandarin-speaking friends not only came from mainland China or Taipei, I also met folks from France and Australia who were able to speak somewhat decent Mandarin. What a interesting/mysterious world.
3. CANTONESE: There were interesting and unique activities. I especially enjoyed the session titled “Help the UX Team Understand Security and Privacy Concerns in Asia“, by my co-worker also from our American office. She is Larissa Co. This activity was very interesting and fun. After the activity, I was deeply honoured to be able to meet Sammy Fung, one of our community members from Hong Kong, and the first I’ve met in person. Pleased to meet you!
4. SINGLISH: After that, I was very lucky to be able to meet people hailing from Southeast Asia. For some, it was a case of meeting up again these few years. Everyone was very friendly, indirectly causing me to miss those days when I was in Singapore. I definitely enjoyed these few days, with lots of local foods and many happy friends.
5. KOREAN: I went to dinner with Korean friends. Korean friends like local, cheap and good Singapore food. I like it too. Went to Night Safari in a taxi. Night Safari was interesting.

Addendum: There were times when I would get confused and mix languages up. e.g. Speaking Singlish to a community not accustomed to it, or Chinese to others. Rectification usually took a few seconds/minutes.