merry melody

Today was one of those days you would look forward to, purely because it was something new for most of us. Having known each other for twenty one months, we have listened to each other’s voices and are mostly aware of how we carry ourselves about in school and outside of school. Day in and day out, you hear yourself and your friends complain about their school work, unreasonable teachers and engage in mindless banters. Guileless opinions about each other are made too, just to poke fun at one another. We hurl sarcastic remarks at each other, knowing full well that they are entirely out of good fun and are not meant to be taken seriously. To put all these in simple words, we have gone through almost everything from deep down to
the upper most within these twenty one months, so much so that we do not find it embarrassing to disclose our own weaknesses.

The karaoke session today with a bunch of us classmates was a testament to that. Carol, Alicia, SY, SH and me decided to treat carol as well as ourselves to a time of fun, doing something most of us don’t normally get to do in front of each other. Save for the occasional random singing from Alicia during chemistry tutorial and my very interesting harmony with SH singing Amazing Grace during a walk to the MRT, I have not heard these two’s singing voices. (Well, singing the national anthem and the school song do not count because for girls, unless you are born with naturally high voice, you will end up having to sing falsetto) As for the other two friends, I have heard enough of SY’s voice to tell that she’s got quite a sweet high voice to go with the Chinese songs she sings, while carol is probably one of the best singers in our class. No doubt about it.

And so the singing session started off fine, although I just find it weird that some of them were pretty shy about singing first, or choosing songs from the song library in the system. But I guess since it was the first time singing karaoke together, everyone’s just a teeny bit jittery about how they would sound on the microphone, and having to sing in front of people who barely hear your singing voice. Despite this, all of us managed to overcome whatever modicum of shyness within, and sing our hearts out together. I guess we bonded over the love of singing and although there were only two mikes, everyone had a fair share of singing time.

It was pleasant hearing these friends in their singing voices, especially for SH and Alicia, and watching the way Alicia and SH get overly excited and emotional while choosing and singing their songs was funny. I remember the two of them getting all perked up when they saw some of their favourite songs appearing in the song catalog, as if they’ve just won a million bucks just looking at the screen. Although I must admit I was a bit bored at first having to listen to a bunch of unfamiliar Chinese songs for the first time, but when you’re there sitting with your friends and trying your best to follow some of those difficult, and fast moving Chinese characters, it can only get increasingly enjoyable. Because of them and their almost accurate and in-tune singing, I managed to learn the tunes of some Chinese songs. Carol and SY wrote the title of two Chinese songs they sang, which I’ve requested.

Having grown up in an entirely English-speaking family with myself already being the best in Chinese, I’ve never ever listened to Chinese songs on the radio and so the only miserable few Chinese songs I know would be the ones my friends recommend me. A girl I met online was so eager in spreading her love and passion for Chinese that she even took the effort to send me a couple of Chinese songs over msn. Subsequently, she would send me emails with the Chinese lyrics posted in them. Amazed by my friend’s enthusiasm, I started listening to them over and over again, trying my best to read the lyrics and follow through. Man, they were many characters I didn’t even understand and it would be too troublesome to look through the dictionary for the meanings and so I gave up trying to sing them. Nevertheless, they were really good to listen but that’s just about it, they only served as songs I can only appreciate because of the good vocals and catchy melodies. In other words they were songs that held no meaning to me and so as a result, my interest in Chinese songs faded quickly over the years.

However, I’m glad today’s session made me realize how far am I in the level of competency with regards to the Chinese language, as compared to my other friends. I mean, having to sit amongst these particular friends today who also happen to be remarkably proficient in their mother tongue, it is evitable for me to feel the stark contrast between people like me and people like them. But it was because of this vast difference, I became more aware of the fact that my Chinese sucks (for the lack of better words to say) and I can just feel it deteoriating. It becomes even more apparent when I find myself struggling to find the appropriate Chinese words to explain myself or request for things when conversing with Chinese vendors. Whatever I need to do to improve my Chinese, I just hope there’s still enough time for that.

Of course, apart from the litany of Chinese ballads mostly by JJ Lin and Stephanie Sun, we sang quite a number of English songs as well. With carol being spot-on with her beautiful harmonics, all the English songs we sang were wonderful. Even some of our attempts at harmonizing turned out pretty successful and overall, this session was truly an eye-opener and an amazing fun time.

Wow my friends today really surprised me with their singing. It was much better than I’ve expected. Though the set lunch which came with the k-box package was utterly unbearable to swallow, today was a blast! We should have more of such sessions more often!