Today I've realised something weird. The weird thing is that I'm being Malaysianized!!! It means that I'm becoming more like Malaysian. This is how I noticed that.
When people ask me about Mauritius, sometimes I can't recall about Mauritius. Like all the foods I've been eating, what type of food and spices they have in Mauritius. Another thing is about the places, there are places that I can't really remember. One more thing which is really bad, is that sometimes I forget my own language. I can't even say something in creole correctly. Sometimes when I hear my Mauritian friends speaking, I could hear the youthful way of speaking creole. I used to speak like that before but when I came here in Malaysia, I'm starting to forget about those things. I still can speak creole but not in a youthful way. I do speak creole with my friends but it sounds like the same way i speak to my parents.
I'm used to everything here in Malaysia that it doesn't seem to be an adventure now. It's not a routine either. I'm being integrated as a Malaysian without even noticing it! I talk like then, I think like them, I joke like them, I do a lot of things like them! Why? Let me tell you why this has happened to me.
Since I came to Malaysia to study, it was not easy for me to communicate with them. Mauritians have a different type of English accent and when I had to communicate with Malaysians, they couldn't understand me. Likewise I couldn't understand them as they add a lot of slang (chinese and malay slag) in their English. As a result, it's called broken English!
When I came to Malaysia, I couldn't adapt to the way people talk and to their culture. With time, I managed to communicate with them. It was not easy to make friends because I was not used to their English. I had to relate to them so that I could communicate and make more friends. You know, to learn Psychology is to understand people's mind and behavior but if I don't understand my own surrounding, how would I be able to understand my future patients?
Here are how people talk if ever you get to meet malaysians:
ENGLISH(REAL) - ENGLISH(BROKEN)
Cannot/Can't - Can-not lah
Since when did I do this? - Where got?
Ok - Ok lah
Let's eat - Makan makan (eat eat - in malay)
I can't stand anymore - Can-not tahan anymore
Where shall we go? - Go where ah?
Never mind - Neh-ver mind lah!
Skipping class - Lepaking
Let's go for a walk - We go jalan jalan
AND LOTS MORE TO COME!!!
God has put me here for a reason. I believe that I've been Malaysianized but I don't forget my identity! I'm from Mauritius and I'm proudly to be Mauritian! :)
