It was a rainy afternoon, so my kids and I went to the foyer of the church first while waiting for my Hubby to park the car and enter. A man was already inside and was playing with Lyle. I thought he was Indonesian. He spoke to me in Malay and all I could understand was 'rumah' which means house. Since I couldn't guess what he was asking me, I just had to tell him that I can't speak Malay. Then, he started to talk to me in English and asked me several questions like my nationality and how many years I've already been staying in Malaysia and why I can't speak Malay.
Yes, I'm married to a Malaysian ( of Indian descent) for 7 years but I haven't really lived here for a long time. My current stay here now is the longest at 5 months. But his question on why can't I speak Malay has struck me and made me wonder too? Why didn't I try to learn Malay? Malay is quite easy to learn. I'm sure it's much easier than Tamil ( which I can understand and speak a bit) and Thai ( which I can speak, understand and read a bit)
His question has challenged me to try to learn the Malay language. I think it'll be more embarrassing to reveal too that my li'l girl has more Malay vocabulary that I do. And to start with my Malay language learning, I'll have to ask my Hubby to teach me and do some online studies too. I've just found one site which does all the language translations from French, Spanish, German and all the languages in the world. I tried the tool and key in some french words like abris de piscine, Compte bancaire, salle bain and found out that abris de piscine means shelters of swimming pools , Compte bancaire means bank account and salle bain means room bath . Cool!
Any by the way, the man who spoke to me in Malay is a Myanmarist and he has been here in Malaysia for only 2 years.
Yes, I'm married to a Malaysian ( of Indian descent) for 7 years but I haven't really lived here for a long time. My current stay here now is the longest at 5 months. But his question on why can't I speak Malay has struck me and made me wonder too? Why didn't I try to learn Malay? Malay is quite easy to learn. I'm sure it's much easier than Tamil ( which I can understand and speak a bit) and Thai ( which I can speak, understand and read a bit)
His question has challenged me to try to learn the Malay language. I think it'll be more embarrassing to reveal too that my li'l girl has more Malay vocabulary that I do. And to start with my Malay language learning, I'll have to ask my Hubby to teach me and do some online studies too. I've just found one site which does all the language translations from French, Spanish, German and all the languages in the world. I tried the tool and key in some french words like abris de piscine, Compte bancaire, salle bain and found out that abris de piscine means shelters of swimming pools , Compte bancaire means bank account and salle bain means room bath . Cool!
Any by the way, the man who spoke to me in Malay is a Myanmarist and he has been here in Malaysia for only 2 years.
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