Some Malaysians are Nice..

What do ppl who has lived outside of Malaysia complain about the people here?

U know for some reason I can't remember much of my complaining, but one of them could be the driving and the lack of manners, and sometimes the heat.. But it's part of who I am now.

I think an earlier blog was about how I found Malaysians to be rude, but putting that aside, some Malaysians are pretty decent people! Here are some examples that somehow makes me proud as a Malaysian.. LOL!

So I lost my IC when I went to the weekly wet market with my parents. I knew I lost it there, and I didn't make a fuss out of it. I didn't want to hear the nagging, the "responsibility talk" yada yada yada.. But that's not the point! Some random guy found my IC, and was so sweet and responsible enough that he actually sent it to my house by hand! Meanwhile I was contemplating on how to break the news to my parents. There, no need to tell them, they already know!!

And I'm not the only one apparently who has been in similar situation. A friend of mine lost his IC and someone actually returned it to him at his house (and his house is like dalam ceruk mana entah!)

A different event was me trying to help by just being there for a friend whose tire went pancit. I have limited knowledge on how u go on about changing a flat motorcycle tire. So here we were contemplating what to do. And this young man asked if we needed help. My friend, being a bit skeptical said nothing, so I said, "yeah.. We have a problem. That tire there is flat!" He offered to take the wheel off, and bring it to a tire shop to get it fixed! I'm like.. Is there actually such nice ppl in Malaysia? But I think I'm lacking the doubting/pessimism of ppl of a typical Malaysian.

But he came back with the tire (if anyone was wondering)!!

See, there are nice ppl in Malaysia!!

U speak English or not? Ur Malay sounds funny!

So here I was sitting at home with conjunctivitis, and wanted to share my experience with another airline: Etihad.. But it got me thinking, why am I so critical on airlines? I reread my blog entries, and most are on airlines, and I just realize how I wrote back then and now are kind of different..

That's when I came to the conclusion: My English is getting worse!

Oh well.. Must be from lack of practice and use. Huhuhu.. The other day also, I was chatting up with a new found friend of mine, and we spoke in Malay. I keep on tersasul cakap Melayu Sarawak. So I changed my medium to English.. This is so against my principal tapi what to do kan? I mean I speak Malay at home and it's my mother tongue, so why can't I carry a conversation in Malay? If I speak in English, it'll b mostly English, and no ketersasulan.

So as a personal observation I think I can only speak Malay to family members and maybe old friends who I'm comfortable with. Speaking Malay is so hard especially with people u just met, what with how to address urself and other people. Whether to use I/U, aku/kau, saya/awak, or the 3rd person calling thingy.. Arghh, so confusing! At least with Sarawak Malay I can stay safe with kamek/kitak.

My cousins from Johor says that there's a distinction between the Semenanjung Malay speakers and Sarawakians. We (Sarawakians) speak Malay softer. Do I? Maybe I speak softer from lack of confidence? I know for one that my sister don't speak Sarawak Malay, but she does speak in a more softer well-mannered way, so good for us then?

Oh, and I was also chatting up with a friend back in USA. "I got red eye," now how Malaysian is that, as supposed to "I have the red eye"? LOL! Oh no, my English is getting more Malaysianized by the day!! And my Malay is getting Sarawakinized too!!

I guess I'm embracing my culture and language by the day then.. I just hope my English and Malay won't be too bad in a few months and years to come!

I work...

So here I was, at work and trying to read up on "stuff I should know" as a mechanical engineer graduate.. And I go, hey I know this, or perhaps I've seen this before.. And yes, I've learned about them, took exams on them, wrote papers on them.. But what do they all mean?

I rack my brains and can't remember what role they played in the whole equation.. Sad isn't it? But there u go.. A waste of a 4-yr degree study. And I believe I'm not alone on this one.. How many of u read the paper, magazines, or even watch tv and go on saying "Hey, I learned about this before!" but when asked about it, u don't know a single thing!

Raya Mode still going strong!

I can't believe my last post was on July 7th! But here I am again..

I want to tell u how awesome an Eid I had! I can't believe I wanted to stay in the States to work and miss all the Hari Raya fun back in Malaysia. Actually, I can't believe how much I missed out on Raya! The preparations, the jalan raya with friends (convoy perhaps), the visiting relatives, the gossipping (or more politely known as catching up), etc..

So much fun!

But the sad thing was that in 4 years I've missed out on this "family gatherings" people tend to forget faces they don't see often. I've been called my sister's name, my cousin's name and asked numerous times who I was. And it doesn't help that I don't live in Semenanjung (where the rest of my mum's family and sisters live). So I don't socialize with these few ppl much. Oh well, u lose some, u gain some..

