Hypocrisy maybe the word

I know my Cantonese is very poor. Not being able to read or write is, at times, a matter of shame being Chinese. Yet I manage to get by in normal day life. The only problem or piece of humiliation is when I have to order dishes in a restaurant, leading me to dine at establishments with pictures of their dishes in their menus or where the menus are in English. I do get a lot of grief from people around me, especially nurses, who tell me to learn Cantonese properly so I can advance my career. Doctors are a little bit more sympathetic and patients find it amusing. A lot of people, especially nurses, tend to correct me about my pronunciation or grammar.

With that said, I don't even attempt to correct people's use of English, even though I might have a standpoint since English is my first language. I hate it when Chinese people always say "Thank you 你", which literally translates as "Thank you you". I cringe when people say words wrong such as "mechanism". I tend to believe the quality of English used nowadays have deteriorated, thanks to the Internet, text messaging, online chatting and emails.

I don't think anybody has a deserved right to criticise anybody else on any matter. The only position where somebody can comment on somebody else's action or words is if they themselves are experts in that area or have experience in the field. I don't like it when sports commentators or journalists criticise athletes or players on their performance. It is OK when you are a former player criticising a player about the sins of diving, since you know what it is like to play against cheats.

I never say to patients, "I know how you feel" even though I have been a patient. It is their body I have no idea what they are going through. I do hate it when my doctor friends say, "I know what you are going through. I have been through psychiatry..." I really want to say at that point, "If you know how to drive, do you know how to drive a racing car or know what Michael Schumacher is going through when he drives that Ferrari F1 car?" No of course you don't. It is just better to say, "I'm sure what your going through is difficulty..."

Recently I have been suffering from hypocrisy from my parents recently. I tend to be on the internet a lot, mainly gawking at babes. I have been told by my parents to cut down on this. With this said, most of the time my mum and dad spends on the internet using Facebook applications, such as a farming game and mahjong. I find it hard to take their advice of cutting my use of the internet when they spend most of their time on the internet as well.

It is so much easier to criticise when you have somewhere to stand from.