Languages

Studying abroad gave me a certain...exposure to certain things. And todays topic is language. It would have been fun to discuss how early guttural sounds could have evolved into todays sophisticated communicative device known as the language(although listening to certain foul languages reminds me of their origin, that, and certain pop songs). No, todays fun topic is how weird language can be. I digress: i have ever since bumped into Mandarin, Cantonese, English, Indonesian, Malay, Japanese. Just wanted to write about some observations about the people who use them, accents, and the like.

The first and foremost on my list, Bahasa Indonesia. Most outsiders admire the language; some know that it is quite fractured actually, with different regions using dialects, just like China; some know the words; some even understand it. The words are easy to understand enough, i learned Malay afterall. But when they speak, gosh. They fire off words so rapidly, its almost like another language. I sounds almost like Japanese. Strangely enough, when they switch back to normal(ie,English), they sound really different, quite a remarkable change. They're normal voices are(mostly) melodius, slow and has a really nice tone. Listening to them, you would never guess that they just employed a rapid, slurry language. Most amazed.

Then comes the Honkies. They have a tendency to pronounce English words in a Cantonese accent when using English words. Much to my friends delight. She has been emulating the Honkie in A.H. Especially while playing Foozball(Rite, prawn??). The first time i heard the accent, i kept wincing, and flinching, and i thought that he is the only one. Then i met the others. And they all talk like that. But its not so bad now, either because i am used to it by now, or the Honkies have adapted by now. Again, this accent completely disappears when they speak in English. The competant ones, anyway.

Then there are people like me. Who grew up in a place where nearly 4 languages are actively used almost everyday, by everyone. The result is what i termed, "campurisation". 'Campur' means to mix in Malay, and that is exactly that. I don't do it in Aussie, but i do when speaking to my parents, when they call me from home. I didn't even realise it, until someone who overheard mentioned to me how i use all four languages in one sentence. I realised i would use Malay words and Chinese and English along with Cantonese. My roommate says that it isn't so good, because you won't use the proper words and instead substitute them. But so far, my English hasn't shown signs of decay. Yet.