Tuck-Talk recommendation

A big hello to you, am going to make this quick. If you've read my previous post, you'll know I have a Malaysian cantonese podcast up and running.  It just crossed 500 complete listens (yay!).   

Here, I would like to recommend some top episodes, hope you will enjoy them....

The origin of "Bluff Ghost Eat Tofu"

https://open.spotify.com/episode/0sEGHeWCh5nalx27d2SZIf?si=mtB-XxUoQvWIJKc9aq-UYw

Remembering this 90s experience.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/5UNulyTeZw1udJpUPFlc6c?si=13224560390c4d32

The origin of "Ngau-1" (Birthday)

https://open.spotify.com/episode/1Ep6gWLiIUL9X1RreW5wqw?si=41cf5033b60f4e58

The origin of fong-fei-kei

https://open.spotify.com/episode/4uyMBj5tWSGKSXuKd6C9he?si=f638c32cf0c64de1

Thanks for listening.... :)

Introducing Tuck Talk

Hello to the world once again.  It's funny how I (almost) completely forgotten about this blog.  

Thanks to a genuine comment (because there are a lot of bots generated comments) from a friend during the blogging days ... I am here once again promoting my new venture... a Cantonese podcast, here is the link:

Tuck-Talk (A Malaysian Cantonese Podcast)

I now live in a country where I am suffering from Cantonese withdrawal syndrome leading to me starting that podcast, where I talk mostly about Cantonese itself and reminiscing life in the good ol' days.  

See ya there...

Much love,

Zewt

The art of not doing anything

“All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone” – Blaise Pascal.

If there is one thing that I really discovered about myself in the last 6 months, particularly in the last few weeks, is that the above famous words from a historical figure do not quite apply to me. Having lived alone in Singapore for almost five year, I knew I am not a person who always want to be out and about. 

But… the few months have brought about monumental discoveries.

“To sit quietly in a room” – this is probably a metaphor.  Translating into today’s words, I would think it probably equates to not doing a lot, or not doing anything at all, or to a certain extent, just self-entertained. 

Are we able to do this for an extensive period of time?

I discovered that I could. As I reflect on this, I realised that it could possibly be because I have always done this from a very young age.  For instance, I don’t think I have a proper toy until I was in my early teens. As such, I believe I have mastered the art of entertaining myself, or just sit quietly at one spot and just let time passes.

It is probably an escape when I was very young, from everything that is happening around me.  Perhaps that was a good thing, as that didn’t allow bad influence affect me when I was young.

I sound pretty weird now, but I do believe not doing anything or just doing the exact same thing over and over again in these days and age is truly a disappearing art.

Isolation returns

It was just a few months ago…

The world was put on a lockdown, an effort to intentionally isolate the human race in order to curb the scourge that is the coronavirus.  Strangely though, it felt as though the effort to isolate the human race actually raised inter-human communications to a much higher level, thanks to technology.

How many times did you FaceTime your family?

How many times did you have social gathering held over platforms such as Zoom, Google Meet-up or the likes?

I bet the level of activity in all your chatgroups also went up a few notches, or maybe you even started having regular whatsapp catch-ups with some friends whom you have not spoken to in ages.  And… people who usually takes ages to reply a single text… suddenly became rather prompt, did they?

Some claimed that the lockdown has given them a certain degree of stress, and pushed them outside the comfort zone where they have to do everything themselves.  A friend of mine was telling me his part time helper could not go to his place so he had to do all housework himself.

Isn’t it an irony that people are being pushed outside the comfort zone by being in their… “home”?

And of course, suddenly everyone is able to cook.  A wave of cuisine parade swept across social media, where people proudly showed their ‘product’ from the only trip that they can make during the lockdown… trip to the kitchen.

That was just a few months ago…

The word that has reversed all of the above is called… “normal”... while the term new-normal is floating everywhere as the new way of life.  However, it cannot be denied that normalcy is slowly but surely returning, or more specifically, the human race craves for normalcy to return.

