The last time I was in London, I was a student. Most of the time, I was with my uni-mates, who were mostly Malaysians and we hardly mixed with the Brits. To a certain extent, I experienced London and yet, I didn’t experience London.
This time round, it is totally different. So far, I have only met 1 Malaysian since I touched down 4 days ago. He was my friend and we went to Chinatown for dinner yesterday. Besides that, I have been dealing with Brits, Indians (they are everywhere!) and a Pakistani.
It has been 4 days since I used the word ‘la’ in my daily conversation. The English accent is beginning to sink into me and honestly speaking, I am trying to pick it up. Seriously, if you speak Manglish, the Brits will just look at you and say… “pardon me?” I have been enjoying speaking good English. Those who read AZAIG long enough will know I am a supporter of good English.
The weather has been cold, but not cold enough. I can still walk around wearing only my shorts in my apartment and I actually woke up in the middle of the night feeling rather… warm. The winter usually picks up towards end of January and I hope to see some snow by the time Jules gets here.
A first hand experience on the working culture here has been an eye opener. I have heard about it talking about it, I am sure you did too. But how exactly is it? Are they really laid back and all? Will certainly be blogging about it very soon.
Finally, groceries shopping and cooking has been fun… thoroughly enjoying every bit of it. I know, pictures right? Not for this entry, pictures will be coming real soon.
62 comments:
glad to know that you are settling down well over there :)
i'm gonna soak up like a sponge on all your working experience stories over there :)
as for pictures, yes, i'm still waiting :D
glad to hear you are coping fine...:)
Working life is definitely much much more relax in the UK... but I am not too sure about the finance line though which you are sorta in it.
But just looked at those people working in Canary Wharf, they have their over time at one of the stretch of pubs and restaurants in India Quay. So I think it is as laid back even in this line.
Wake up feel 'warm'???? I look forward to ur pic! Have a nice day!
ohhhhh jules is going there too? sweet!!! =D
the last time i went uk..was..in 1993..15 years ago! heheheh
did you pee in your pants when you woke up feeling... warm?!! Haha! Kidding!
Anyways... good to read your posts about life over there... as a working adult. Keep it coming dude!
I love London, somehow it reminds me of home, well at least much more than the states.
zewt,
Never been to UK. I wonder if they can understand my English with the
Kelantanese twang. Hopefully I wont have to ask for Seven Eleven convenience store when I am inally there. Definitely feel great to be able to maintain some semblance of good written English though.
Glad to know that Jules will be going there too.
Keep em coming zewt. Words are good enuff for me.
Yea, i heard too tat there are many indians in london..i wonder why..lolz...
actually one ting tat im not particularly fond of is the british accent...dunno why but i cant really stand their accent..hahaha...but im sure when u r among those ppl who speaks gud english, u also will tend to follow along n will just dismiss the usage of manglish..isnt it so?
neway, enjoy ur working experience there . my fren said UK is nice to live in..she alwiz reminiscing her liverpool days..hahaha...
Once, after a very long and tiring flight to London, I thought I would grab a quick sandwich at Pret-a-Porter before snoozing off at dreamland. And so to Pret-a-Porter I went. The lady asked if I wanted my bread toasted, and without thinking, I said, "CAN ALSO!"
I almost died of embarassment! The lady had a very puzzled look on her face, naturally.
Quickly I said, "That'd be nice, thank you very much!"
Of course, I dashed out of the shop as fast as my tired legs could carry me as soon as I paid up.
Manglish. So not for the Brits. And anyone else around the globe.
*hi5 to the advocates of good English*
mom would be proud. :)
I miss the kebabs and petit pois!
So do u walk or u need to take the public transport to go to work? Is this like a more permanent (contractual) move or just part of your old company's training trip?
If u see those buses like 70, 7, 52, 94, 9, 10, 23, those are the buses i frequented.
By the time Jules arrives, go to those places where u get lotta daffodils, white and yellow. And if u r in barbican, walk up a bit all the way to petticoat lane in liverpool street and brick lane (banglatown). N St.Paul Cathedral is just less than 2 miles away.
Same here, during undergrad years, i mixed around with more malaysians and just a few brits, mostly classmates but when i was in my phd years, i self-proclaimed myself the citizen of the world (and still am, always will be), with frens from all corners of the world including msians and the locals. Variety is what colours our life there!
Oh well anyhow, all the best in the new working world! I still have some years before I join the forces of slavery! hahahaha
i think i would like to work there as well..it would be definitely quite coool..got go bayswater roast duck??
One of my friends used to work there for a long time. Told me lotsa stories about London. How cold the weather was...how going everywhere was mostly walk walk walk..and the public transportation is really good. Stuff like that..How is yours going so far??? Can't wait to hear your stories :p
sounds like you are settling down there :) enjoy and savour the experience dude! can't wait to see more photos and read stories from you..we will see some london - kl comparisons post soon heh? working attitudes, environment :)
Glad you're enjoying yourself. :-) Honest, would like to see some pics. :-P Well, will wait for you to load them...
