Oh My English!

August 16, 2012
(This post is unrelated to the program unfortunately)

I was about to clock out of work when I heard someone (a senior lady doctor) was asking a foreigner (an Arab man, I think, who I bumped into as I walked out of the door previously)

What are you doing?

I pity the man since he looked so clueless on how to answer the question.

If I am in his shoes, I would say,

I am standing, in front of you.

We, Malaysians, have this habit of literally translating what we would say in Malay (bahasa pasar anyway, but let’s face it, who would use bahasa baku in daily life? I myself speak in Perakian dialect with my colleagues).

And boy, doesn’t it sound so weird?

I understand she was trying to say

Awak buat apa sekarang? (as if, awak kerja apa sekarang?)

And translate that into English.

What are you doing?

*BIG SIGH*

If I was standing beside the man, I would gladly rephrase the question instead of having that doctor to come off as rude to the foreigners. Ha.



Cik Atun: Oh! My English!

2 comments:

Do jot down your opinion! ^^

Feel free to use any information or images you found in this blog but do credit properly! Thank you. Powered by Blogger.