Integration

Hilarious is it not? when we are in a middle of a conversation with someone from a diferent custom for the first time, hoping that both of us would understand and comprehend the subject matter, given the fact that both of us using the same language with different connotation..

I remember vividly my first accounter with a Kelantanese during my years in matriculation centre. It was a week after registration and I decided to go to central market. I invited Kak Jue to come along

Me : Kak Jue, jom pegi central market

K. Jue : buleh gok... tok rajin gi lagi

Me : tak rajin? malas ke?

K. Jue : eh buke... errr.. tok penoh

Me : ooo tak pernah..

K.Jue : gi selalu ko?

Me : Tak lah.. kadang-kadang je... (I answered innocently hahahahahaha)

K. Jue : (looked puzzled)

After a month or so I finally grasped most of the dialect. And guess what? Both my FIL and MIL are Kelantanese.

A friend of mine from Penang, Najwa. There was one day, I felt hungry and wanted to grab some food so I asked her if she want to come along

Me : najwa, jom pi kantin, lapar la

Najwa : segan la nak pi, hang pi la..

Me : apa nak segan kan, kan ke semua makcik2 je bukan ada lelaki pun

Najwa : laaaaa...segan tu malaih laaaa

Me : cakapler malas... kalau kat sini segan tu malu

Najwa : tu laa itik cakap ngan ayam hahahahaha

Me : ha'ah ko itik aku ayam...ayam comel sikit banyak kaler

I'm half javanese. So some of my friends like to ask about the language. You know what are these and those in Java..to some extend, I felt a bit annoyed, ye lah kalo lepas tanya tu ada kutuk kutuk sikit kan..We were having kuih cek mek molek one evening when K. Jue started yet again what-are-these-in-your-languange game...

K. Jue : oghe Kelate pangge ubi stelor

Me : ooo.. kat sini keledek

Najwa : sama la

K. Jue : Angah, oghe jawo pangge apo?

Me : orang jawa panggil sweet potatoes

Over the years I forgot the kelantanese version of keledek, until after I got married when my MIL asked me to buy a kilo of ubi stelor. I had to ask abang what is it? They made fun of me for weeks... hampeh! Same goes to timun cina and timun batang. Tembikai kan senang...

These differences which make us special, uniquely belong to a set of community. Giving us a sense of pride and security, especially when meeting our 'clan' tapi janganlah lupa kawan sebelah bila jumpa geng tuh.....after all we are Malaysians...

Our future generation...