MANGLISH = ENGLISH?

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Malaysia is a very polarized country with multi races & ethnic living peacefully together. Don’t bother with the news & media that is constantly stirring up race conflicts like what the politicians always do.

Truly, Malaysia is rich with cultural evidence where every people from all walks of life are allowed to practise their culture accept unless they violate the Law.

One of the social identities that Malaysians holds is their Manglish aka Malaysian English. Just like how Singaporean’s, Australian’s, and other varieties of English.

Manglish comes with own syntax, vocabulary, unusual collocations, & special breed of idioms & metaphors. As Language = Identity, Manglish is brilliantly fused & influenced by essences from all races, ethnics and languages in Malaysia.

As the matter in fact, most of these words are difficult to translate into proper English as the usage is so diverse and sometimes carried more than a meaning in different context.

Let’s Cabut (English + Malay) = Let’s Flee
So Humsup (English + Cantonese) = So Perverted

Or some direct translation from other languages like “Die!” [‘sei’ in cantonese) with similar meaning] which carries the same meaning and usage of the American’s “Shit!”. Such shortened words to describe something are very common in Manglish because Malaysians don’t like long windedness.



New breed of charming permutations that has its own history of birth like “gostan” (Use to refer to vehicle that is on reverse, can be use as instructions), and some extend it into action “gostaning”.

One catchy tail-ender that Malaysian Manglish speakers usually utter is “-lah”, and some other add-on sounds like ‘ar’, ‘wor’, ‘leh’, and etc.

Through a small survey I have done, the result of reasoning behind this is that it gives off the sound of friendliness & closeness. This is also one of Malaysia signature attraction of tourists and visitors. The culture is such that most Malaysians are easy to warm up and friendly even to foreigners.

Some of my friends ha, foreigner wor, after staying here for 1 year nia, they can speak proper Manglish d like true Malaysian wor, ‘terrer’ (Awesome) leh?. Then again hor, is not really bad also mah. If go foreign country, we can immediately recognise our country mate just be hearing him/her speak English leh.

But my Malaysian Friends ar, must remember wor. Formal cakap-cakap and informal speaking veri different leh. “Despite some claimed that we speak broken English, we must show them that we are able to speak proper English as well.” However, be proud also ler with our own Manglish, since is our identity mah!? They like it no like it also we care what? I siok you siok, we all siok, settle lah. Most importantly we all Happi all the time mah!!

CLOTHES, SELF-ESTEEM, & EXAM

Ever wonder how come majority of the students did well in school but as they continue onto University, they somehow find it more difficult to cope?

I woke up today as early as 4 a.m. to study for my final exam paper on 9 a.m. typically like most students who often unwillingly forced to do last minute revision just before the examination. I have a date coming up after the exam hence I dressed up better than usual only to realise about one thing...

I have engaged in behaviour in which Psychologist would have diagnosed me as Narcissistic Personality Disorder. Not only do I admire myself for being so cool and handsome, (ok... I know you start to hate me now but Hey!! You are good looking as well so don’t hate me ^^ “Beauty is in the eye of beholder” after all) but I was busy taking photos of myself which previously I would never really bothered to. As a village boy who constantly walks around the house half naked, I never really care about my outlook.

However, this morning really makes me realise about my appearance & how much difference it make just to put in a little effort to dress up nice. Not only do I boost of self-esteem and self-admiration, I even take some photos of my own:

How I wish I have a better camera ^^

Counsellors or therapists would have recommend techniques to encourage you behave as such to boost your self-esteem so I suppose I happened to do it unconsciously. Conservative culture may discourage such behaviour but honestly I wouldn’t really care how others perceived me, most importantly is how I perceived myself. Don’t you agree?

With inflated self-esteem, my mood becomes better. Not only was I able to cheer up my In-Blue-Love with my ridiculous gimmick, I am very calm & collected before the exam while others were anxious & panic in the exam hall, somehow I did gain some admiration along the way. Needless to say, I think I perform quite well for the exam & I would be expecting good result.

Feeling good about yourself will not only attract positive energy to you but also help you ease down on certain negative emotions such as anxiety & nervousness that may cause us to make mistakes in exam due to carelessness.

