Kuala Lampur, July 6 -- When Mum chose to enrol me in an English-medium school in 1963, I faced the biggest challenge of my life as my class teacher was an Indian woman.

As I spoke only a couple of Chinese dialects, we could hardly communicate with each other but it didn't take long for us to break the communication barrier.

Why did Mum choose not to enrol me in a Chinese vernacular school?

As fate would have it, I fell in love with Mandarin movies and songs during my teens, heavily influenced by my Chinese-educated friends.

It took me at least two years of constant practice, singing along and copying down Mandarin song lyrics, before I could finally pen a simple Chinese letter to my mother years later.

I felt incredibly proud that I...