The following post is extracted from an email sent by my friend RAY, who uses her alter-ego Pak Malim, a rhyming, and pantun-loving cat to speak on her behalf. RAY has graciously allowed Embak to re-post it here.
Pak Malim dan bahasa Mandarin
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Tuan saya, RAY meminta saya bercerita bagi pihaknya. Katanya, dia malu, kata Pak Malim sambil menutup muka dengan tangan yang berbulu.
Ni Hao Ma? Haiya. U know why Pak Ma Ling never spoke Mandarin aaaah. Becoz aaah, last time aaah, in UM, we had to take Mandarin as third language U know.
Ya lorrr, being Malaysian, BM is 1st language. English, 2nd language. So learn lorrr, another language. Tui, aah? Tui, aaah? (Betul, tak? Betul Tak?).
Waaaah. We all so excited already maaah. After registering for Mandarin classes, we were all looking forward to learning a new lesson.
First day aaah, we had to introduce ourselves in Mandarin.
We had a role-play. Each student, with partner. Stand up and talk to each other.
"Wo shi, Pak Ma Ling". (I am Pak Ma Ling).
Wah. I so proud of me. So clever already.
And then aaah, time to say, "sorry".
Then I look at my paper lorrr, the Mandarin notes they gave me -
Haiya, on paper aaaah, they spell "sorry", as "Tui Pu Qui" (pronounced as 'Tui Pu Chi', means, sorry).
My turn aaah, I stand up and say : Tui Pu Ki !
Haiya, my fren that time aaah, Malay girl, she laughed and laughed and then sat down, cannot get up one U know, 'coz I hadn't realized what I had just said.
At first aaah, I didn't know why she was laughing U know. Haiya. Why U sit down aaah. I haven't finished with my role playing.
About half an hour later, after she recovered from her laugther, my fren told me, it wasn't what I said that had her in stitches. It was 'how' I had said it, so confidently, that made her think it was so funny.
All I wanted was to say sorry, but ended up insulting everybody.
I hope, after reading this story, still got people want to be frens with me.
Okay aaah. Wo Ai Ni.
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