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 Nicklodeon 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 Lido Des 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.
The Devil Wears Prada or How to Survive Your First Job
There's one scene in the movie where Anne Hathaway's character Andrea is touching-up her eyelashes in the mirror. She's pretty with perfect eyes, perfect skin, and flawless. She looks glamorous, the type of woman who looks like she belongs in a fashion magazine.
But during that split second she remembers the morning several months prior when she prepared herself for the job interview.
She was this wide-eyed, frizzy-haired graduate who was setting forth into world. Andrea wanted to be a jounalist and write about real life stuff. But instead, her first job was an assistant to a fashion magazine editor, who is from hell by the way.
I thought Devil Wears Prada would be a movie about fashion and air heads, but instead it's a personal movie about personal growth. Can't blame me, girls, I didn't read the book.
It's mind boggling why she would choose such a job, but the thing was that working for the She-Devil (Miranda, played by Meryl Streep) would open plenty of opportunities later.
As the characters in the movie would attest to "A thousand girls would kill for the job!"
Adrea starts out hating everything about the magazine and its people, but later she embraces the whole idea- complete with a fashion makeover courtesy of Stanley Tucci's character Nigel, who's kinda like a male Fairy God mother role.
Honey, Andrea ends up learning that she can do anything. Miranda wants the manuscript of the as-yet-to-be-published Harry Potter book? Andy gets it. You want your hot latte, and steak and drycleaning etc delivered to you? By hook or by crook Andy slowly yet surely accomplishes it all.
Without her knowing she has become like one of the Runway women, glamorous and all knowing when it comes to fashion.
But I suppose it really hit her during that scene when she touched up her makeup. She realised how far she had diverted from her goal. But she wasn't bitter. She learned a lot from her job. Her friends didn't knwo her anymore. Her boyfriend barely knows her.
Then when Miranda confronted her and told Andy that she'd become like her- a no-nonsense workaholic bitch- it hit Andy like a ton of bricks.
So what does Andrea learn after she finally quit her job after several months. A lot I'm sure.
After quitting, Andrea attended a job interview with a New York-based newspaper. The paper's editor asked: "You worked in Runway for less than a year. What the hell
kind of blip was that?"
Andrea replied: "I learned a lot."
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 Nicklodeon 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 Lido Des 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.
The Devil Wears Prada or How to Survive Your First Job
There's one scene in the movie where Anne Hathaway's character Andrea is touching-up her eyelashes in the mirror. She's pretty with perfect eyes, perfect skin, and flawless. She looks glamorous, the type of woman who looks like she belongs in a fashion magazine.
But during that split second she remembers the morning several months prior when she prepared herself for the job interview.
She was this wide-eyed, frizzy-haired graduate who was setting forth into world. Andrea wanted to be a jounalist and write about real life stuff. But instead, her first job was an assistant to a fashion magazine editor, who is from hell by the way.
I thought Devil Wears Prada would be a movie about fashion and air heads, but instead it's a personal movie about personal growth. Can't blame me, girls, I didn't read the book.
It's mind boggling why she would choose such a job, but the thing was that working for the She-Devil (Miranda, played by Meryl Streep) would open plenty of opportunities later.
As the characters in the movie would attest to "A thousand girls would kill for the job!"
Adrea starts out hating everything about the magazine and its people, but later she embraces the whole idea- complete with a fashion makeover courtesy of Stanley Tucci's character Nigel, who's kinda like a male Fairy God mother role.
Honey, Andrea ends up learning that she can do anything. Miranda wants the manuscript of the as-yet-to-be-published Harry Potter book? Andy gets it. You want your hot latte, and steak and drycleaning etc delivered to you? By hook or by crook Andy slowly yet surely accomplishes it all.
Without her knowing she has become like one of the Runway women, glamorous and all knowing when it comes to fashion.
But I suppose it really hit her during that scene when she touched up her makeup. She realised how far she had diverted from her goal. But she wasn't bitter. She learned a lot from her job. Her friends didn't knwo her anymore. Her boyfriend barely knows her.
Then when Miranda confronted her and told Andy that she'd become like her- a no-nonsense workaholic bitch- it hit Andy like a ton of bricks.
So what does Andrea learn after she finally quit her job after several months. A lot I'm sure.
After quitting, Andrea attended a job interview with a New York-based newspaper. The paper's editor asked: "You worked in Runway for less than a year. What the hell
kind of blip was that?"
Andrea replied: "I learned a lot."
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