Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Chicken & Duck In The Office

When a Malay speaks to a Malay, he will speak in Malay. When a Chinese speaks to a Chinese, he will speak in Chinese. But when a Chinese speaks to a Malay, what language will be used?

In Malaysia, the national language is Bahasa Malaysia, which is actually Malay which has been "Malaysianised". Bahasa Malaysia is widely used in most Government offices throughout the nation. But in the private sector, English still prevails, both in the spoken and written sense.

However, sometimes it is difficult to use solely English when speaking to some people because they're simply unable to speak the language. So there will be times when Malay is used instead. But not everybody is well versed in Malay too, so some people have no choice but to speak a mixture of English and Malay.

In my office recently:

Chicken: "Bikin dua copy" (Make two copies).

Holding a piece of document and speaking to the office girl.

Duck: "OK..."

And then a little while later, the duck comes back with two cups of coffee.

To those who still don't know it, COFFEE is KOPI in Malay.


2 Romans 1 Impostor said...

And what did she do with the document? Filter for the coffee?

Cornelius said...

Fortunately, it didn't get that far, 2R1I. That piece of paper was put aside while the coffee was prepared. Only later did it occur to the duck what that piece of paper was for.

Some people are not curious to know these petty things. If they don't really have to know about the paper, then there is no need to know. Just put it aside until it becomes absolutely necessary to know.

But of course some people are too curious and would like to try everything out. They wonder what would it be like to put on the ribbed condom inside out. They insert their penises into those tiny holes on the steel bench and inevitably get stuck to it. Y'know, things like that.