“Hey guys, where are going?”
“We’re going for a holiday.”
“That’s great. Where to?”
“Oh ya’ know… Phuket, Bali, Singapore, Thailand.”
“Hey… kam mon, this is we-shit mesia year 2007, we must all support we-shit mesia year!”
“Oh yeah man… let us all go to Ipoh, Penang instead”
“Yea yea… let us all we-shit mesia… let’s go to Subang!”
Something like that… heard of it? No disrespect to hitz-fm or the morning crew, Rudy and JJ but…
Now I know how our country is going to achieve the targeted 20 million visitors. Hey you… did you go to Ipoh lately? You just contributed to the number of tourist in this we-shit… I mean visit Malaysia year campaign. Oh… that nuffnang gathering in Penang which attracted quite a number of KL bloggers, you have all just contributed to visit Malaysia year 2007.
Ok ok … maybe I am being a bit too critical of it. But one thing I must ask is WHY… WHY… WHY each time a person is supposed to portray Malaysian in a radio advert, they will put on some broken manglish? WHY? Another typical example is the advert asking us to support our local football team. For goodness sake, it’s vi-sit Ma-lay-sia and not we-shit mesia.
I know some of you all are supporters of manglish, but really, is this how you want to be portrayed?
Oh well… it’s Friday after all, and we should all be happy. I am not actually, I have just finished my half year reporting to London and the tax filing is due so the modern slavery life is going to be worse than ever in the last 2 weeks.
And oh… just to tickle everyone’s thoughts a bit… time has always been a peculiar thing in this blog… can anyone tell why?
Updated: Oh, a very big word of thanks to AhPek from AhPek.com for featuring me in his blog. What an honour... !
Happy weekend!
P/S: Go vote now if you haven’t done so.
79 comments:
hey modern slave, hope yr eyes are no more painful nor itchy.
time? peculiar? got peculiar meh? u just like to put the leng numbers of your 'posting' time only wat... lemme 'survey' a bit first and see...
have a relaxing weekend, slave...
haiz..nowadays,if dun speak mangliah,ppl will think tht u r an arrogant person,not frenly,bla bla bla....in order 2 fit in,hv 2 succumb 2 peer pressure...hahhaa...gosh,i intimidate ppl coz i use porper eng..hv 2 use broken eng instead.. :(
Not exactly flattering, but, the truth is yeah, majority of Malaysian do speak Manglish. No, I'm not condemning, just stating the fact. :-)
I think Singapore has the same stigma with Phua Chu Kang English. lol
hmm.. i noticed that i dislike myself speaking in broken english too... cos when i land in singapore, the first language i heard is the typical singaporean english.. no offence but i just prefer british english.. it sounds more... professional? just a thought of mine...
yea, I do agree that the use of manglish is widely accepted here...but maybe that's just because it's become so much of our malaysian culture that we do not think much of it, and just use it in our everyday life..
What a coincidence! In fact, I just complained to a friend today about the advertisement we see on TV and hear on radio. 80% are spoken in Manglish!! I kinda sick of it already. I thought I read somewhere in the papers that the Govt. had given a strict rules that there should be no more Manglish on adverts? They banned overseas adverts (like the Pepsi ad I love - Pink, Britney & Beyonce doing the We Will Rock You) because they're giving way to our local ads. And now what do we get?
"Mrs.X, this thing very good you know.. can clean the whole dust away wan.."
Voted. Time? I don't get what you're saying. Err.... today's Friday the 13th?
Oh yeah... Angel's right. 12:34, 11:22, 12:34, 1:11... what's with the 12:34's man?
I guess they think its fun and it may be for a start but then when you think of it and all their children or even our children invents this new language called manglish then it not that fun but being made fun of
They just do not see and will not learn bout it
Where is Mrs Ramani when we need her
wanna know more about 'time', read elegant universe by Brian Greene.
we cant blame them coz they r from bolihland ruled by bulleh fella...
its quite degrading to view m'sians that speak like dis..end up we are encouraging our youngsters to speak alike..no good no good..
hmm still tryin to guess what firm u workin @..hmmm hmmmm
Don't forget to we-shit the parliament house. Then we-shit Putrajaya.
How's the eye, zewt? Hope the infection has not been acting since you have to "slave away" at your job for the next two weeks...
