Malaysian English Impossible To Understand
I was checking out the new site Overheard in Malaysia when I realized that I don’t understand it all, although it appears to be written in English. Check out this random post about … well, I’m not sure:
MrBf: Blah blah blah.. why you damn clown? Don’t know how to look where you’re going ah? *lecture lecture*
naeboo: *gives hard look*
MrBf: Why you give me one kind look? Not happy isit?? What look is it ar?
naeboo:YATT LOOK! One look! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.. *layan sendiri* I’m sucha smartass!
MrBf: -_______________-”
The Flesch-Kincaid grade level of this text is 4. The first thing currently on Overheardinnewyork scores a (still low) 7. Apparently there is a class-split around the use of English in the Malaysian educational system.
| This entry was posted on Sunday, July 22nd, 2007 at 9:15 pm and is tagged with flesch kincaid grade level, overheardinnewyork, naeboo, smartass, educational system, blah, clown. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback. |
3 Responses to “Malaysian English Impossible To Understand”
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it’s a pun using cantonese chinese spelt in english.you won’t understand it unless u speak canto and english.
Lol. its just the Malaysian chatting style. where its a mixture of Malay language, chinese, english, cantonese to express some gesture or live interaction.
Most of Malaysian excels in english. and if you’re in Malaysia., you will find that almost everyone is English literate.
It’s a very complicated cultural habit if you ask me. Similar to Singapore’s Singlish.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singlish
I’m sure most of us here can read/write/talk in proper English. Just that after 50 years of Independence, we’ve more or less “blended” all the cultures found in Malaysia into one, especially Languages.
It’s very identifiable with the use of words like “ah”, “lah” behind sentences. Just treat it as a “casual” use of English language. While Tony, of the EducationMalaysia blog is a political figure now, he has to be “formal”.