Normalcy… lesser inter-human communications, no more online social gatherings that did not translate into more physical gatherings, don’t need to cook so much yourself, don’t need to do housework yourself, more time wasted stuck in traffic jams… you know what I am getting at.

Normalcy returns, “I am busy” or “I have no time” is back. Isolation has ended, and yet isolation has also… returned.

A discovery during my reconnection journey

Following my last entry, I have more or less combed through my email archive, communicated with a lot of people, some of you have graciously replied and it has been an awesome experience communicating with those who replied. Amidst the elation, I would nonetheless pause and reflect on an unfortunate discovery during this sentimental re-connection journey.

In the year 2008, 2 years after my Mom’s passing (which I blogged plenty about during the early days), I received an email from someone, telling me that he chanced upon my blog at that time, and it was 2 hours before his mother’s funeral service.  He informed me that he would recite a poem found in this blog as part of his mother’s eulogy.

I could sense at that time that he was lost for words, and I was glad that writings in this good ‘ol blog helped him during those grieving moments of his. We exchanged a few emails more than 12 years ago and of course, I would definitely be interested to connect with him again. 

He was someone from the other side of the globe, in the US.

As I was about to write to him, something tells me to just google his name, maybe I will find a FB page or LinkedIn, you know, the kind of online footprint that we all have these days.  It was through this step, that I discovered something tragic.

I did not find his FB or Linkedin. Instead, I found is obituary. He passed away unexpectedly April this year. He was described as someone with a huge heart and a deep soul, and he was younger than me.

It was indeed a very timely reminder during this eventful year that life is too fragile to be wasted away.  While we cannot realistically live as though there is no tomorrow (because reality doesn’t allow that), we ought to cherish every moment of our lives.

May we all pause at this moment, think of the loved ones that we have around us and bask in the gratefulness that life has given us.

And may this friend of mine (if I could consider him as one)…. rest in peace.

Sentimental connection to legacy readers

I was feeling rather sentimental a few nights ago, perhaps it was because I have reached another milestone…. It was my birthday, another number to that ever increasing number, a number that you don’t quite keep track after a while. Wouldn’t you agree?

And so, I decided to log on to my Zewt e-mail account and went through a lot of the mails that I used to receive and the communications that I had with the readers of this blog, days when there used to be so many of them :)

It was very surreal to read through some of those mails from readers who asked me so many questions, ranging from where I got my inspiration to write, advice and well wishes during a time when I was diagnosed with a kidney condition, and most of all, questions about career from people who just graduated from university seeking a pointer or two about whether they should join the corporate world. 

Time wise… most of those mails were almost a decade ago, some even longer.  I wonder how these people are, whether my 2-cent worth of consult to them (if I can call that a consult) did lead them to where they wanted to go, and whether they have achieved greatness and did well in their respective career.

And as such, I decided to write to a few of them with the email thread that I had.  To my surprise, some of them have replied!

I have discovered through the years that human connection is one of the most fulfilling experience ever.  Therefore, I am excited to connect to people who wrote to me literally… a decade ago.

Are you one of them?

Zewt in hotel quarantine

It was such a good feeling to actually know that there are people still lurking around here, it gives me hope that people still fancy reading.   I myself have also missed some bloggers that I used to follow, and I too wish they would make a return.  However, we all have our lives to live.  

I wish everyone who is reading this is having a good life and that you are currently staying healthy and safe in this unprecedented time in human history.  I think no one alive has actually been through this.  Tough times but I am sure we will all come out of it stronger. 

Meanwhile, just want to share with everyone that I am now in hotel quarantine, and I made these videos to entertain myself and hopefully you will be entertained too.

My “Friday Frolics” crazy video, hope you will find it funny.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72d7FDY1LXM&t=31s

This one is when I first arrived.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-Xj7ZJEPpo&t=268s

Hope you enjoy them and I will see you again very soon.

Best wishes to everyone,

Zewt

Hello world, are you still around?

