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		now chinese school holds a special place in my heart simply because i wasted so much time there and as a side benefit came away from there with a complete demoralization of my perceived chinese speaking skills and reading skills (i'm still not totally ashamed of my comprehension skills). it is odd (though probably true for all second generation kids) that as a young child i probably had a pretty decent pronunciation and working vocabulary of chinese, but through years of limited use (i almost feel bad that my parents didn't force me to speak chinese), it has become the piddling force that it is today. the 12 years i spent in chinese school didn't exactly help thwart the attrition at all, in fact after each year; i could feel my vocabulary and pronunciation slowly slipping away. nowadays all that i'm left with is being able to form basic sentences about sleeping, reading books, watching tv, and going to school (well i actually got around pretty well using just those 5 words). plus, making chinese school all the less worthwhile, cheating is just accepted at chinese school. ordinarily (at everyday school) it would be abhorred and shunned, but there it is just accepted. i mean the teachers don't mind, the parent aids don't really mind, and almost all of the students don't really think twice about it. of course i am being somewhat to very hypocritical, i too, have cheated on occasion, though i'm not particularly proud of it. but hey not letting things apply to oneself is what ranting and generalizing is all about. so chinese school is a time and place that i view as a missed opportunity (although i don't really know if there even was very much to learn there). but perhaps i will have a resurgence of chinese pride and attempt to learn the language in earnest sometime in the future, instead of the meandering, half forced attempt at learning it of the past.