Salem High Country: Then & Now
My niece, Sara is obsessed over the movie High School Musical. She religiously sings while refering to the lyrics in the soundtrack CD sleeve. And you should hear how Sara and her younger brother Adam speak English. They sound like they came out of 'Lizzie Maguire' or some Nickleodeon kid show. Their American accents are quite believable. I mean, they're only eight and six-years old respectively, and that's the age when children's brains are like sponges. The can imitate exactly what they hear.
And my two 'anak buah' grew up on a healthy diet of the Cartoon Network, Nicklodeon and the Disney Channel.
So when I joined my family for a trip to Terengganu recently, I couldn't help but notice how those two rugrats talked.
The children's dad however was worried about it all. "They don't speak Malay at all," said Izham, my brother-in-law.
I should have told Izham, "Honey, I went through the same thing when I was their age. But look how fabulous I turned out (heheh..)
You see, when I was eight years-old, my class teacher wrote a stinging comment in my mid term report card. Cikgu Zuraimi wrote that I prefered to speak in English rather than Bahasa Malaysia. He said the reason why I talked English so much was because I liked to read English books. Urgghhh...like, whatever!
Well, honey, that was then baby. Now 18 years and a Bahasa Melayu revolution later- thanks to Astro Ria, Era radio, Hot FM and years and years of development in our beloved country Malaysia, it is quite cool to speak Bahasa Melayu. Dude, all those Pan-Asian superstars who appeared in the Salem High Country commercial, or appeared in those English theatre shows in the old Actor's Studio, or, who were in any way associated with Harith Iskandar or Jit Murad or Deanna Yusof; all of them are now starring in Yusof Haslam movies.
All those "indie" bands who thought of themselves as born-again Kurt Cobains who wanted to bring Grunge into Malaysia (i.e Butterfingers, OAG, Flop Poppy), well, they're all singing in Malay now. Some (OAG, Flop Poppy) are more successful singing in Malay compared to others (well Butterfingers, to name one). My point is, it's OK to speak and sing in Malay now and you won't be regarded as Awie, oops I mean an idiot.
You know something was up when Anita Sarawak traded in her Odelay Girl outfit in Las Vegas to return to Malaysia. And record a Malay album produced by none other than one of the first Malay-language rappers, KRU. All those people who were in denial and speaking in thick Cockney/ American British upon returning from studying abroad are now listening to Era Radio and buying the new Siti Nurhaliza CD.
For me personally, I learned a lot after I joined an English newspaper. You use a lot of Bahasa when you're communicating with Malaysians every day.
So my advice to Izham, is relax, man. They'll get the hang of it. After all they're still young.
My niece, Sara is obsessed over the movie High School Musical. She religiously sings while refering to the lyrics in the soundtrack CD sleeve. And you should hear how Sara and her younger brother Adam speak English. They sound like they came out of 'Lizzie Maguire' or some Nickleodeon kid show. Their American accents are quite believable. I mean, they're only eight and six-years old respectively, and that's the age when children's brains are like sponges. The can imitate exactly what they hear.
And my two 'anak buah' grew up on a healthy diet of the Cartoon Network, Nicklodeon and the Disney Channel.
So when I joined my family for a trip to Terengganu recently, I couldn't help but notice how those two rugrats talked.
The children's dad however was worried about it all. "They don't speak Malay at all," said Izham, my brother-in-law.
I should have told Izham, "Honey, I went through the same thing when I was their age. But look how fabulous I turned out (heheh..)
You see, when I was eight years-old, my class teacher wrote a stinging comment in my mid term report card. Cikgu Zuraimi wrote that I prefered to speak in English rather than Bahasa Malaysia. He said the reason why I talked English so much was because I liked to read English books. Urgghhh...like, whatever!
Well, honey, that was then baby. Now 18 years and a Bahasa Melayu revolution later- thanks to Astro Ria, Era radio, Hot FM and years and years of development in our beloved country Malaysia, it is quite cool to speak Bahasa Melayu. Dude, all those Pan-Asian superstars who appeared in the Salem High Country commercial, or appeared in those English theatre shows in the old Actor's Studio, or, who were in any way associated with Harith Iskandar or Jit Murad or Deanna Yusof; all of them are now starring in Yusof Haslam movies.
All those "indie" bands who thought of themselves as born-again Kurt Cobains who wanted to bring Grunge into Malaysia (i.e Butterfingers, OAG, Flop Poppy), well, they're all singing in Malay now. Some (OAG, Flop Poppy) are more successful singing in Malay compared to others (well Butterfingers, to name one). My point is, it's OK to speak and sing in Malay now and you won't be regarded as Awie, oops I mean an idiot.
You know something was up when Anita Sarawak traded in her Odelay Girl outfit in Las Vegas to return to Malaysia. And record a Malay album produced by none other than one of the first Malay-language rappers, KRU. All those people who were in denial and speaking in thick Cockney/ American British upon returning from studying abroad are now listening to Era Radio and buying the new Siti Nurhaliza CD.
For me personally, I learned a lot after I joined an English newspaper. You use a lot of Bahasa when you're communicating with Malaysians every day.
So my advice to Izham, is relax, man. They'll get the hang of it. After all they're still young.
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