And so…. it has been 7 years, months and 13 days since I have shown any sign of life here.  So many things have happened and I feel as though I am now living in a completely different world.  Amongst the change is the death of blogosphere as we used to know it.  It is all now about products and services and people just do not read blogs for the sake of reading anymore.

And so, the notion which has been long touted here has finally come to pass, I am finally in Australia. Looking back, it took more than a decade for this to happen, it has not been an easy ride.

Long story cut short, I have spent almost a decade in Singapore, saw and experience what it is all about working in this pressure cooker, resigned without a job to move to Australia and I have seen been (as the Chinese say) “measuring road”, commonly known as jobless.  Well, apparently anyone without ‘local experience’ is not very in demand here, nevermind the vast non-local knowledge you have.

But…. While it is not within my workspertise, I have landed myself a role as a host for a TV programme! Yup…. Hey Mom, I am going to be on TV!

So life is not like a box of chocolate…. Life is like you resign without a job, you never know what you are going to get. And indeed, I am truly going to find out what I am going to get.

Just a quick one to send a chilling howl out there…. To see whether anyone answers…..

Yoo…. Hooooooo……

A free trip story

A friend of mine asked me why in the rarest of occasion when I do write, it’s quite certain that I will be bashing the country.  Well, let’s deviate from that for this one… though, not exactly much…

A story was relayed to me when I was back at my KL office last week.  I have heard of such stories being circulated via word of mouth and you probably did to.  But to actually hear it first hand… that was quite something…

The mother of a colleague of mine is a member of this association, which shall remain unnamed.  Just to be clear, it is not a political association. And so, this association sent out a notice telling all its members that a free trip is available for anyone who is available on the trip date.

It’s a free day-trip to a local destination that covers everything – and my colleague’s mom thought… why not?  The free trip is not only open to the association’s members, but family members as well.  My colleague; being a filial daughter, decided to accompany her mom.

And so, the day arrived.  All the uncles and aunties together with so and so who tagged along for the free trip all happily boarded the bus, looking forward to a day of fun, fully paid. 

As soon as the bus hit the road though… things took a twist…

The supposed tour guide then announced in the bus saying that the free trip has been cancelled.  Instead, everyone in the bus has now been given the “supreme privilege” to meet a VVIP of the country.  Everyone was “carefully selected” for this supreme privilege… so it seems…

That’s not all.  Everyone will also be given a free T-shirt to wear during the meeting with this VVIP and... get paid!  Wow, things just get better isn’t it?  From a trip to a trip where you will get paid…

There is a catch though… in order to earn this supreme privilege and obtain payment, everyone must clap when the VVIP arrives and… and… and… sing a song!  If you do not know how to sing… not a problem at all.  It will be taught to everyone during the journey.

You may be asking... how can one learn a song within such a short period of time? Well, it is a very simple song.  Similar to the ABC song... this is actually a number song.  In fact, it's much simpler... instead of having to sing all the numbers, you only need to say only "satu"...

This song... a lot of the word "satu" in it.

(satu = one in Malay).

Of course, that free t-shirt has got a big “1” printed on it.  Something tells me you know what is the word that comes after 1.

All the uncles and aunties with their innocent tag-alongs were sent to some school where the VVIP arrived and everyone was to clap and of course… sing the important “satu” song.  Apparently, there other buses arriving from other places… seemingly bring other souls who thought they were going for free trips.

It was a cheerful atmosphere.  People clapped and sang and at the end of the day, everyone was paid… MYR20.  Apparently, the VVIP said during his speech that he was so happy that many came to support him.

Woooaah… free bus ride, free t-shirt, free singing lesson, meet a VVIP and now… free money! Where to find!

I don’t know about you but that sure beat a free trip anytime… next time you hear of anyone getting free trips, be sure to join them ya… you might just get this supreme privilege.

Dear Home... what happened to you?

It has been a long time since I had the Chinese New Year reunion dinner back at home, it has been an affair at the restaurant for a while now.  But my aunt and my sis decided to cook and hence, we had our last reunion dinner back at home.