Manglish is one of the reasons why our local grads are at a disadvantage when it comes to working life. Can't speak properly, can't write properly... *rolls eyes* But that's just for working.
I don't go all properly British when I'm hanging out with my friends because in a way, I have to fit in with them. But it's ok too because they will come to me when they need help improving their English, so it shows they are willing to learn. :o)
There's hope for Mesia still! *wink*
time ar..cos nobody's getting enough!
visit msia? with all the crime rate going up? more snatch thieves? rude service? super expensive overcharged taxi fee?
nahhhh
See, if we speak normally, people mistake us for pretending to speak like an ang-moh. I reckon people liken Malaysia to really bad English then :p
Happy Friday the 13th! :)
you know ah? zewt is making me starting to dislike fridays *pout* every friday also give me headache. cannot lah, brother. why is time peculiar? because when we read zewt's post, it seems to go on and on and on forever??! hahahaha *still avoiding zewt's glare*
ok, don't ask me why my name appeared as 'kaypo' instead of 'me'. i've enuf headache.
OH YEA FOOTBALL TEAM AS WELL....WHY THEY SUPPORT MAN-U OR LIVPOOL INSTEAD OF THE LOCAL TEAM.....GOD KNOW WHY....:S
ahahhahaaha~~~~
(I always speak in manglish too.. -__-")
Ehm, cos manglish sounds farny....more acceptable to most malaysian....
They wan more ppl agree on them, "we-shit mesia", oh...yayayaya....we must "we-shit mesia"
I understand them lar!!
Yaya....we should "weshit mesia"...
Be it english,manglish ; i would prefer to call it intonation of pronunciation. It be wise to get the original perfected else one might ends up in embarrasing situation, what comes out of the mouth stays in the mind.
Link an example..haha~
lastly..skip the accent *ain't Ang Moh, people will thinks that you're snobbish* part, just good english will do.
I have no opinions about manglish. But one thing for sure when I am overseas I can definitely point out either a singaporean or a Malaysian when they speak english or even mandarin. We tend to have a slang and if you add a "-lar". It is like "Oh boy, I miss Malaysia!"
What's about time in your blog? Confused with that statement
peculiar time ? what's that la ? where got ?
Manglish and Singlish. Haiyaaa..
Yes, we can know whether he's Malaysian or not once they open up their mouth. Easy!
We-shit mesia, LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL.
Got that after a re-read. Brain slows down to a crawl on Good Friday.
Eh wait, it's Friday the 13th! Dang, should have stayed at home... LOL
i hate manglish..and i hate malaysian radio djs who trying so hard to be and sound funny..who will always scream Hohooo!! wtf????
i hate local djs..maybe Tim from Red104 is the most okaysh.
i dun speak manglish..i dun even speak english.hmm?
i hate love and i love hate.
. . . I said Good Friday . . . typo . . . but Friday is always good. TGIF!
let's we-shit malaysia ya...
haha, it could be changed but it will take lightyears.
since it's kinda like a part of malaysia's cultural, most malaysians would not have the enthusiasm to make a change.
SIGH!
i don speak manglish very well (according to my lousy friends) but i do enjoy manglish though. i think if that is what a malaysian language is, then i don see a problem with it. :)
just like every country have their own slang, and they're proud of it.
like in aussie, we say ta to mean thank u, and it has always been that case! and aussie speaks with a weird pronounciation, like an i instead of y and sometimes an o before any vowels.
if that's the language of the country, then i think it's an identity in a way. :)
AND OH! HAPPY FRIDAY!!! :D
From a linguistic point of view, Manglish isn't broken English. It's just a variety of English that is part of Malaysian culture. In Britain itself, people in different parts of the country have their own slang and accent and sometimes when they converse in their local dialect, you may not even recognise that they are speaking English! Just like over here some of the Malay spoken in various states may differ greatly from the standard Malay taught in schools.
Generally, most people are able to speak a colloquial version of the language which we use in informal and casual situations. But we also have a more standard form of the language which we use for business and formal occasions. We tend to switch back and forth between the two depending on which is appropriate. If I were to talk the way I write, I'd end up sounding very stiff and aloof!
I would hazard a guess that radio ads use informal language because that's how we would normally speak with each other as friends. Also, more people may identify with it coz the majority of Malaysians do have some grasp of Manglish even if they can't speak standard English. Of course, the ad is exaggerated to attract more attention.
