| It really gets on my nerves when my students pronounce English words in Malay style. I call it the spill-over and I would always correct their mistakes and they say, "Eh, labih jua teecha ani eh!" I never get them to see that mispronunciation can lead to communication breakdown. Just imagine them pronouncing sinterpuuin (centre point), dahbal (double), moo bai yil (mobile), soh wil (soil) pemyli (family) tele bisyen (television) etc. "Apakan kamu ani orang tua2 kah?!" One day when I was teaching a class, I kept hearing my students call their friend "pig". It made my blood really boil. "That is very rude of you to call your friend a pig! I know he's a bit slow but you don't have a right to call him pig!" My students looked at me like some thunderbolt had struck them. I continued giving a very stern lecture to defend the meek and the weak (Well I do actually bully them sometimes). "Pig" just kept quiet with his head down. "You better apologize to him right now!" Nobody moved until one brave soul raised his hand. "Teecha. It's not pig. It's pik as in Taufiq!" Eeeee.....malunya aku! But at least the kids learnt that it's better to pronounce words correctly so that they won't be calling anyone a pig! |
Monday, January 7, 2008
A Moral Lesson
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5 comments:
hahahha...PIG?? Better teach those students to pronounce properly
Oh I so agree with this post; these things must be nipped in the bud while they're still in school, so that they won't be talking like this when they (finally) enter the professional world.
Case in point : Sometime last week my friend and I were taken round by guys who were doing technical maintenance work; we were there to learn as part of our induction into a new department. So while we were out in the field, these guys would explain to us the different parts of certain equipment, and explain what they were doing to them and why.
Imagine our confusion when these guys started talking about swab bal, masta bal and to top it off, the chokbok. After much confusion, we finally realised that they were referring to a swab valve, a master valve, and would you believe it, the choke box. :P
So, well done for bringing this matter up, lol hopefully your students at least will be pronouncing english words how they should be pronounced :p
Ps: I'm not taking the piss or making fun of these guys. I'm sure they know perfectly well how to pronounce the part names properly, I mean, they had to learn it with the proper pronunciation surely. But they're just used to saying things the way they do.
F
Once my student came in class angrily and kept shouting "Sit!" but we were already seated except for him.
After so many times asking everyone to sit, I lost my cool and said that he must be blind not to see that everyone was seated except for him.
Then a kind student explained to me. "Bukan sit teecha. Sit bah sit. Bahlsit bah."
Aiyah......
Lol! Ok you're going to have to explain that one to me cause I still don't get what your student was trying to say....?
F
Sit= shit
bahlsit= bullshit!
This is Brulish for you!
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