Speaking of home, it has also been a while since I went back.  I mean when I am back, it's usually for a brief stay as most of the time, I will take my Dad out for lunch or dinner.  So with the reunion dinner happening back home, for the first time since I moved out... I spent some time back at my home.

I arrived early, helped out a bit, had a proper dinner and stayed back to chill for a while.  It gave me an opportunity to actually spend some time looking around the house.... more specifically, the neighbourhood.

It's not the best neighbourhood but it was nice, or how it used to me.  Nice food store everywhere and most people are familiar faces.   Now though, it's like foreign land.  Most of the people of my generation have moved out while those of my parents' generation tend to stick around.  Well, either they stick around or they leave for the eternal resting place.

When I looked around after parking my car when I was back for reunion, I realised that the neighbourhood is now infested with .... honestly, I don't even know the origin of these people.  One thing for sure, they are not Malaysians - wait, maybe they do carry MyKad, you'll never know.

From the mid section of my house, I could look across to the mid section of other units within the block (yeah, it's one of those very old design of low-cost flats). My neighbours used to familiar faces of aunties and uncles who either man the nearby fruit store or hawkers.  Now though when I looked across, I actually saw all the rooms are now rented out to (again) people whom I can't accurately tell where their origin is.  And there were a lot of them. 

And they didn't give me a friendly look either.

The coffee-shops and convenient stores within the area have all been changed to either "mamak" store or middle-eastern eateries.

I feel like an outsider now, I feel like I don't know this place anymore.

One would hope that such drastic changes would be a result of progress... or development.  But no... I can't even find a word to describe the transformation that has taken place here.

And something tells me that this change that I am witnessing - will only gather momentum.

Just to digress a little... a country usually deports illegal immigrants.  But in Malaysia, I was told that all the illegal immigrants can just go to the embassy and get themselves registered and voila... they become legal.  I understand millions, who we have no idea why they are in Malaysia and what economic contribution they can bring into Malaysia can now call Malaysia their home.

After my reunion dinner, I thought to myself... Home, what happened to you?

I guess in the not so distant future, I will have to ask the same thing about my country.

Or maybe, I should asking already. 

Testing testing 1 2 3

Hello world!!!!!! Do you miss me? (perasan....)

Alright, as a new year is upon us... I would like to think that I should update this blog a little bit more often.  Have to admit, work has been a killer in this tiny red dot.

Anyway, I do like to know whether any souls still wander into this blog anymore.  Have to admit another thing... Don't think I would like to write when this blog is already hidden deep within a forgotten memory... yeah, a bit of a writer ego there if you want to call it as such...

So yeah... if anyone still drop by... leave a comment or a mark or any kind. Am really interested in knowing if my thoughts will still be sought... 

Malaysians in orgasm and cum watch this video

All Malaysians were led into an orgy of orgasm via the "ISA-to-be-repealed" announcement.  Unfortunately, not many realised that the orgasm they felt (or still feeling), was induced through syiok-sendiri type masturbation instead of full fledge sex.

Firstly, ISA is not abolished yet... and the terms of conditions applicable are... 2 new laws to be enacted as replacement for ISA.

So while all Malaysians were basking in orgasm... apparently, the now much loved BN govt is telling Bangladeshis that they can come and vote in Malaysia.  But of course, we all intellectual Malaysians know it's not true... Why? Because the BN govt denied it.  So it must not be true.

But if you believe that piece of news is true... then you would love this and... spread it!

Even Lee Chong Wei and the uncle at the Yut Kee coffee shop are getting into the act!

Hypothetical problems from legalisation of illegal workers

Over the last few weeks, there have been several allegations about how the Malaysian govt’s move to legalise illegal workers has taken a further step – by granting these once illegal workers citizenship, a right to vote.  Some sites even published screen caption of people with red MyKad being a registered voter, etc. etc.

There will be people who choose not to believe such allegations, while some will. And there are those who just don’t give a shit.  I believe it’s true. I don’t have the proof but that’s just me.  You can think otherwise.