Marketing and advertising people have to think about target market. Again I would hazard a guess that they are using local language and culture since they aim to appeal to locals. If it were a campaign to net foreign tourists, I'm willing to bet the conversation would have been recorded in standard English.
i fucking hate it when people on the radio talk like theyre from kampung on purpose -_- what, are they supposed to be funny or something?
Actually i was thinking of going for a holiday with someone. but the fact that i try to think so hard and still canno figure out a place to visit scares me. Visit Malaysia year 2007? common, sleep early everyone.
Cameron Highlands? what's the different from sleeping in a fridge with load of ugly scenes? same..
How about Tioman? fine, water and what else? again nothing. why not just swim in your bath tub for 2 days?
the truth that 'they' want us to visit Malaysia, they need to come out with something nice, build infrastruture, build 'beauty scenes', and of course learn english!. Not just stupid slogan "visit Malaysia Year 2007" and then leave us with what to visit???
Yes we are blessed with plenty of resources and probably natural beauty, but what else? The tourism industry is so bad that they did not change a single thing since....errrrr 1957? look at Dubai? They were once sand and just sand ground and where do they stand now in the eyes of tourism?
Look at Hong Kong, they can come out with symphony of lights and fireworks EVERY NIGHT in victoria harbour. Look at many other places, they dont sit down and think of what slogans to come out next. ACTION, and for whatever sake, not slogans.
Why are we doing so badly is because so many minis*er can think of stupid ideas and the people around can only ampu bodek saying "bagus, bagus", says it all. How I wish someone could be daring enough to say, "Bagus kepala otak mu".
oh please...."Wake up wake up Malaysia 2007!"
angel - that's the one lor... i just like nice timing... weekends will not be relaxing i think.
kyliemc - agreed! i once speak proper english and that fella asked me..."can you please speak properly ah?"... WTF...
Helen - to a certain extend, it's an identity. but not when it actually affects your ability to converse in proper english.
water_angel - like i told helen, being accepted is one thing, when it affects our command of english, that's another issue. and i think there's a difference between manglish and totally broken english.
cindy - and we all wonder why "mesians" cant speak much good english anymore. just so stupid... i think.
cirnelle - i just like nice timing... :)
in reply to jaezrel
"OH YEA FOOTBALL TEAM AS WELL....WHY THEY SUPPORT MAN-U OR LIVPOOL INSTEAD OF THE LOCAL TEAM.....GOD KNOW WHY....:S "
Gosh, dont talk about Malaysian football. They will one day rank 300 in the world. They can only beat Malaysia reserves team. Din you watch how we got trashed 5-1 by China last week? din anyone tell you that we are last on the table now in the asean cup? football.... oh please. Thank God I support Tottenham Hotspurs
Can't stand the mangled English too! Although I quite like the -lah after the sentences...
But anyway, I suppose it's alright for peers and buddies to speak in Manglish, as to avoid anyone from sounding too arrogant or whatever, however, the media should use proper language...
Agreed, agreed! What's wrong with speaking proper English? Do people seek it as a form of bowing to our previous colonial masters?!
I don't know why people who speak proper English are labeled arrogant either!
zeroimpact - well said my friend... fun and being made fun of is 2 totally different thing. hahaha... mrs ramani will certainly sit on them!
kok jin - boss, i know you're very intellectual ler... :P
ah nel - we all are... but we choose to be different instead right?
constant craver joe - my current one of my previous one?
kata tak nak - hahaha... plenty of shit around eh?
rinnah - my eye is feeling much better now thank. the puss have all been "eliminated"!! well, i speak with ppl from london on a regular basis here so my british english can creep into my daily lives... sometimes la. but i admit, manglish is fun... but not when we wanna portray ourselves.
As I am a lowly educated, I am learning my english everyday by reading blog everyday.And throught blogging I am now very very proud to say I have add new word to my english language. For eg. I now know the meaning of the word:- KNN,CCB,KNNCCB,RTFM & so on.But I haven't learn how to use them yet. Perhap some reader here can help me? TQ TQ.I always wellcum coment on my sites so that from mistake I am learning.
