mun paham bisai ...

Yesterday was quite relaxing. Bigboss was busy working on the upcoming of the RTB Malam Anugerah 2007, so left Kimchi and me at home.

Kimchi was into her revision and preparation for her 'O' Level this year. It will be a very tough year for her and as every parent would, I pray for her every success in her academic and future life. She aspires to be an Archeologist some day.

Anyway, I was watching one of the local drama when the language they use caught my attention and I spent the rest of the day reminiscing the day I migrated to Brunei and what it was like to move here 16 years ago. Never did I think that I would be facing with a language barrier.

I speak English and the standard Malay Language. Little did I know that Brunei has different local dialects. My first encounter was with my mother in-law :) I can't really remember how it started but my mother in-law had instructed me to clean-up the living room, in the local dialect. Her words was "..panyap bilik ani bah..." Not knowing (at that time) what she was saying, I totally ignored her. Minutes later, she was repeating the same words and I still ignored her. No one was in the living room for me to ask what was it that my mother in-law meant by 'panyap'...and that made her angry. And that moment Bigboss walked into the room and explained to me, but my tears were already rolling down my cheeks (uhuk uhuk uhuk) and I quickly brushed them off.

After that incident, I made a point to jot down any 'foreign' words that I heard and asked Bigboss their meaning...lols and soon I have a self-made dialect dictionary. Before Kimchi started schooling, she was talking to me in English and the standard Malay language. But when she started school, she would came home with different unfamiliar words. Omigosh! lols... words like 'lusir', 'paloi', 'sikoi' and many more. I realised too that 'As' are being used more than the 'Es' ...for example bekas = bakas/bagas ..and now I am using more 'bahs' than my usual 'lahs' ..lols.

One of my Singaporean friend who taught Malay in one of the schools here in BSB, did experience some language hiccups too. In the end her young students were the ones who taught her the local dialect.

Just like any other languages, the local dialects have their own beauty if they are spoken in the correct way and accent. No matter how hard I tried to speak in the local dialect, people tend to know that i am not a local :D

Well...anyway, being a kacukan myself, I can't even speak both of my natural mother tongue languages - Turkish and Japanese :D! However, I have learnt some Turkish words from friends, so that I can surprise Bigboss any time soon ...lols. Words like benim askim = my love :)

Personally, I have manage to overcome the language barrier and I can, at some point, speak in the manner how the local language is spoken ...mun paham bisai :)