Mother Tongue In Cheek

I secretly think that a guy who's in the same class as I am is cute and adorable. He's not that handsome, he doesn't have a fair skin, he doesn't have the biggest eyes, his hair has no specific style and his speech.. is not even comprehensible for some. He's not even desperate to impress by wearing the latest trends!

Well, what makes him stand out is how real he is. I heard him spoke and it's all purely where he comes from. He's not ashamed to admit his inability to speak Malay very well without a single sound of his dialect and best of all, he doesn't even try to hide it. What I like the most is his confidence in coming up with ideas in our discussion when we worked on a project.

Because we have a foreign student in our group, we had to speak English to be fair. I was impressed by his open-ness to communicate in a second language even though his accent is strongly blended with his dialect. Sometimes as the so-called "chairman" of the meeting, I had to repeat what he said in the discussion to the foreign student who was weirded out at my friend's strange accent.

He can be really funny sometimes. Each time I hear him speak, I try not to giggle whenever a funny word tickles and moreover, I find him unique and interesting. Not that I'm looking down on him for his weird accent, but I was more impressed than ever for hearing a Melayu speak so confidently without losing his identity even though his English sounds broken. I must say, he earned some respect from me by just being true and for showing me who he really is. And that's cute to me!

I never really speak to my classmates in my own dialect. I think it's because I don't want to repeat myself. My Malay dialect is even more unique! Ha ha. Even though it's not entirely a different language, I think it's one of a kind and it should be preserved. So don't be surprised if I suddenly blurt out strange words to my friends from home.. Hehe. But today, the guy at the shop tried to immitate my dialect while his friend tried not to laugh beside him. I was offended! Grr. Sabar jak lah.

Anyway, I'm proud to be multilingual and I hope my children (and the rest of world, perhaps) will embrace the same culture. I took a short course in Mandarin in my 1st Year and the lectures were the most enjoyable learning experience I've ever had. I wish I can continue to learn it, but it seems that I won't be having the same opportunity anytime soon.