ketawa

I think it’s a really big deal when you are able to joke around in another culture. I’ve been able to before, but today was just too much. Here’s why I feel fairly Malaysian (and proud of myself).

Exhibit A:

A student was presenting on tourism within the villages in Malaysia. She asked the class for ideas on different ways to promote tourism besides home stays. Different ideas were being thrown around, such as white water rafting or handicraft shops. Then one student suggested paddy (rice). He was instantly reprimanded by the class. The conversation went something like this.

“It’s talking about tourism. Why would paddies attract tourists?!”

“To eat!”

“No, tourists don’t eat rice! They eat bread!”

“Noo, Miss Ellen eats rice!”

“Yes, but Miss Ellen lives in Sabah, the tourists from Europe eat bread!”

I feel like grinning from ear to ear. Then to make it even better…

Exhibit B:

We somehow got on the topic of native English speaker colloquialisms. My students were throwing out everything they knew—dunno, wanna, gonna, y’all, ain’t, ‘em, etc. and wanted to know when people used them and what was appropriate. I started by explaining different accents in various areas, and how one area might use y’all and another area uses ‘dem. It was clear to the class that these were only spoken phrases, and not written, but the class wanted a comparison.

"Ohh, so it's like Indonesian-Malay."

Me: "Ehh, not really. It's not a mixture of more than one language."

"Oh, so it's like slang!"

"Well, kind of. It happens more when people are being lazy or talking really fast."

"Ohhhh, so like Bahasa Pasar!"

"Exactly!"

At this point, the class froze in a moment of disbelief—“YOU know bahasa pasar?!” (market place malay vs. formal malay)

I just wanted to reply, well, yeah, you speak it all the time. I then proceeded to impress them more by giving them an example.

“It’s like when you say Kamu tau, instead of kamu tahu. Or mau instead of mahu. Tak instead of Tidak.”

Light bulbs were going on all over the room as we listed various examples of how they shorten their own speech.

“Yes, it makes it difficult for me to learn!” I reply. We continued on, referring to “English pasar” as we finished discussing its use.

“But Miss, what is ‘English pasar’ in English?”

“Well… slang.” :)