So I concluded one thing, when you take exam, dress well! You might make a difference!
Wear formal, uniform or anything that makes you feel good about yourself. Remember how we used to wear uniform to schools until we get rid of them in university? Perhaps it could be a factor. After all, the examination is like the battlefield of the Holy Grail for students, so why not dressed up well while facing it? ^^

Certain University in Thailand & Japan does make it compulsory for university student to wear uniform:

Rodriguez (2005) in her study of The Effects of School Uniforms on Self-esteem, stated that uniform may correlate to self-esteem and school performances although failed to find significance correlations but in her literature review stated that there are many previous research that successfully found the significance, perhaps is contextual factor. This is supported by Scholarstic and others as well. I would recommend some future researches be done in Malaysia context instead such as the study on the relationship of uniform wearing with school or university performance and self-esteem.

I finally understand now why some of my friends would dress up well just to take exam...

JOURNEY OF MEDICAL CHECKUP IN KL

With Final Exam around the corner followed by Industry Attachment Training out campus (which demand a medical check up from me), I have one of the ‘best’ journeys ever, Journey to Medical Check up...

How naive is my thinking assuming all buildings with the word ‘Hospital’ attached to them provide medical check up for public which I learned it the hard way.

My first visit is to Hospital University Kebangsaan Malaysia (HUKM), “Sorry, this is a specialized hospital and we don’t open for outsiders unless you got reference letter.”

Second trip, Hospital University Malaysia (HUM), “Oh? We don’t have such service in university hospitals; you have to go to government funded Hospital like the General Hospital Kuala Lumpur (HKL).”

Great, now I got my info, now... where is HKL? (Googling) Finally, in another fine day, I woke up at 7.30am in the morning and have very light breakfast (3 pieces of biscuits & H2O) because I anticipate X-rays. Being smarter & suggestion from my love, I have decided to call up HKL to ask in details. The conversation was great! The lady on the phone was very helpful & provides me with the necessary details including the documents to bring, never do I aspect what awaits me is the journey of the life time.

It took me about 1 hour on wheels to arrive at HKL, 15 min to find the right entrances, 20 min to locate the right building, asked more than 10 unfortunate individuals for directions & upon arrival at the counter, “Oh? I’m sorry, we only provide medical check up services to Local University Student and you are from Private University student, so you have to go to private hospital to have your medical check up,” says the receptionist.

"but but but... the fella in HUM says... nevermind..."(whisper my heart) with a smile I say Thank you and leave the counter and back to my motorbike, it took me another 10 min to find my way out from HKL.

1. Whats going on here?
2. Why the heck is HKL so frigging huge? Are they hiding Nukes in here, with all the warded patient as human shield in case Obama finds out?
3. Is medical services in Government Hospital in KL conspire with the private hospitals towards the poor individuals who can’t afford for medical check up in private hospitals? (Info: Internship Medical Check up in Government Hospital = RM20, Private Hospital = RM at least one week worth of meal.) So does that answer your question why I’m looking at Government Hospitals?
4. What am I going to do now?

Under the supreme mercy of the weather (34 Degree Celsius), empty stomach, & lost of direction. I decided to answer my 3. Question by heading home in while not far away... I saw this:

Great... Is God trying to tell me something? So I just parked my bike and went in, negotiation fixed the price at RM88 and I am set to go for my medical check up. The place is beautifully decorated with elegance from the Middle East with Quran phrase at almost every available space on the wall. Sadly, the beautiful nurses were restricted to wearing Hijab or “Tudung” (Where is all the beautiful nurses in Man's Dream?)

Somehow, throughout the procedures, I seem to be the only Chinese around but nevertheless I was treated well. It took me about 2 hours to complete the check up with the results and everything. Starving, I rush out to have my Breakfast + Lunch (Malaysian call it “Brunch”) in McDonalds. I arrived home at 3.30pm with many mixed emotions over my half day journey just to get one small matter done.

So what does this village boy learn today?
Living in Kuala Lumpur is harsh, despite being the capital in Malaysia, trying to get something is difficult if not, impossible. All I want is a medical check up, and the government failed to provide me, the citizen of Malaysia that live his past 22 years 4 months 6 days in Malaysia and never left the country. Sometimes, in a way Private Hospitals does indeed better, faster, more efficient, friendly, & over all better than Government Hospitals.

Perhaps this help give you some idea to your question, Darren?