I was reading Bold Talk blog (one of my favourite blog) this morning, the title was "Why is our English bad?".
Hemmm.... I think this is kinda true and I do agree that alot of our Uni student's English aren't that great. Not to say that my English is thaaaaaaaat good, but boleh hidup and cari makan lar..... Anyway, why I am drawn to write this entry is because of this story I heard and I felt that must share.
Recently I went on a trip with my aunt and her friends to Pekan Baru in Indonesia seeking Malay history, culture, customs and origin. It was an eye opening trip, reason being:
1. I met up with Tenas Effendi
2. Went to Siak AND
3. Got acquainted with learned people
Despite that this folks are learned people (I won't mention their background here - KONON!!), one of the Aunty told me her story.
During her teaching in local prestige university, she asked the room on their family background, so on and so forth. Their English was fair but nothing impressive (but her English was good okay), then .... when it reaches this one male student...
Student : My dad is a container teacher
Aunty : Huh? Container teacher?
Student : Yes, container teacher
Aunty : Puzzled and confused.... (her first thought was the Kontena Nasional company)
Student : Sat down, looking weirdly at Aunty
Then it struck her....
Bekas (Bahasa Melayu) = Container (English)
Bekas guru (ex school teacher) = Container teacher
Bekas guru (ex school teacher) = Container teacher
Hahhahahha.... I rest my case.
TGIF - tomorrow!
5 comments:
English can be a difficult language, especially the American version. We have so many colloquialisms that people who don't grow up here have a horrible time handling them.
I came from Chinese school, when i was in form 1, trust me i could not even distinguish a he and a she....but thank God i got a teacher who was willing to go that extra mile to guide me... with the same token, now i would do likewise to those who i can help
George,
Trust me, its easy the chinese. Its abt initiative. In malaysia 50% of tv prog are in english w no voice over, we daily newspapers are both malay n english, we do hv chinese n tamil papers as well. Working environment majority are english but..... Sigh
Eugene,
Its abt initiative, its already at uni level; at this stage not many willing to help. They will let u drown with the sharks. I too studied in chinese school from kindy to form 5, i hv to learn chinese, conquer english n not to forget i must attend islamic n quran classes ie i hv to learn jawi too. Nak ngan tak nak saja. Hvg said that i dont show off lar, i will still guide n teach friends n collie.
i didnt get the translations...but i feel knowing english shouldnt be the be all end all for Asians like us. so many europeans dont speak enlgish at all..so its good to be proud of one's mother tongue i guess :)
i'm not good in english either. but Container Teacher??omg that's totally hilarious! xD
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