Mandarin has gone international

March 19, 2007

When I was enjoying my wan tan noodle at Kampung Lapan (8th Village?), I encountered an interesting family. They are ethnically Indian but guess what language they were conversing? Nope, not in English. It’s not in BM either. They were speaking in Mandarin. Perfect Mandarin with accent some more. Seriously, I’m not kidding.

I know it’s not too surprising to see Indians speaking Mandarin in Malaysia, but it’s weird to me because the whole indian family was speaking mandarin to each other. My Jakun instinct strikes me again. You should at least see the other people’s reaction. You should also see the hawker’s reaction when they order their food in perfect mandarin. Priceless. That poor guy had to say “Pardon me” twice in mandarin.

It was fun observing them. It’s even interesting to see the way that guy talked to his teenage son. He said “Nawei Cibai, lancau, puki mak, fook you, Kannineh puki tiang mah chow hai, lei lou moh tiu hai why did you fail your chee bai (see? No pundek word detected) #$%%%@#$exams@%^&%@#%@%” to his son.

Okay that’s hardly Mandarin. But when you minus the excessive profanities he shouted at his son, their mandarin was excellent. So good that I think their mandarin is way better than mine. I should be ashamed. No wonder I’m always labeled as OCBC. Nope, I’m not talking about OCBC bank. Its Orang Cina Bukan Cina (literally translated to Chinese but not Chinese).

Technorati Tags: OCBC, Cibai, Chinese, Mandarin, Indian, Tamil

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