The current noise seems to centre upon this being translated into more votes for the ruling regime, electoral fraud, dirtiest general election, etc.  I think that is pretty short-sighted.

Since I don’t have proof, I think I need to assess the situation hypothetically.  When all these thousands illegal workers who became or will become citizens of Malaysia hypothetically ended up helping you-know-who win the next election, do you think that’s the end of it?

Hypothetically speaking, will they be able to find job?  Where will they stay?  If they are not able to secure a job, what will they do to survive, (hypothetically speaking of course)?  Will they resort to (hypothetically speaking) committing crime? 

Humanity factors aside, are they “clean” from diseases?  In case you don’t know, some maids who carry “official” health certifications have not actually gone through tests because these “official” health certificates were obtained ala “boleh” style.

What if they start telling their comrades that there is free citizenship on offer (hypothetically speaking) and everyone back home can now come and claim this?

Hypothetically speaking, if they are Muslims, it means their children will be considered bumiputera.  What does that mean to you and me?

Anyone care to add?

If the allegations are hypothetically true (the sentence sounds wrong but what the heck…), it is not about “ohhh, so and so will win election”… “ohhh, going to have a lot of phantom voters… “ohhh, this is why we need Bersih”… “ohhh, we need another royal inquiry”…

It is more than that.  What we need to really comprehend is that the ruling regime is willing to risk everything just to make sure they remain in power.  Some call it treason, but I disagree.   They are not selling the nation to another sovereign power (maybe not yet).

It is however, betrayal at the highest order.

But then again, it may not be true – so no worries.

And of course, the nasi-lemak, char-kuey-teow and bak-kut-teh still taste good – so why worry.

And why should you listen to Zewt who is not based in Malaysia talking about hypothetical problems in Malaysia – so don’t bother. 

3 degrees of mediocrity

The first degree…

Slightly more than 2 years ago (before I moved to Singapore), me and a bunch of friends made our way to Singapore for a sports event.  A friend of mine brought his girlfriend along.  For the girlfriend, it was her first holiday trip out of Malaysia. 

No, my friend was not dating a young teenager.  But rather, she is from a not so well to do family which limits her opportunity to travel overseas.  Ya’ know, not everyone has the luxury to trot around the world and post pictures of such trotting over facebook.

Anyway... It was after a dinner function and me, my mate & his girlfriend with another mate wanted to go to Orchard Road.  We hailed for a cab as we saw one coming.

As it stopped, I opened the door and immediately got into cab, only to realise that there was a little commotion taking place between my other mates and the girlfriend.

Do you know what happened?

My mate’s girlfriend was in complete shock that I just jumped into the cab without telling the cabbie where we wanted to go, obtain an agreement from the cabbie that he will take us there and succumb to a cut-throat price.  She could not believe it, to the extent that she didn’t dare to get into the cab in that instance – needed some convincing.

You should have seen her reaction and what she uttered out in Cantonese – it was quite hilarious.

Later on in the trip, she continued to be shocked by the fact that public buses and MRT are on time… public toilets are clean… there are hardly any potholes on the road, the list goes on.

Let’s not term this as “katak bawah tempurung”.  Like I said, some people are just not born into a fortunate family which allows them to occasionally jump out of the “tempurung”.  And hence, for these Malaysians; who grew up in such environment – these people are abused by mediocrity without them knowing it.  Mediocrity is not a choice, it’s just the way it is for these people.

The first degree of mediocrity… is when mediocrity is not known to be mediocrity.

The second degree…

Look into the mirror, chances are you will see one who falls within this category.  Ya’ know, those of us who are fortunate to know about the outside world due to the luxury of physically jumping out of the “tempurung”.  Such luxuries which give us the opportunities to realise that the room for improvement in so many things are huge.

But so what? We know things suck, and we just don’t give a damn.  We are used to it.  Mediocrity is a lifestyle.  As long as you’re in Malaysia, it’s expected and accepted.  We live with it.

