When the fitness trainer found out there’s no Chinese name on my student ID card after i speak Cantonese with him
Q: Why there’s no Chinese name on your student ID card??
A : Because they didn’t print out ( i also don’t know why,actually i fill my Chinese name on the
application form)
When they heard i speak Chinese( Putonghua) with fellow Malaysians.They can’t differentiate China Putonghua and Malaysian Putonghua
Q: Which part of China u come from? -any-part-of-mainland-china ??
A : NO,I am from Malaysia.
Q: Why you don’t speak Malaysian Language?(they mean Malay here)
A: because we speak Chinese among Chinese in Malaysia.
When people found out actually i m from Malaysia
Q: Are you a Chinese?
A: Ya,of course.
When people found out i can speak Cantonese
Q : Why you know how to speak Cantonese?
A : Because i used to speak Cantonese in my place,there are lots of Cantonese people there.
Q: Why you come to Hong Kong ?
A : Because a friend of mine introduce Hong Kong to me,and i want to go to a place where i can speak Chinese.
Q: How many language can you speak actually?
A : four
Q: Do you stay in hall( Student residence hall)?
A : Yes
When people have trouble remembering my name
Q: Do you have any English name?
A: No,sorry.just call me weiqi.
(sorry la,but i really don’t find there’s any need that i need to have a English name such as Six or Spring or Flower or Cancer or Cookie or become the 5th Selina or 6th Micheal in people phonebook)
Its is really interesting to find out how people think of Malaysia.
There are things that we take for granted and we think that it is a very common thing, but for the Hongkees who mostly speak Cantonese,its weird to found out we can actually speak that many language.Some fellow Malaysians even speak Hokkean,which means they can speak 5 languages.
Speaking in all these languages are very common and natural to us in Malaysia.We call the language we speak Manglish. Thats a mixture of Chinese,English, Malay,hokkean, teochew, hailam, Cantonese,and -lah, -loh, -ma. This is what make us unique in this world.
When i talked to the Hongkee, telling them about Malaysia,i realize that Malaysia is really a country that tolerance many things.For example, in this Islam-as-national-religion country,we chinese still can get to eat pork.that’s really a blessing. We learn Chinese in primary school, Malay in secondary school and English in high school. There do not put a lot of restriction on learning Chinese compare to other country.Tell me another country that have this kikshou combination of education system,i don’t think there’s many.
Those who never encounter Malaysian before found us very kikshou people.They’ll ask questions bout Malaysia.Its great to have the opportunities to tell people about the country i came from.No matter the good or the bad,as they tell me “The government in HK is also coming out with kikshou things” .There are all the same is every country.
Malaysian is actually not a very bad country.but there are some people who never learn to appreciate good things he had and start to make things even more terrible. Government of Malaysia may do something that the people do not like,but can you guarantee people in America support 100% everything Bush said?
