Gracy Bee

Manglish

Posted on January 20th, 2007 by GracyBee.
Categories: Everyday life.

Ever since I have returned 4 months ago, I realised that in my hometown, the ‘official’ languages used are (according to ranks; as so I experienced): Manglish, Hokkien, Malay, Cantonese, Mandarin and English. YUP, Manglish….

Manglish is fun. Though the usage of it has made many frowned, I like to use it when I’m communicating informally with my friends. This is also the very language that I used to identify Malaysians/ Singaporeans when I was in the UK! There is a sense of closeness. Of course, I’m not encouraging everyone to use it, but to use it informally should be all right. For business and formal occasions, of course a proper respective language is needed.

^^^^^^

Manglish, as I have experienced right here in my hometown is more from my grandparent’s generation, mainly hokkien - English to go about understanding different things in their context. It can get pretty interesting. For example,

#1: Tan Guan Sir: It actually means Town Council
#2: Rocket Man: This refers to the astronaut in NASA. haha…that is what i 1st thought but no…actually means the Opposition Party in Malaysia. (Derived from the logo.forget the name)
#3: Teng Miah Hor (long life rain): means the monsoon rain
#4: liao lai zho ayam (lost money become chicken): typically means lost money. (why the chicken?!)
There are still many others I believe I will come across, and in due time, I think I can compile them into my own dictionary of hokkien-english. haha

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