Attended a course in Peninsular Malaysia last week. It was, basically, a fun 4-day-course.
Met some new friends...enjoyed some local delicacies. Gain a few grams within 4 days...not bad. I was hoping to gain a few kilos...Really need to gain weight here.
Encountered some hilarious (+ disturbing?) moments along the way.
The first one, happened at a shop in LCCT (airport). (conversation was in English) When I was at the counter, the salesperson asked me where I was from and when I told her that I'm from Sarawak, her response was, "Boleh cakap BM (Bahasa Malaysia) tak?". I was like , "huh?"
I mean seriously, what makes anybody in Malaysia think that a Malaysian can't converse in BM, the national language? It doesn't really matter if you speak Basilectal, Mesolectal, or Acrolectal BM, the point is, as long as you grow up in this country, there's no reason as to why you can't speak BM.
The second one was my brief encounter with a sales executive of the hotel where we stayed during the period of the course. A few of my friends and I, befriended a sales exec and had a nice evening conversation with him. Apparently, the guy was interested
in Gambir Sarawak (a plant with aphrodisiac quality, say again?), and wanted us to get some of the stuff for him. Probably he wanted to be a
Gambir pusher (huh?)...Nuff' to say that some of details (verbal explanation + demo) in the conversation made some of us felt uncomfortable...
But his killer question was, "Bila lagi nak datang Malaysia?" (everybody was stunned except for him of course)
My friend's response was, "Gila! Sarawak tu Malaysia la!"
(took the guy a few seconds to digest the input...)
Last time I check, Sarawak & Sabah ARE PART of Malaysia...
Didn't they teach you that in Geo or History? And this coming from a sales exec...damn!
Remind me of some disturbing experience when I first set foot in Peninsular Malaysia. Some of the questions posted to me & fellow Borneans were, "Do you guys still live on trees?". We would say, "yeah, but we got lifts and escalators going up." Another favourite question was, "What currency are you guys using?". We would say, "Bornean Dollars". Love to see the puzzled look on their faces.
This kind of misconception also happened in Sabah & Sarawak. Some people, esp the older generation, would think that KL (Kuala Lumpur) IS Peninsular Malaysia.
15 years have passed, and yet, stuff like this is still happening. Seriously, miscommunication/misconception like this need to be set right.
Any interesting experience to share?
