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Monday, July 16, 2007

oh no!!! I'm being malaysianized!!!

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! :)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hahaha.. very funny... about the english thingy..

Robin Chan said...

hello Jacklyn.

thanks for ur comments! Can I know who are u? I can't recall which of my friends named Jacklyn. Yeah it might be funny but for Malaysians, some take it as an insult and some take it as funny! Are you Malaysian? :p hehe

Robin