Language Points, Part I: Bahasa Melayu

As you perhaps know from previous postings, I had the privilege of touring Malaysia during the last week of January.  I of course payed special attention to the Malaysian language while there and was thoroughly pleased with how much I was able to pick up in just a few days.  You're almost surely saying to yourself: "No surprise there, but what about me? I stink at foreign languages.  I could never learn to speak Malay."

I assure you this is not the case!  And to prove it to you, please find below my introductory lesson to the Malaysia language.  You will be shocked at how easy it is!

Lesson 1: Rahmat welcomes Greg to Kuala Lumpur

Below is a simple dialogue between Rahmat and his foreign friend Greg, who has just arrived in KL for the first time.

Rahmat:  Helo kawanku! Selamat datang ke Kuala Lumpur! Pe khabar?
Rahmat: Hello my friend! Welcome to Kuala Lumpur! How are you?

Greg: Hi Rahmat! Sihat! Awak?
Greg: Hi Rahmat! I'm fine! And you?

Rahmat: Sihat!  Wow, Greg! Bahasa Melayu awak bagus! Awak tidak ada pelat!
Rahmat: Good! Wow, Greg! Your Malay is good! You don't have an accent!

Greg: Maaf, saya tidak faham! Ia bahasa yang susah.
Greg: Sorry, I don't understand! This is a hard language.

See how easy?!  If you're having trouble, don't get discouraged!  Just move on to lesson 2.

Lesson 2: Essentials

Below are a list of essential vocabulary words and phrases that you'll need in Malaysia.  Know these cold and you can go anywhere.

Hello!  Helo!

Taxi  Teksi

Bus Ticket  Tiket Bas

Train Station  Stesen Tren

Ticket Counter  Kaunter Tiket

Platform  Platform

Lift  Lif

Telephone  Telefon

Toilet  Tandas 

Kiosk  Kiosk

 


See?! Malay is EASY!





 

 
 

Tank Man

I had a suit tailored last week in Sanlitun and had to go try it on this afternoon for adjustments.  I was riding with two friends, one of whom had invited a Chinese friend to meet us about halfway through the subway ride.  He found us in the last car of the train and was introduced to me as Mike, a university student here in Beijing.

After the tailor’s (the suit was a little tight in the thighs, in case you were wondering), we went to Blue Frog for some later afternoon hamburgers and beers.  If you’re ever in Beijing looking for a hamburger, go to Blue Frog in Sanlitun Village.  I’ve had a few burgers here – these are the best I’ve had yet.  And if you’re trying to save a few bucks, go on Monday after 4pm to get the special buy one get one deal.  The waitress advises to come around 6 or 6:30 – any later and you’ll wait.

Halfway through his beer, Mike said he felt a bit “buzzed” – we had just taught him the term – but noted that my friends and I seemed unaffected by our rather rapid intake. Perceptive…  In any event, I told him that if he was looking for a more colloquial term for someone who could drink quickly and heavily, he should go with “tank.”  The word in Chinese happens to be a loanword, pronounced “tahn-kuh.”

I immediately realized the very likely possibility that the conversation was about to take an awkward turn.  Are you getting the feeling, too?  I mean, what do you think of when you hear “tank” and “China” in the same sentence?

My intuition was correct, and we were shortly thereafter discussing the Tiananmen Square incident of 1989 – one of those “avoid-at-all-costs” topics, along with the other 2 of 3 T’s (Tibet and Taiwan) and the big F (the Falungong).  Mike said that he’d been told that many people might have died that day but that he didn’t really believe it.  They don’t learn about that in school here, and the official government statement is that although some hundreds died over the course of the protests, not one person actually died in Tiananmen Square proper.

One of us told Mike that in the United States, everyone learns about Tiananmen in school, explaining in so many words that it is perhaps the most salient part of Chinese modern history for most Americans.  I suggested that this was in large part due to the infamous Tank Man, immortalized in the iconic photographs and video footage with which I’m sure you’re all quite familiar.  Thanks to Blue Frog Wi-Fi and a slick VPN, the picture was loaded in seconds on an iPhone and handed over to Mike.

