I watched a debate at the Cambridge Union. Halfway through her speech, I realised that one of the speakers was an Australian. This is how I recognise fellow Aussies: I don’t notice an accent. Only when I notice that I feel completely comfortable listening to someone speak, do I think, ‘He /she must be Australian!’ This is a much slower process than pinpointing people’s English, German, American, Chinese accents.

My mum says that I speak Chinese with an Australian accent.

When I saw Indian people selling clothes and food in a Taipei station, it occurred to me that there must be people who speak Chinese with an Indian accent.

On that same trip to Taiwan, I went to Hualien Ocean Park, where I watched dolphins performing. As the dolphin trainers called out to the dolphins, I started laughing: ‘Those dolphins speak Chinese!’