My fellow toastmasters, Mike Rodrigues and Aziz Mustajab sent me the email with the u tube production featuring Comedy Court's latest hit. I had not taken my lunch yet and after watching the short clip, I laughed till my hunger vanished!
That's it! I love the colorful life that we have in this country, and with Malaysia being our closest neighbour! Every year I visit my relatives in Penang, KL or Kuching. In fact, the two countries are so closely intertwined for we have many Malaysians now working in Singapore as well. And of course, some Singaporeans working in Malaysia too. It is so natural for Singaporeans and Malaysians to pick up dialects and languages easily. My nieces and nephews in Malaysia speak English, Malay, Mandarin, Hokkien and Cantonese fluently. I remember many Canadians were quite pleasantly surprised when they realised how multi lingual students from Asia were generally.
When I was studying in Canada, I found Canadians speaking mainly French in Quebec and English in other parts of Canada. Of course, there were some Canadians who could speak French, German, Russian and other languages, but somehow English seemed to be widely used in the country. I signed up for French courses because I had thought it was important to be fluent not only in English but also in French, if I were to chose to live in Canada.
Once, I was shopping in Chinatown. The shop owner was collecting money from me at the cash register when he suddenly looked up and said to the man behind me, "Do you understand what she is saying.?" "No way....me don't understand no Chinese!", he blurted indignantly. I turned around and greeted him, "Bonjour! Cava bien?" He was momentarily taken aback and mumbled, "Bien, bien".
When I shared with my classmates about the incident, only then did I realise how ethnocentric the French were. It had been so many years. Hopefully things have changed as the world becomes smaller and more accessible with the advent of computers and internet.
I am so glad we were made to study another second or third language when we were young.
Growing up with people of diverse races makes us learn about the different cultures and habits of homo sapiens. It really adds colour to our life. I remember the surprise of an American couple when they patronised the Italian restaurant I was operating. My customers were of different nationalities, and the American couple were tickled pink to hear me switching from one language to another. They were curious to find out how I had picked up Korean, Tamil, Hindhi, German and French. I need not be super fluent in these languages......I learn enough to serve my customers....service related words that break the ice and add warmth and friendliness.
Gan Chau
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