Manglish

Recently, someone asked me, 'do you have to speak that way'? By that she meant  the prim and proper English, I would sometimes unconsciously slipped into.That's the legacy from  Sister B, Sister Fran, and the scores of  nuns who saw me through the grades and nothing but Queens English will do.Writing lines after school has a way of conforming you to the prim and proper, but those weren't all bad or unpleasant. Truth be told, those learning days  built up a huge part of my character. The good part that is.  I appreciate the discipline of language, even more, good  behaviour and  moral. . Strangely, I remember those 'sisters' with great fondness. Those were the days of Mission schools and the English Medium, the O and A levels and the standard of English  were pretty high.then.

Then the Manglish era began, and we began to speak that variety of  English which comes with the rich and distinct  flavour  of Malaysian spices, curried into a unique identity. After thirty years I have almost forgotten what it was like  to speak perfect English. I am more comfortable speaking Manglish  now-good Manglish that is..

I used to work with a team of  Western " machos" -Macho Men ( You see?  That word in the ordinary sense would denote domineering, or  con notate something negative but to me, it just mean, nice, gentlemen, masculine,  perhaps even  good looking)  My British friends sometimes cannot understand me, because I use plenty of local spices for additional flavour.  The vocabulary is there, only the connotations are different. They would  strained their ears  to catch my words. They do catch my utterances but they don't actually catch what I mean and they  would  give me the bewildered look.   The ones who were here longer, would just smile and say, that's just the way they speak here ...  You'll get used to it. I'd  keep a poker face and nod wisely in agreement.. Yes, do learn our language Sirs!  And so they  did. They got so comfortable ,  speaking the local  English variety  that soon they complaint,  the wives  can't understand them now!

The Queens's (English) gone now, a distant memory. What's left is just the partial,  which is rather sad  but at least  we still have the partial. Our pens still holds sufficient ink to command  creative strokes, though the handwriting needs to be improved.  Manglish is what gives us that distinct identity now.  It's our very own  version of English and  that's  what binds us together. We should be grateful, we could still speak and write reasonably well.. Never mind if we lag behind others now, we can't waste precious time, crying over split milk. It is enough that  efforts are being made to bring us back to our former glory. Let's hope, they do not change course half way again and let all the hard work go down the drain.

 There are different varieties of English within the Manglish category. You automatically  switch to the correct variety when you go to the wet , the morning or the  night market xtra.... When you're in the company of  the educated, English Speakers  you speak differently. Even for that matter when you enter a high end shopping centre, it becomes more polished. Have you noticed? When  you engage with the native speakers, it becomes like near perfect. Of course some like Yours Truly, couldn't be bothered , they would just speak in the manner, they are comfortable with.

When making a purchase at the wet  market ,  the morning or night market keep your proper English and grammer at home.You'd probably have to go along this line , if you want to be understood..." How much ah?" Aiyoh, so expensive ah!". "Can less a little or not?" "Less, less lah! "Somehow the utterances of ah?, aiyoh, lah!, meh and so on enhances  the local flavour, the communicative  twist and tango, that ah! so delicious  flavour... Even something as simple as " May, I  know the price of  this item, would get you a 'huh?" look.. Just get straight to the point. "How much"? Point to the item.


At the pasar malam, I once heard  a basic Manglish speaking trader, telling off  a neatly  dressed ma'am- "Aiyah, don't  kero, kero around here lah!  I no speak Orange Putih! :) The lady shot back. You spoke English first! His smattering of English was meant to impress a little,  certainly not to carry out a full fledged conversation. .So if you 'rojak' a little, you are speaking his language and that would probably earn you some discounts. Get him out of depth and you face his wrath!  You'll  get the sour  "Show-Off" label  and  you surely won't  get the upper class treatment but you'd  get the privilege of  upper class pricing! :)  Congratulations!

to be continued...