Wednesday, 16 November 2011

When people who proud of their English, annoyed me?

I make this question because many people (malaysian) I would say are so proud with their so-own-english. Maybe because it sounds cool or the USA dominates the world, or English is the global lingua franca. Honestly, English is my native language and I'm not proud of it. But I don't see it as something to be proud or ashamed of. Your mother tongue is your mother tongue and everyone has to have one. I do think that people who speak English and only English should be ashamed of themselves.

I'm saying this because I've seen people with different background who were so proud with this language, after they got back from overseas or after gone through certain level of English education. Duhh! I called this Culture Shock! But sometimes the worst culture shock of all comes when you return home. Hello! nobody cares about your travels or how long you've been stayed abroad. Be proud of your origins, but don’t be obsessed with telling every single person you meet about your experiences staying abroad.

True when I said this because I've met someone who hasn’t lived in Malaysia for quite a while, he changes his accent and suddenly sounds like a rather constipated Queen of England with a numb tongue. Hold your horse though. Even me, myself, sometimes my looks and my diction often leave people wondering about my nationality. But I damn not proud of it at all. When I speak English I try to "neutralize" my accent from my first language (Malay). When I try to sound like a Mat Salleh, part of the reason is perhaps inferiority complex, the other is because I don't construct my Malaysian identity on Malaysian English. I find Malaysian who fake their accent DISGUSTING and TRYING VERY HARD to be someone whom they are not, and worse still, some cant fake it perfectly and I always laugh at these people. I DON'T speak with an American accent at all, and I'm immensely proud of being Malaysian! =)

p/s : I also meant the general Malaysian, not someone who had international schooling or who had lived abroad for years.

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