Have a nice week end.
huei - ahhh... u didnt get my question leh? visit no... but mayve we-shit eh? haha...
tine - yeah... that's a very bad thinking. i think we should ignore all those comments and speak the way we want.
kaypo & me - yeah, why suddenly kaypo and why suddenly me? my friday frolics is supposed to be stimulating ok... haha...
jaezrel - why you buy clothes like MNG and not local brand?
guaisaujai - hahaha... maybe there's really a hidden message eh?
=Sin= - but then again, how do u define good english, more often than not, good english is too foreign for mesians... hehe... i guess cutting out the lar and having good pronounciation is good enough. no?
Princess Eileen - yup... timing is peculiar... it's confusing... can u find it in this blog? :)
alan zed - got... some managed to detect it already... :)
Angel Eyes - the question is... do we wanna be identified with such... particularly with bad english?
jonzz - 13 or not... i just like fridays! hahaha... yup... TGIF...
jorji - i think you're confused man... hahaha... maybe the failure of the malaysian team is getting to you :P
baby sa - ya...we all wanna be mesians instaed of malaysians... sigh. we must first change ourselves lor..
ehon - i get what you mean... but then again... how come the DJs dont speak as such...? when they do their time... they will put on their 'accent'. i just dont like the fact that malaysians are always being portrayed as speaking poor languages.
ireneq - i read your comment and may i conclude that it is the manner in which you write formaly in your work? you're right, if you were to speak the way you wrote your comment, i would think ppl will just give you the stare.
i agree with you on the notion that marketing does thrive on creating a sense of appeal to audience and certainly, saying things like we-shit mesia was very appealing indeed. but i just dont like the manner in which a malaysian is being portrayed as one who always speak broken english.
further, using it as a dialect is one thing, but we all know it's creeping into many of our lives and we dont need to be reminded of the number of graduates who are profficiently converse in english. i think the most important thing is that... not many of us can switch back and forth.
TTL - i guess so... they wanna be funny. but not to me. they just appear to be silly.
ahjohn - good point bro... as always. we certainly need to buck up in order to attract more tourists. but then again, you and i know that those M just couldnt be bothered. they are more concern about their pocket more than anything. like i said... grass, anyone?
as for malaysian football... die la. that day i was watching the china game... just when malaysians can string 5 complete passes for the first time... the commentator said..."malaysian menguasai permainan"... that was like after we're 3 goals down... menguasai permainan... i wanna puke!
terra shield - i couldnt agree more. the media, of all ppl, should promote proper english. for goodness sake, it's not a movie.
pinkelle - if we think we are bowing to colonial master due to speaking proper english, then we are just plain stupid. having said that.... we bow down to them almost everyday... indirectly... in different aspects of our lives.
hor ny - HAHAHAHAHAHA... those KNN, KNNCCB, LOL and all... i also learnt them all from blogs. i guess that's the beauty of bloglish... heh heh!
timing...peculiar timing....aiyah dunno lah...i just know that you seem to like to post during 12.34, 1.23, 11.22, 1.11, 11.11, 12.12, 10.10 .......all nice nice numbers one...
as for the manglish...when i really can't stand it, i'll switch to listening to the chinese stations, even with my limited mandarin and cantonese!
so sleepy now...cant wait to go for my dance class!
hope your eye is better zewt!
Wah.. must be cool being featured! :)
They even do that for Singapore sale or visit Singapore with Phu Chu Kang. I think Manglish will always be synonymous with us lah. Whether we like it or not.
of course we don't want to. we just need to brush up on the language. no more 'lah' or whatsoever in the future.
i remember this Malay proverb, Bahasa menunjukkan bangsa
Manglish is funny when not insulted.
Have a happy weekend ahead. :)
I like to think that I can switch comfortably between English and Manglish. I believe that it is the very nature of languages that the way we speak or use them is affected by our culture, and with time, colloquialism takes hold. It is the same way we do not speak Bahasa the way Indonesians do, or Mandarin the way Taiwanese or Chinese do.
It is a false assumption that the British speak "standard English", because they really don't. People from different part of England have different words that others will not understand, and the Scots may as well be speaking in another language altogether if you are not used to them. (I'll not even cross the Irish sea here.)
