Tuesday, December 2, 2008

.: Mind your language :.


The first lesson.

Anyone remember the comedy series? Besides Mr. Bean and The Black Adder, those series paved me the path to discovering the dryness of British humor. *now the theme song is stuck in my head ... crap*


The whole time during Hajj, I spent most of my time conversing in English, Malay and Indonesian. By now, most of you would know that my sister adopted a Pakistani brother. *will there be more drama this Eid?*

This was pretty much the first conversation we had then, after the adoption. *coughs*

Sis :: Why don't you speak to him in his language?
Me :: Urdu? I can't speak Urdu.
Sis :: Of course you can. It sounds Hindi.
Me :: Think they share a common lexicon, when spoken on a colloquial scale are virtually identical.
Sis :: It's the same then. Go speak to him in Hindi.
Me :: I can't speak Hindi.
Sis :: Look here. Of course you can. Haven't auntie exposed us to tonnes of Hindi movies?
Me :: I don't remember any. *so i lied ... haha!*
Sis :: I'll teach you some.
Me :: Why don't you speak to him?
Sis :: You guys connect better. Repeat after me - mera nam Hajar. You are mere dosti?
Me :: Hogwash! I can't be speaking in a hodge-podge language.
Sis :: Come on. Repeat after me!
Me :: No! I shall not bastardize the language!

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In truth, I do know some Hindi. My aunt was like one huge Big B fan, hence at the rate she was feeding us with his movies, it is nearly impossible for us to not pick up any of the language. Even now, we still have our daily dosage of Hindi 101, courtesy of the Zee Channel. Obviously, my Hindi is nowhere near the intermediate level.

These days, I'll throw in a word or two in my conversations with my sis to spite her. *her present superior is a British born Pakistani.* I like to tease her about this. Not that I'm being bigoted, it's just that he is driving her up the wall so I'm trying to ease it up a little for her. Actually, I am in agreement to most of his methods. Then again, what works for some may not work for others. Judging from the present situation, no matter the amount of talks we have about this, it is sometimes pointless to make people see things in the same way just because it is arduous. *plus the fact of being total opposites.* Guess communication and compromise are the next best things.

One time I told her, "He can't be that sarcastic. Hey, I wanna meet him. You always say I am all goody-goody. Tell him to bring his wifey, kiddies and whomsoever he pleases for lunch or something ... we could have a casual chat, and perhaps something good will turn out of it." In which my sis responded with, "You are a Paki lover!". *What? talk about sending me a free trip to the land of perplexity* Eventually, the nick stuck on to me. *jolly days are here again!*


What a tangled web.
9.14am Malaysian Time

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Salam!

Salam namaste! Hehehe

Mind your language...yes! Of course I remember the show. That's where i learnt the phrase "Por favor" i.e. from the Spanish character. And how I mimicked the Indian lady always in sari's: "Godevening". In fact they are having a re-run again in one of the TV channels here...

But won't u agree, taking up a new language is really interesting and challenging. Currently I am trying to learn some French besides Arabic. How about u, besides Hindi?

Hajar Alwi said...

W'salam Heryanti :: Oh hey! Back from ur trip? ^^

Aish~ why does that sound remarkably familiar? :P

You're seriously teasing me to go back to JB. Missed all the S'pore channels! MediaCorp TV! Oh wait, you're not referring to StarHub TV are you?

It is. Ack! I'm not learning Hindi. Picked up the language from the movies. Such is the case with Japanese, Cantonese, and Korean. Presently, I'm taking Mandarin and Insya'Allah I'll be juggling it with Arabic coming Jan. Are you taking lessons or doing it on your own?

W'salam,
Hajar

Anonymous said...

when u say adopted how do u mean adopted?

Like are they friends or something or is he living with you guys? confused (sorry.

I used to think those were funny especially Mr bean,, lol.

Btw your english is pretty good better than mine and I think your in malaysia.

masalams from maj

Hajar Alwi said...

