It's fun mucking up a language. Especially if it's your national language. Today we were given kelas tambahan (extra classes) in Bahasa Pasar (colloquail Malay) by our great guru: Zul!

Ever noticed how the typical Chinese speaks Malay? We have a natural tendency to speak in Bahasa Baku (erm... the purest form of Malay... I can't translate it!) or as Zul puts it "You ingat you baca buku teks BM ke?" (You think you're reading a BM text book ar?). "BagaimaNA puLA..." he continues with a train of words ending with 'A' mocking Li Ling. So Li Ling conterattacks : "So, kalau puLA cakap puLE, haNYA cakap haNYE.... jadi makan cakap maken ye?". It's not long more before Li Ling comes up with more questions for Cikgu Zul: "Eh, proton WiRA atau proton WiREH? Kenapa bukan WiREH? Kan belakang tu huruf 'A'?" Poor flabbergasted Zul finally comes up with an answer "Nama khas tak boleh lah...", but Li Ling isn't easily beaten: "Tapi boLA tak cakap boLE... bukannye mereka main BoLe Sepek ke?". Zul ignores her by correcting another mistake "Orang Melayu tak kata mereka lah. Kita kata diorang. Kalau 'you all' kita kata korang". Li Ling's getting slightly confused by now so she asks, "So, kita jadi kitrang ke?". Zul smacks his forehead,"No, no! Kita orang jadi kita orang lah... bukan kitrang!!" but its too late... the bug has caught on and we start shortening all sort of words "makan jadi man lah..." Zul tries to steer us away from the craziness by teaching us Bahasa Terengganu ("kalau 'an' kena tambah 'g' kat belakang, jadi makan diorang kata makang") and Bahasa Kedah Utara ("... air diorang kata ayer... macam kena picit hidung baru boleh cakap").

I think the engineering office and cafeteria has never heard this much wild laughter before!