So tomorrow's my family's Raya Open House. I hope to see ppl I haven't seen in ages! And hopefully, I'll get back and share some silly story here and there..

How did Mum do it?

I don't think I'm cut out to work! Ahahah.. I'm pathetic!

But I'm cutting down my hours of sleep to 6 hours/day (from 9!!), though I have yet to get a hold of my housely duties pertaining to household chores--cooking, cleaning, laundry etc (dishes are still waiting to be washed!).

What lame excuse do I come up with? Hmm... I come home physically and mentally exhausted!

I don't have a younger sibling, or anyone else (besides my lovely cat) that need taking care of. It's basically me who needs to be taken care of. So how did my mum do it? Working full-time (and those traveling!) and taking care of her kids & nephews & nieces? Taking time to teach Sejarah, doing Art projects & homework, and running errands and those emergency leaves and clinics? I remember I wasn't the healthiest of kids... How did she do it?

Oh well... On a second note, I got a new job! Yeay... And I was so confused at work today, what with ball and screws and servo motor and tact time. I'm so not cut out to be in a manufacturing world (or is it because I didn't have at it long enuf?).

Languages languages..

"I will look stupid if I speak Malay!"

Heard that one before? Some public figure said it on national TV I think.. Oh well!

Do I look stupid speaking Malay? I speak Malay maybe 33%, Sarawak Malay 33%, English 28%, 6% Melanau (pathetic eh?) not that I actually did a full research. There's that much of diversity, oh and I'm taking up Mandarin.

So what language should I speak when approaching someone I just met or a sales person? If I start speaking English, nanti orang cakap sombong. If I speak in Malay nanti there's the double standard. You sometimes won't get the 5 star treatment with service. But there's some good points to it, these ppl will just let you be!

I love telling my Western (meaning KL) stories.. So I was bored waiting for my sister with her haircut so I chatted up with the hair shampoo person there. I spoke in Malay cause I overheard her speaking in Malay. We chatted up and she asked what I was currently doing. I said I just graduated, she asked from where, I replied from USA. She had a customer a few weeks ago, a graduate from La Amerika too, but according to the hair shampoo lady, she was too sombong to speak in her Malay tongue, ada American accent pulak too..

Doesn't it saddens you to hear stories where Malays aren't proud of the Malay language? I know I speak good English, but I chose Malay, even at work with my 3 Chinese colleagues whose Malay is worse than their English (no offense ppl). Some Sarawak Malays can't speak good Malay I agree and choose English as their medium instead (some West Malaysians are rude and just assume they're Indonesians--believe me, I've been one of their victims) so sometimes I understand the choosing of English over Malay..

It saddens me when I hear parents speaking to their kids in English rather than their mother tongue, to know that the child's first language isn't either Malay, or Chinese.. I didn't grow up speaking English (except that short time in Michigan), so I don't see why kids should speak English as their 1st language. And what's with the English education in Science and Math? I take that back, I haven't thought much of this issue so I won't comment much.

Word of advice, embrace your heritage, your language, your culture!

My 1st day at W-O-R-K

Well.. So far, what I've done is complain, complain and more complaining on how sucky my job is. And it's only my 1st day at work!

I'm so not cut out to be a working girl! Ahahah..

Let's hear out why I hate my first day so far. So today was the 1st day of orientation, and there's 3 other people with me. All Chinese boys who prefer to group together and talk in their Mandarin. Why we don't get along much:

1. I'm a girl
2. I don't speak MANDARIN ok!
3. They already have friends who work in the company..

Lunch was awkward! And those intervals in between all the activities was too. There I sat all alone, not understanding what they were talking about. Poor ME! LOL.. Then there's the pay (less than half of what my sis made when she 1st started work), and the holidays!! 8 days/wk? How am I gonna survive? I'm the queen of taking days off!! I like Fridays off and now I have to work on a Saturday too??

See, I have a dad that had a 90 days/yr holiday once (though I think he's back at 30) and a mum of similar days too. I'm used to my mum taking time off work to pick/send me to the airport. Wheee... And now I can't even go out of the company's compound without a release letter? Even out for lunch!! Wow, I feel so compounded already! ahahaha...

And I went to complain to my sister.. And guess what! She told me she just received an Ipod Shuffle from Shell! And she got an Ipod Touch too from the place she worked! Arghh.. Jealous jealous!!!

But it was nice to hear from friends who remembered it was my 1st day at work. And from an aunt who called to ask how it went (and the first thing she asked was "were you sleeping?" I am the ratu for sleeping too btw..

I complain a lot, but I'll give this job and myself a lot of time to adjust too.. Let's hope the 2nd day doesn't go as depressing as it was today..