Putrefy

One of my daily routines is to go to our dialysis unit and have a look, and it often ends up with a brief casual chat with the nurses.

"You know, PL is not very happy today," a senior nurse reminded me after our chat on a recent occasion. (PL is our senior consultant.)

"What's up?"

"Alas, he wrote a short article in Chinese for a newspaper - or magazine, I'm not sure. He gave it to LM to chip in some additional details, but LM replied and commented that the Chinese was not up to the standard - or, really, merely Chinglish."

LM is our nursing consultant. By the way, I'm sure she didn't know the article was written by PL himself.

I shook my head. On the way back to my office, I asked myself, "Is there anyone around who could write reasonable Chinese?"

Suddenly I realize Chinese, as a language for communication, has putrefied quickly without notice - just like all other cultural heritage of our country.