The second degree of mediocrity… is when mediocrity is normality.

The third degree…

This was quite some time ago and I was travelling in a cab in Malaysia.  Yup – the one where I have to tell the cabbie where I want to go, get an approval from him and be screwed in terms of fare. 

I like to talk to cabbies – always an enlightening experience.  And so, our conversation flowed from food to new roads being built to traffic jams and ended up with cars.  Proton came into the picture.  To cut the long story short, I made a comment about the infamous quality of Proton’s power (or powerless) window, to which the cabbie responded…

“Kenapa orang sering cakap pasal tingkap Proton?  Mana ada tingkap kereta yang tak rosak lepas setahun?  Saya dengar tingkap kereta Jepun pun rosak selepas setahun.  Ini hah (referring to his Proton)… tingkap yang masih ok, lebih setahun dah.  Ini hah Proton lebih baik dari kereta Jepun!”

[Why do people often talked about Proton’s window? Are there power windows that remain fuctional more than a year?  I heard Japanese cars’ windows will be spoilt after a year too.  This Proton of mine, the windows are still fine after a year. Proton is better than Japanese car!]

I soon realised he was not being sarcastic.  He was serious.  I was not against him defending Proton – but was astonished that he actually believed that Proton was better than any other car out there.  The conversation continued to flow and this too came from him…

“Negara kita ada angkasawan!  Negara lain mana ada.  Indonesia ada? Singapura ada? Thailand ada? Ini bermakna Malaysia lagi hebat dari negara lain!”

[Our country had an astronaut.  Other countries don’t.  Does Indonesia have one? Does Singapore have? Does Thailand have?  It means Malaysia is better than other countries!]

I do not know whether I should shatter the cabbie’s pride.  Actually, I reckon I can’t.  He was really into it.   I can only pay tribute to the effectiveness of propaganda. And believe me, there are actually quite a number of people out there who falls within this category.

And hence, the third degree of mediocrity… is when mediocrity is believed to be superiority.

A piece at MI

I know I have not been updating here but hey.... I did pen my thoughts here.

It's a column that I mentioned in my previous post.

I will still be writing here still...

Just because it's home?

Migration or in a lesser context, move to work overseas seem to be the flavoured discussion at the moment.  MalaysianInsider even started columns where people wrote in to say why they leave and why they stay.

Anyway… one of the main reasons why people decide to stay, besides the usual good nasi-lemak, char-kuet-teow and bak-kut-teh (which was specifically mentioned by someone in that MalaysianInsider column mind you…) is that Malaysia, regardless of how bad it is, it is still our home.

I wouldn’t dispute that – the point on Malaysian being home, not on staying.  It is our home, no doubt about it.  We were born in Malaysia and spent most of our formative years here.  There will always be a “Malaysia” element within us. 

But… does that mean that you must stay?

Following this, I have a thought… though it only applies to Chinese and Indians.

If you are a Chinese or an Indian, and decide to stay simply because Malaysia is home… can you just pause for a while and imagine…

Imagine…

Imagine…

Imagine…

That your grandparent or your great grandparent decided to stay in China / India simply because China / India is home.  That no matter how poor or chaotic China was during those days, it was still home and your grandparent decided to stay.  That no matter how difficult it is to make a living in India during those days, it was still home. 

If your grandparent adopted this perceived noble mentality…

What would become of you…

… a Chinese who spits everywhere who you look down on?

… a cheap IT call-centre person in Bangalore?

… a masseur giving traditional Chinese foot massages in Jalan Bukit Bintang?

… living in the slum of Mumbai?

… a cheap factor worker in ShenZhen?

… appearing in those “Only in India” pictures that you forward to each other?

If your grandparent decided to remain in China or India simply because it’s home… really… what would become of you… today?

Updated:  While some have commented that we could also be the son of a property tycoon in Hong Kong, or the son of the coal tycoon in China or the son of the telecommunication tycoon in India... let us all be honest and admit that we are all glad that our grandparent did not choose to stay in China/India just because it was home.

