Frankly speaking.... the introduction of Chinese characters in
sgforums has me feeling sucky.
I was the only non-Chinese in my class for four years straight
(Sec 3 to JC2).
I get reminded of the times when my classmates would all speak
Chinese when we're in a group... and I would end up feeling left
out and marginalised, wondering whether they're talking behind my
back or something.
Likewise, the possibility that I may get left out of discussions
(or at least, be unable to follow them) in sgforums for the same
reason doesn't sit well with me.
Sigh.... maybe I'm just being selfish. If a lot of people
benefit from it, then I guess it's not really my place to complain.
Oh... sorry... 
We'll try not to use them here but if we do,
just ask us what it means and we'll just translate for you.
I'm sure you know by now, fudgie, that we mean you no harm in
here and anyways, you're a part of our group already!
I had a recent falling out with my Filipino colleagues at work
for a related issue. One of them, whom I had considered my
friend, started to distance herself inevitably by chatting in
Tagalog all the time with a new Filipino female colleague.
That new colleague brazenly spoke loudly in Tagalog in the hospital
ward, pissing off quite a few Aussie patients and colleagues, but
no one has lodged an official complaint. Anyways, this friend
of mine had been very stressed out for weeks and one day, she
snapped at me because I reminded her to do something essential that
she had forgotten to do in her haste. It was bad enough to
have her shout at me but then, what made it worse was she turned to
another Filipino colleague and they both started to criticise me,
in front of me, in their language, with a great display of emotion,
none of them seemingly positive! 
That was the ultimate last straw for me and
since then, I've distanced myself from that group
deliberately. That's it... trust broken!
Oddly enough, a month prior to the incident, I had a feeling
that things will come to a head and I had a strong instinct that I
will lose her as a friend. So when this happened, I was sad
to see it end, but I wasn't taken by surprise.
Fudgie, hope you'll understand there's no animosity if we forget
and break out in our mother tongue out of habit in here. It's
usually in jest.