I do believe that the media should use standard English in certain situations, like in news reports.Advertisements are an entirely different issue altogether and in this case, I believe the target audience was taken into account. This particular advertisement is targeted at Malaysians, and the use of Manglish (terribly exaggerated one too) attracts attention and allows the target audience to better relate to the advertisement. There has been various advertisements about Visit Malaysia Year 2007 shown abroad and at no point while in the UK did I come across any use of Manglish in Tourism Malaysia's advertising campaign.
I may be wrong but this is just my observation and hence, my 2 cents worth. :)
You serious??? They use Manglish for our advertising campaign?? OMG!! Why are they doing this?? I never listen to Malaysia radio for a very long time liao.
spot on dude .. these adverts sometimes very annoying. it shows disrespect to ur country ... darn it .. bird brains!
shit man! they really say malaysia menguasai permainan ah? guess what?
I am in china now la. and i am watching from a chinese TV perspective.
They shouting like they are playing with idiots. they say things like, "another goal"....
yeah, i know another goal...
I agree with Irene way up there...hehe...and I think Manglish is fun...but yeah...if we use it a lot,we may lose hold of our proper English...thankfully,I can comfortably switch between the two...hehe...but the thing I really find weird is why is it if we speak proper English they'll relate it to being snobbish?...that's so out of context dy...as for hitz.fm and Rudy n JJ...no one mess wit my fave DJs ok...hahahaha...
Zewt: Glad your eye is better!
Yes, it's easier to learn the colloquial dialect rather than to learn standard English. This is partly because we normally learn the colloquial form first -- that's what most of us speak at home (if we grew up in English-speaking families) and with friends.
We tend to pick up standard English through reading, watching the news on tv, and in school. That's why in general, the more highly educated tend to have a better grasp of standard English. I know that sounds arrogant, but we can't escape the fact that language is closely tied to socio-economic class.
Remember the musical "My Fair Lady"? Professor Higgins claimed he could pass her off as one of their class simply by teaching her the right way to speak. Of course she would need to dress differently, learn etiquette and all that other stuff, but speech was key. Because if she were to speak like a Cockney, she'd immediately be identified as one the minute she opened her mouth, and then she would look like nothing more than an imposter dressed up in fancy clothing.
Perhaps that's why we feel that the usage of Manglish portrays Malaysia and her people in a bad light. Because we associate the colloquial speech with the lower classes, and it's not considered "proper". We are afraid that people will think us backward and uneducated... therefore not capable.
i did my part in we-shit malaysia 2007 at the start of the year
I don't really like the way they "promote" the Manglish culture, but what to do? Some people do feel proud about it. And yeah Zewt, just to inform you that http://cedricang.com does not belong to me and someone has turned it into a porn blog using my identity. So watch out if someone uses that address to comment. :) Cheers and see you around in the gathering later! :)
I don't dare speak Manglish here in Sydney. they'd just look at me funny and think I'm alien.
may: hehe agreed~ :D speaks only 'classroom english' if it's not in the book.. don't voice it, can't go anymore wrong than that :X
haha...posted sumthin related to Manglish...
http://marg.wordpress.com/2007/07/14/speak-now-or-forever-hold-your-peace/
I agree with Terra Shield. "... the media should use proper language..."
When I was growing up, my parents always corrected me when I threw in a little Manglish. My dad used to say, "if you can't speak properly, how do you expect to be taken seriously?"
Apart from parents checking me, I turned to news (and even ads) on TV or radio (in the 70s and early 80s) to learn more.
A family friend was down on a holiday not too long ago. He heard an ad on radio and said to me, "These guys talk strangely. What are they trying to say?"
That is just one foreigner left in confusion. Visit Malaysia? Maybe they should start re-educating those who are hell bent on using Manglish as a way of life.
It is okay to use Manglish while joking around with friends and family (I am flexible there) but not to portray a nation with that?
Ask ourselves, "will we be taken seriously internationally"?
i notice angel is always the 1st to comment whenever i open ur comment box. most of the time. hehehe....she is ur chung sat fansi,can u autograph for me so that i could sell to her?
have a goodweekend friend tmrw i wee-shit one utama to contribute my part to the economy.:)
Oh dear.. typo.
I meant to say "It is okay to use Manglish while joking around with friends and family (I am flexible there) but TO portray a nation with that?
lingzie - dance class? hmmm... what dance class. wah... change to the chinese station... that's really like... up to the limit right? your timing discovery is correct.
anigma - yeah, it's quite a cool feeling to be featured. true... we will always be associated with it... but doesnt mean we will have to like or proud of it...
