Teh Ais Mamak Char Keow Teow
Ever wondered what all these words have in common??..you wouldn't realize how special these common words that we use everyday are unless you've got a chance to stay in a foreign country for quite sometime..to a non Malaysian, it simply doesn't mean anything to them..i begin to realize that the terms we use to describe things back home are really unique..Malaysians are born with special capabilities of being able to decode a single sentence containing up to 4 languages at a time..
You may think that studying Bahasa Melayu in school was really a was of time..iyea it does feel kinda useless back home but when you are at a foreign country, BM is the only thing that defines us as MALAYSIAN!!..
When i was studying in US, i got to know people mainly from China and America..i would always wonder what does Americans have that they can call it their own??..practically nothing cause everyone know English..
Then what about Chinese with their Mandarin??..try walking into a chinese restaurant in malaysia, swear something in mandarin and see who wouldn't throw a shoe at you..Mandarin is so widely spoken that my Chinese friends are surprise that we know Mandarin too..
For me, the proudest moment of being a Malaysian is always when you speak BM to another Malaysian while both American and Chinese look on with amazement..we would speak in BM and not even a single soul (except Indonesians le) will understand what we just said..hahaaa
Bahasa Malaysia, that is What Makes A Malaysian Istimewa!!