Video! Video! Video! (I'm not letting u forget that!)...U woke up feeling...warm? U mean, on heat? LOL! Jules, get here...right now! (Isn't that a song? Oleta Adams?)
Yup, London, Birminghan, Liverpool, Manchester...all full of Indians (I heard they were the Bangladesh refugees who moved to England when East & West Pakistan broke up into today's Pakistan and Bangladesh). Even the whites...a lot of them don't speak English among themselves - must be from the continent.
The problem with many Malaysians is they hang out among themselves...and even though they're there, they miss out on a lot of things! They don't actually experience what it's really like. I was in Plymouth (plea-mirth). Loved the place, the people, the pubs and they loved suituapui too! Ha ha ha ha ha!
Never been to London before. I wish I could one day! And.. looking forwars for your pix!
p/s: Indians (they are everywhere!)- LOL!:D They are having a big population crisis over there!
i love brits music and muvie.
they are better than the Americans.
i love morrissey.
which football club near to yr place?
chelski?spurs?fullham?assenal?
yeah.pixs plis.and my jersey size is M.or any Cantona teeshirt is fine with me.
TQ.
:)
Most of the manglish I speak now is in blogland!! Aitelyu, anyone trying to read us sure die wan.. :D
Hub's opis has mainly angmohs and keh-ling (from yan-tou) yan. Automatically when with the angmoh, I speak like them. When with keh-ling yan, I oso speak like them (with a bit of head movement too!! :D ). Then when I meet up with mah-lai yan, it's bahasa campur..
And it's strange how everyone are malaysians here but at home, we are either thong-yan, keh-ling yan or mah-lai yan...
good to know u're having a blast there ;)hmm i never knew cooking for urself can be fun, at least not for me :)
hey i've always thought the Brits take it easy. They can even go shopping in the middle of the day, at least thats what i saw :P
*in my best Brit accent*
"Would you like to have a cup of tea?"
Sunshine - hahaha... plan to come over eh?
myop101 - not complaining at all.
mrbherng - definitely nothing compared to malaysia. this is going to be a hot blog topic.
Hor ny - yeah! hehe.
huei - for hols?
F.O.N. @ frostee - definitely will... no peeing though.
Kopi Soh - home? wow...
zawi - well, i took some pics and will certainly post it up real soon. some visual is always good.
missironic - well, indians are really dominating london i tell u... they are everywhere. hard to find whites here. have to go to the country side to see some gwai lo.
Lil' Ms Pinky - that is a direct translation from cantonese... "do tuck la'... right? hahahahaha...
mistipurple - i am sure she will... though she doest like the idea of me leaving the country.
Oscar Lover - hello... welcome to AZAIG... i will try some soon.
manal - i am less than a minute away from barbican. went to st paul to take a tube to chinatown the other day. not too sure about bus, i prefer tube. office is 5 minutes walk away...
Melly - take your time...
constant craver joe - not yet... will rest assured... I definitely will! haha...
supergirlfriend - next week i will talk more. i have only been here less than a week... cant say much right?
bongkersz - hahahaha... definitely! that's what AZAIG is all about!
Helen - coming up soon...
suituapui - video later la. plymouth... sounds very far from here. yeah, malaysians should learn to mix around.
puvanan - hahahaha... you guys are taking over london mate!!
j or ji - arsenal and totenham are pretty near.. but i wont go la...hehe... hahahaha... let me go to MU first.
kat - goes to show that we are masters in blending in... right?
Sharon - they took leave in the midst of peak period... goodness!!
Giddy Tiger - english breakfast please...
In university you'll hardly get to speak the proper english although you're in oversea....
I'm planning to study in United States.. hopefully my English will improve :P
:) innit cute to get them all just looking at u when u say, 'i know what i'm saying la..' hohohoho
How long are you going to be in London for? Is it for quite some time then?
Yes, the Indians!! There's this town I went (can't remember if it's Edgware), wah liao... I felt like I was in Bollywood... :P
ps: Have you been to Angel? ;)
I even put the 'lah' when i speak in German. Sometimes it doesn't feel right without the 'lah', for me at least. Haha! Now my hubby is following my way too. It sometimes confuses people, that's why i'm trying to change it..
Can't wait to read about your working environment there :) Would be really interesting
er... "supporter of good command of english", i hope u dun mind me pointing out the fact that u've made a grammatical error and a spelling error in the first paragraph. first one shud've been ".. we hardly mixED" cos u were writing in the past tense, and it's "to a certain extenT", not "extenD".
peace.
Awaiting your photos! Hehe.
You'll come across Eastern Europeans, Aussies, Yanks and Spanish speaking poeple from South America real soon if you hang around in the streets! See ya soon!
Lol. I had been mingling with too much Brits that I can't even talk in Cantonese or Mandarin feeling so weird.
I'll be down in London again this weekend, I hope the weather's not rubbish (like right now here).
Working experience? 'Nuff said.