Angel Eyes - i think it's much more than doing away with lahs though i admit it will certainly improve our language a whole lot.
day dreamer - and... do u think it was insulting there?
YeePei - Hi there! i get where you're coming from, that this is nothing more than an advertising gimmick. actually, i was just quoting an example, becos i think the usage of manglish has gone a level where there should be some level of respect.
here we are complaining about our lack of proficiency in the english language and at the same time, we are not exactly promoting good english but rather trying to make fun our ourselves by incorporating an identity that not many of us are proud of.
last but not least, a scottish can speaks scottish when he attends interview in london and still get thru... see if a graduate do a full blown manglish when interviewing with a MNC... i hope u get where i am coming from.
purple mushroom - yup... they use it to a certain where i think it's getting quite stupid.
cibol - more importantly, it disrespect those who can speak proper english.
ahjohn - yesterday... we lost 0-5 to ezbekistan... sigh.
mar - hahaha... fave DJ or not... if they do something not very nice... have to tegur a bit la. read my reply to yee pei, think u need to read that.
irene - yeah, manglish is something usually viewed as of lower class. not that i agree with that point but we all should drop the thinking that speaking manglish means we are malaysians and speaking proper english means we are arrogant and trying to be western.... though the line can be pretty blur.
as for colloquial form of english... i believe we need to drop that for formal things, and our manglish is very different from british kinda colloquial... say scottish. like what i told yeepei above... a scot can attend an interview in london... speaking absolute scottish... but if a malaysian uses full blown manglish at an interview with an MNC here.... i think the result will be very much different. dont u think?
Wuching - me too... i went to PJ...
Cedric - ohhh... someone actually hack that deep!! shit... it's damn dangerous here! oh... i didnt attend the gathering... was tired.
may - hmmm... so speak english with the lahs and mahs or aussie english? :)
=Sin= - hmmm... you're also in aussie? damn... the whole world is in aussie! hehe...
mar - i will check it out tonight :)
JT - some of us here are saying that the advert was targeted mainly to malaysians. so back to my original point... we are contributing to our very own visit malaysia year?
on the latter point... oh.. i have got one experience... when i was in uni... me and my fellow malaysians were speaking in english amongst us the whole time... a brit was with us the whole time... after our conversation... the brit said... "your national languague is very interesting"... and he meant it.
Winn - my autograph worth nothing wan la... hahahaha... let us all keep we-shitting all the places in mesia... so that we will contribute much to the economy! :P
Zewt: Oh, I agree that we should speak standard English for formal or business situations. It's true that many Malaysian graduates have a poor command of the language. I attribute this to 1) not reading enough and 2) not using the language. To become proficient in the language, one has to use it often, or one will forget. Also, hearing or reading will sort of "condition" a person to recognise the right sort of grammar and sentence structure, to the point that you can subconsciously "sense" whether a sentence is right or wrong. Very few of us are aware of all the grammatical rules, but if we are proficient in the language, we can tell when something is not quite right.
The problem as I see it -- birds of a feather tend to flock together. So the Mandarin-speaking friends tend to gather and speak Mandarin to each other, likewise Malay friends tend to gather and speak BM to each other. They only use English if they have to, for example if they are speaking to someone outside their circle. Thus they have very little practice in speaking English and they are also not in a position to absorb and learn by listening to others speak.
I on the other hand tend to speak English with my friends, and therefore don't get the chance to practice Mandarin and BM -- so my command of both those languages has gone down the drain. Essentially, I face the same problem, but mine is not as obvious because I rarely end up in situations which call for a good grasp of Mandarin or BM... whereas English is used everywhere, every day, in the business world, so much so that if you cannot converse well in it, you end up handicapped.
See zewt...."thats mean manglish no gud wan? ".....
Whoever came up with this: thats mean instead of saying "that means" or "meaning"....definitely has a big following in msia.
Now, have u been we-shitting places around recently?
I don't find Manglish any nicer than Singlish. Why can't Malaysian just speak proper English when it comes to certain occasion.
I'm on your side...
Hey I have contributed my part as a Malaysian to bring a group of French to Malaysia during the visit Malaysia year.