1 year ago... The injury conversation

2 years ago... Non-civic smokers like these are morons

3 years ago... V for virginity, P for purity

4 years ago… A professional mistake

Conversation at the MRT

It's election fever in Singapoe and the other day, I was in the MRT standing next to 2 (presumably) Singaporeans, amongst other people of course.  But the conversation of these two caught my attention. 

1 guy flipped the newspaper he was holding and said… “See… this is very healthy, opposition is actually getting very good media coverage”. Well, I have no idea who is opposition and who is collation candidate here but it’s definitely encouraging to see mainstream media giving good coverage to opposition, unlike “you know where”.

The sentiments here in Singapore are pretty much the same with Malaysia – that election should happen some time this year.   Naturally, the mainstream media here is also playing its part in doing coverage of potential candidates, etc.

What transpired thereafter was quite an eye-opener…

The same guy continued to flip his newspaper and reached this page where he said to his friend…

“Eh… this candidate… I know her.  She is in the same faculty as me.  We used to be in NUS together.  And I know she is also etc, etc, etc…”

The conversation went on for a while between them till the other guy asked…

“So are you going to vote for her since you know her so well?”

The reply given was…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

“No lah… she is only from NUS, we need people from Cambridge or Harvard…”

Such is the benchmark…

Do you know what qualification (if any), our MPs / Malaysian leaders have?

1 year ago... The price that really kills

2 years ago... A first language dilemma

4 years ago… Sign of times

I did something for tomorrow, did you?

During the last peoples' power tsunami, I was out of the country... for a substantial period of time.  I missed it...

As the country heads into another historical moment tomorrow... I will again be out of the country, and also be out of Singapore... for the entire week. 

I hope it is a good omen.

And... to those of you who once commented anonymously that you choose to "stay back and fight" and those who left the country shouldn't be complaining about the country.  There were also some very harsh words.

I want to ask all those of you today... what have you done that amounts to "I choose to stay and fight?"

I don't know about you but I sponsored someone to fly back to vote tomorrow.

Not telling this to show off but I really want to ask those who said "I choose to stay back and fight"... What have you done?

1 year ago... The story of Helen, who's only the mother

4 years ago… A very misleading document

Speaking the language

Wow...it has really been a while since I blogged.  I am not going to say... "So sorry for not updating my blog, etc. etc. etc"... as I know the readership for this blog has reduced tremendously...

Anyway... read about this piece of news and I have something to say about it...

It’s quite a diverse composition of nationalities here where I work.  Since arrived, I have met or spoken to (and I am not making this up)… Brits, Australians, Spaniards, Mexicans, French, Indians, Americans, Koreans, Japanese, Indonesians, Mainland Chinese, New Zealanders, Russians, Israelis, Africans, Sri Lankan, Arabs, Lebanese, Pakistanis, and of course people from Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia.  Have yet to meet an Italian.

But of course, being a multinational enterprise, official business language of communication is English.  Inevitably, you will hear English spoken in various accents.

It is interesting though, to note one point…

I am sure many of us have heard or even ourselves have at times, made fun of certain English accent.  The most common accent that Malaysians like to laugh at is the Indian accent, followed closely by “singing” Hong Kong accent. 

I have observed though, that no matter how heavy the accent is – those who are considered as good speakers will never add nor alter the words, grammar or structure of the English language.

I have seen many senior management personnel giving speeches, presentations or chairing meeting and though they may speak with an extremely heavy accent, English is still spoken the way English should be spoken.

I have never ah, hearing any senior people speaking English hor, like this wan you know.

What I am saying is – while Malaysians find humour in accents of certain nationalities, speaking in a modified English language (i.e. Manglish) is actually worse.  More importantly, if one strives to move ahead in the corporate world and longs to be a good speaker (which I believe is an important criterion if one longs to move up) – it is much better to speak English with a funny accent instead of speaking your own version of “English”.

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The memory lives on...

4 years have passed...

But memory lives on...