Describe about my father

     My father is Lin Sin Cheong who is Chinese born in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He is a descendant of Hokkien, the ethnic subgroup from Southern Chinese. He can speak Hokkien but he never teach his children to speak in informal dialect, he only speaks in Mandarin, formally accepted in educational school and often internationally place first in the list of languages. Because of my father, I feel fortunate that I can speak well in Mandarin and when I studied aboard in Taiwan, many Taiwanese cannot recognize that I am foreigner as I can speak the standard mandarin as well as them.

    When I was young, under the age of 12 years old, my father was a carpenter, even though he never learn about architect, he made many beautiful and strong woven rattan chair, basket, sofa and etc. He just graduated from elementary school, but he can write a beautiful handmade calligraphy, he taught us how to write the words by ink pen, I got a reward from my teacher once I wrote the calligraphy when I was 11 years old in school. I felt proud of my father.

    After I was 13 years old, he changed his career to become newspaper vendor. He got up earlier at 3am to collect the newspapers at news center and dispatched them everywhere around our living places until 9 am to take a rest at home. Regardless his low salaries, he gave us allowance around $3 dollars a day to all of us to buy a lunch at school. In my memories, $3 just only can buy a meal, there is not enough to buy a drink or snack after buying a meal, therefore sometimes I will save some money by skipping a meal or buy a cheaper lunch to buy ice cream or sugar. Once upon a time, I stole some money from my father's pocket and he was furious with me. He beat me very hardly and his hand turned to be red, I felt regret to do the wrong things.

    He likes to simplify his life, he wore very simple shirts and short pants, ate the leftovers after we finishing our meal. He barely had enough money to pay our school fees and electricity and water bills. He never eat expensive food or wore the luxury goods, but he regularly donated money to church for giving thanks to God.