Adopted as in my sister has taken him as the little brother she never had. *the context varies, thereby in certain places it's known as pet brother, god brother or the likes ... I tend to refrain from using such terms.* He doesn't stay with us. In fact, he's in Mecca. No need for the apology & sorry for the confusion. :)

Ditto. Over the years, I've learnt to grasp the humor. Used to bean the ole bean bag cos the serials had me in stitches. ^^

Aww~ thanks! IMHO, surely your prowess is a few notches above me. Yeah, I'm in M'sia. U?

W'salam,
Hajar

Ms.Unique said...

Assalamualikum Hajar,

Thnx for reminding those old funny shows .... yup I do remember "Mind Your Language" and "Mr.Bean" ..... lol :) .... there was an egyptian version called Mr.Bheem or sumthin too ....

Hijabee said...

Lol, that's funny :) It's cool to speak different languages though :)

Ms.Unique said...

Hajar sorry to bother again but I've tagged u for a second topic "The Bucket List" ..... pls visit my personal blog site .... Thnx ...

Anonymous said...

big jar, time to sleep, nicely

Hajar Alwi said...

W'salam Ms. Unique :: Most welcome. There's really no need for the apology. ^ Thanks a great deal for tagging me. Sorry for not posting on the other tag yet.

Hijabee :: I second to that. It becomes all the more amusing when people don't think you know their language. :)

Jerry :: I'm always sleeping. :P

W'salam,
Hajar

RedAnna said...

its a skills of having multi- language speaker...
the only language that keeps on confusing me is the Pingu show... cant beleive even my grandma could actually understand the story without needing of understanding the language..huhu

Hajar Alwi said...

Redanna :: Pingu, the penguin? That's like deciphering the teletubbies talk! Aih~ my family simply hate those shows, but it cracks me up. *~weird eh?*

IMHO, I reckon the best language is not using words at all. ^^

W'salam,
Hajar

ipv6 said...

I hates Hindi/Tamil movie, the stereotype that been repeated over and over and the whole lotta more. It's all the same, just sligtly different plot, can easily guess the entire storyline pluss the highly repugnant to logic, doh! it really hurts my brain. I know most people doesn't weigh about this but interested in the faces and stuff, I used to poke fun to them, urged 'em to scan the back singer/dancers one will get my points..;D
Well I guess nothing much chance since the Hindustan film in its truly sence is about bring the working class/caste into a happy joly/never never land far from reality...

Nothing personal really but it never amuse me on how people can tolerate this, and its does't make it any better when they even buys ticket for a miming concerts.

Hajar Alwi said...

Assalamualaikum brother ipv6,

Guessed you popped over from Ange's crib, hence thanks for the visit. Actually, we share somewhat equal thoughts on this. At most, I only watch it because of my aunt, or the moral stories behind it. With the insanely chaotic world we're living in, watching it do inject some kind of hope, even if sometimes the plots are miles away from the truth.

But I still can't stand all those dancing and singing routines, in which I create satires of it during one of my impish moods.

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hajar

ipv6 said...

W'salam.yea you're right about Agne's hega(b)the horrible linkage..what can I say, we live in the interconected world, pluss I was attracted and a bit curious to the voice in the clouds thing ya know,like what kind of whispering clouds it would be... chuckles.

Sometime I do wander around in the cyberspace and litter the place with my thoughts, ideas even if it sound a bit eccentric at times. but that about it...hey make no no mistake me no wandering Jew, not even close. ;D

Regarding Indian stuff, I don't know what moral ground you are talking about,too often too little to mention. I had enough off their a bit dotish joke, unspeakable proportion of exaggeration. How about the tractor fly out of the muddy paddy field eh?oh I've seen that one in donkey's years.haha whott a bloody saddos..

yup technically it's a satire but not the one that I would spend my time wth.I'm afraid there's none exemplary in there. Not even a moderate degree of intellectual could agree wth...

Hajar Alwi said...

That, was a matter of using subtle sarcasm. :)

Don't get me wrong, it is certainly not something that I indulge in, albeit I see no harm in watching it sparingly after a long period of not doing so. People around tend to find utter joy in it, and I have no issues on it even though I think otherwise. A matter of preferences, perhaps.

In the case of intellectualism, there may be times when one wishes to breakaway from it. I suppose, this may be one of the ways for me.

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hajar