As he was looking at the photo, I brought up a Chinese saying: 螳臂当车, derived from a story in which a small insect raises his arm to stop a large cart as it passes in front of him.  Of course, the saying is used to warn someone that they are overrating their own ability and being foolhardy in challenging a much stronger opponent.  He noted the fact and so asked, “Did they run him over?”

We explained that they did not – and that that was precisely the significance.  Even when the tanks tried to move around him, he bravely blocked their path, eventually climbing on top of the foremost tank to speak with the soldiers inside.  Moments later, he was carried off by a group of people, indeed never to be seen or heard from again.

Unfortunately, we will likely never know what happened to Tank Man.  And more unfortunately, neither will a billion Chinese people who lived through it.  But worst of all, I just sat there unsurprised by any of it.

Ayi

One of the best indicators of our improving Chinese has been our ability to communicate with Ayi.  A migrant from Henan province with a thick accent and little education, she has little in common with us.  However, as we’ve gotten to know her better and our ears have become more discerning, we have indeed been able to develop a true relationship with her, a fact evidenced more clearly tonight than ever before.

 

Generally at our biweekly “Ayi Dinners,” dishes come out from the kitchen one by one.  We begin eating while the food is hot, and Ayi continues to cook throughout the meal.  Once she’s brought out the last dish, she fills a plate and sits down on the couch to rest and eat.  We speak English at the table.  Ayi looks over at us.  We say to her in Chinese: “Hao chi! Hao chi! Delicious! Delicious!”  She says back modestly, “E le ba! You’re just hungry, that’s all.”  Somehow, she only needs three syllables where the English needs six.  When we are all done, Ayi cleans up and puts everything back in its place.

 

Tonight, though, before clearing the table, Ayi sat down with A. and me as we continued picking at the various dishes soon to become leftovers.  I can’t remember Ayi ever having sat down like that before.

 

“Look at all this food!” she said. “When I was young, we just had bread dumplings and corn meal.  Even at my wedding we didn’t have rice.  We were poor.  Really poor.”

 

“How old were you when you got married?” A. asked.

 

“19,” Ayi replied, after which I asked how she and her husband had met.  “It was an arranged marriage,” she continued, “I talked to him for the first time the day we married.  I had never even spoken to him before.  The matchmaker sat us down with our families.  My parents had a look at him, and his parents had a look at me, and that was it.  Then we walked out.”

 

I asked about the wedding:  “At the wedding,” she said, “my mother kept telling me to go over and talk to him.  ‘Just go ask him how old he is,’ she said.  We didn’t really have anything.  We just exchanged handkerchiefs with 喜喜 embroidered in them and then we rode away on bicycles.  Really poor, really poor.”

 

She and her husband moved to Beijing from Henan in 2003.  He fixes walls and floors in apartment buildings and she does housekeeping work around our neighborhood.  Their life is better now than it has ever been. They live in a small basement apartment in our complex and have two sons about our age, one married and one not. “They aren't cultured,” she told us, “not like you.  They don’t study like you.  You are cultured.  You are so lucky.”

Yuanxiao

More to come on my adventure in Malaysia and Singapore soon, but for now I feel the need to share with everyone what is currently happening right outside my window.  Today is the Lantern Festival, or Yuan-Xiao Festival, which is celebrated on the 15th day of the first lunar month and officially ends the Chinese New Year celebration.  The festival is celebrated not only in China, but in much of Southeast Asia, including Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia. 

On this day, children carry paper lanterns with riddles, solving them and releasing the lanterns into the air, hence the name "Lantern Festival."  In addition, the Chinese eat small sweet dumplings made from glutinous rice filled with peanut, sesame and other paste flavorings. They become soft and gooey when boiled.

Most notably, however, is the modern tradition of setting of fireworks throughout the city.  This is why I write this post.  I have not been able to get a good enough picture to prove it to you, but I kid you not, there have been fireworks exploding just outside my window -- and all over this city of almost 20 million -- all day long.  Since it is the last day that the city will allow civilians to set off fireworks in celebration of the new year, they are going all out.

And when I say fireworks, I don't mean those silly little crackers that pop and make noise when you throw them on the ground.  I mean big, colorful, loud-ass fireworks exploding in a big way in the MIDDLE OF A GODDAMN CITY.  Which if I had to bet, will go on all night...