As for the Manglish, why can't we just treat it as another accent for the English language? Why when an American say: "I ain't like it" we can accept it as southern accent? When I told my Singaporean friend about the Singlish, she said that is the the English speaking in Singapore, there is no rule saying that everyone speaking English has to speak like the British/American is it?
Now that I'm in France, I discovered so many accents in French. I always told my husband that this French pronounced this word wrongly, and he just told me that is just another kind of accent. And the French asked me to not speak like them bcos they like my accent!!
I'm pro speaking the Malaysian style English.
well this leads to a question...
what the point about manglish??
personally i think manglish is part of malaysian identity, and using it to portray malaysia is a friendly way to address the message to malaysians. of course we don't use manglish to target at foreigners because they don't understand a shit bout it, but to use it to encourage malaysians to vi-shit malaysia, personally i think it works :D
come to think of it, australians speak english too, but when the americans step to australia they can't understand them so well neither. so can you say australian english is "wrong"? it's just localized to fit the context of the culture thats all :)
and if that's true, there's no such thing as "proper english" neither, because everywhere in the world speaks english very, very differently. no? to me there's nothing wrong with manglish. nothing wrong with singlish neither. it's just malaysia. :)
Irene - oh yeah... the birds thing... certainly very true. i think it all bogs down to the desire of that person... whether or not he or she wanna improve. sadly though... i think many just think that as long as they can get the message thru... they are fine. but that's not exactly the case in this current competitive world. one question... can u speak a mother tongue?
Manal - manglish... i admit i speak it sometimes, and that i dont even realise it. of cos, manglish is one thing... broken manglish is another. that's what i think. hha... have not been we-shtting anywhere... might head to taman negara.
jessbabe - hi there... welcome to AZAIG. thanks for being on my side. well... i think it's a predicament... speak good english and you will be branded as arrogant... speak manglish and you're being stereotyped...haha... life sucks. guess balance is everything.
Bee - true... but again my argument will be the same as my reply to YeePei above. an american can use words like "ain't" in his interview with a british company... can a malaysia all the lahs and mahs and other manglish elements in his interview with a british/american company?
conan_cat - and again... check out my reply to Bee above. but i get where you're coming from.
zewt - to find out wat dance class...visit my blog...its in there somewhere! :) happy monday!
Zewt: The mother tongue is dying with my generation coz all my dad's siblings except for two married spouses of different dialect groups. They are an English-educated generation so their common language was English and all their kids (ie. my cousins) ended up speaking English from the cradle. So yeah, I don't speak my mother tongue :(
My dad sent me for Mandarin classes when I was in primary school. I once asked him if he regretted not teaching us the dialect (Hockchiew) but he said no, it's not useful, better to learn Mandarin. Not that my Mandarin is all that great >.<
Hockchiew is the most tongue-twisting dialect I've ever come across. I can do bits of Cantonese and Hokkien but I give up on Hockchiew!
I hate adds like that.. some of them are funny and make u laugh.. but at the same time, we dont seem very professional to the outside world & visitors. I think the main reason why these radio station does stuff like these is to 'get the attention' from our people and get the message across. Also, if u remember the radio message, that means they have acheived their goal.. :)
lingzie - got it... belly dance it seems.
irene - well... if u can speak mandarin... than i think it's good. dunno if you have read my entry long long ago titled Chinese A... B... C... i strongly suggst u have a peep... and a few entries which followed.
Russ - oh yeah... they certainly got my attention. and you're right... the fact tat i remember the ad... means it's a darn good ad...
lol..i'm back in Malaysia..i m not exactly in the happy mood too..
lol..zewt..tht person actually ask u to speak properly?lol..tht's so funny~ u r speaking properly but s/he doesn't understand :P in the end, u hv to speak properly
neno - why la... just think of the world championship.
kyliemc - indeed... that's the way it is here... and it's really a shame.
lol!!!!!
the ad irritates me like hell. i'm going to blog about another irritating ad when i've got time to breathe. ;-)
time to bash some heads in... (no, i mean... time to we-shit the toilet)
kekeke..yeah..now my mood begins to pick up..see u in world championship then..kekeke..still haf not got the approval from dad though..kekekeke..
Angie Tan - hahaha... do it do it!!!! how was your we-shit to all the places?
neno - i am sure he will give la.
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