So is the grass really greener.. let us know.. And, yeah Indians are everywhere. Sometime, I'd like to work in UK too. US I have worked in. Looking forward to reading more on your blog.
wow....ok...i've got to watch out for my english when i'm there...ekeke..
vickie - the secret is to mix with the locals... stay away from malaysians...
Ah-Bong - hahahahaha.... i have to say.... it's good.
Mummy - about 2 months.
angeles - nope... but i passed through it the other day.
seokthong - hahahaha... i rather keep the la away.
Wow, you're in britain? You're not that far from where I am then. Have fun! And you're right. I'm in Russia right now and us Malaysians seldom hang around them too. It's hard to find even a single Malaysian who mingles freely with other locals here. Why? Is it good? Does it reflect that our people are a united lot? Maybe... I don't know...
The comment you left on my blog, I cannot agree with you more. It's just that I'm still a 22 year old undergraduate, hard pressed on 'getting some' to maybe no need to bother my parents so much when it needs be... Anyway, the day will come when I won't even touch that, but until then...
Jun - hahahaha... this is wat happen when u dont proof read.
day dreamer - sure thing.
svllee - yeah, i only meet brits in my office.
heels - it's rubbish... but i am not complaining...
rashikaps - well... i think i will blog about whether it's greener after at least spending 1 week here :)
lynnwei - hahahaha... just cut the la.
aleckii - eh... britain to russia is very far leh... hehe...
i guess london is the mini India then..lolz...n to tink u tot u can find lots of whites in london..turns out the opposite..abit weird, ya? lolz...
Hey, lucky you..I've always wanted to go there since I were a kid. My uncle went there and he told me many stories about London. Gosh, I can't wait to earn money and visit London.
ok london is not on my list to travel but still, wud definitely pay there a visit one day since it's one of the 4 truly global cities in this world.
missironic - it's true... the whites are all concentrated in everywhere else.
Ceara - hello, welcome to AZAIG. well.... you have time on your side i am sure.
kyh - wahhh... why not la?
enjoy yourself to the fullest zewt ... have fun and take lots of photos ...
cheers ...
so..im tinking. if like tis instead of picking up the british accent probably u will b picking up the Indian english speaking accent? Lolz...
Cor blimey, Zewt. Speakin' english wiv a cockney twang aren't ya? what' da matter wiv you, innit?
Ok, ok...
I once thought that I was in India when I landed in Heathrow many years ago. Even the immigration officer tending to my passport was indian!
Haven't you heard? The staple food these days in England is no longer fish & chips. It's been replaced by curry and rice.
Oh yes, one more thing!
Bradford is officially known as Bradfordistan! Hahahaa!
Make sure you're picking up the English accent, as opposed to the London accent. After all, it's all about sounding proper posh & import'nt, innit? :)
I'd like to think my English accent is quite powderful, as well, though with my closer English friends I just speak with my Malaysian accent. I've even managed to get this thoroughly Brit boy (the sort who went to public school, plays croquet, and drinks Pimm's & lemondade) to say, "Serious?!"
Cracks us Malaysians up like nobodies' business.
Btw, go eat the roast duck in Bayswater. You may not feel like Chinese food, but seriously, that place is NOT kidding when they call themselves the "roast duck specialists" 0_0
stocktube - most certainly :)
missironic - hahahaha... when there is no will... there s no way.
cocka doodle - hahahaha... darn right... when i headed to the canteen of my company... the interntional selection is alway indian...!!!
Sheena - i thought serious isnt exactly a malaysian thing because i actually hear the brits use it in office... oh well. went to 4 seasons in leicester square the other day and wrongly ordered the peking duck... dont worry... i know bayswater is not to be missed... just waiting for jules to arrive.
means more and more live matches for you there. Darn it!
Ok la, lets speak malaysia ok. hope that makes you feel more at home hehe...
geez.. u lucky chap! i wish i get to go to UK instead of US.. and u got business class.. i got lousy economy class for flying 11 hours, sitting on a small cramp seat and lousy food! and i am so not looking forward the 13 hours flight back!!! yes, economy class again!
hey man sorry I havent been reading ur blog been busy lately with break up and new girl ahahak hope you're enjoying urself there man have a safe flight home
cibo - hahahaahah... dont be jealous... :P
jasonphoon.com - hahahaha...
i think i still prefer british.
cbenc12 - yeah, for such a long flight to be on economy is a torture. done that before and i am glad i dont have to do that this time.
tingtitlei - new girl? you really romeo eh?
hahahaa...hey, it rhymes very nicely! lolz..
missironic - up.... no will at all to pick up indian accent :)
To pick up where another person highlighted your grammatical mistakes.
He was my friend...should be "He IS my friend..." unless you both had fallen out before this occasion.
I can still walk around wearing only shorts...dropping the word MY, as generally it would be your clothes, unless indicated otherwise.
The winter usually picks up towards THE end of January.
No offence, ok ;)
anon @ 4.36am - no worries. being a supporter of good english doesnt make me a person with good english so it's cool. but i lazy to edit this post already so ... let it be.
fon - welcome...
Post a Comment