My Impressive Malay Vocabulary
November 21st, 2007 | Published in dispatch, glbt | 11 Comments
Impressive to me, myself and I. This weekend, I learned:
- A coconut is not santan, although its milk is. Note to self: never try ordering one santan.
- The difference between kelapa (coconut) and kepala (head). It all makes sense now: I kept wondering if kepala ikan meant coconut fish or fish head.
- I am very mengada-ngada. According to Sze. How she knew that, I’ll never guess.
- The extent of my remaining Malay vocabulary: liputan luas (wide coverage), angkasawan (astronaut), wawasan dua puluh dua puluh (Vision 2020), pengembara (explorer). Is it not obvious the extent of my Malay education comes from driving up and down the North South Highway and reading its billboards?
- Nobody in Malaysia uses the word atas the way we do. They use it to describe height, not height of snobbery or social class (e.g. that atas place). Nobody seems to know the word nonok either… which is possibly my favourite word (and thing). What a pity!
And my not so impressive Cantonese, which I am never going to speak again in the presence of Cantonese-speaking Malaysians — yao meh gai? (’Got what chicken?’) and ngoh um sek tang (’I don’t understand’, which some people managed to hear as ‘I don’t drink soup’.. suggesting the extent of my excellence in Cantonese). Just give me a few more months. My Malay mad skillz will reach.. such surprising heights. My Cantonese, on the other hand.. should just stop right there.
In other news. We are going to have a Coming Out Party in KL. The Malaysian lesbian blogger and I are going to have a Lainie and Popagandhi Are Coming Out (Of Where?) Party in their smashing new GLBT (Gay, Lainie, Bi and Tate) household. Just because we can. On the invitation card — You May Not Also Know This: The World is Round, The Sun Rises from the East, Lainie wears dyke pants, and This Closet We Are Coming Out Of Doesn’t Exist. Anything for a good party, especially after missing that house-cooling one.
November 21st, 2007 at 10:48 pm (#)
atas has become very much overused in everyday lingo. Thanks for clearing that up! Now that I know what it means, does that mean 1.8m qualifies as atas?
What does nonok mean?
November 21st, 2007 at 10:53 pm (#)
HAHAHAAHA.
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=nonok
And also see this.
http://alfian.diaryland.com/non.html
November 21st, 2007 at 11:41 pm (#)
Pompuan yang suka mengade,
Luput = expire. I think you meant “liputan”; it would have been disastrous if they put it as “luputan luas”. =)
Lastly, re: GLBT, it’s Gay-Loony-Bi-Transgender! Tate’s putting on the tutu, you absolutely have to make the trip to KL! We’ll have the drinks, food, fun and bedrooms ready…if you know what I mean. ;)
November 22nd, 2007 at 12:01 am (#)
:) Skank. Please at least try to cover up your glass panelled bedrooms before offering them to me! :)
November 22nd, 2007 at 12:26 am (#)
That was incomparably hilarious! Thanks for that link - how fascinating our humble origins are! Would they have to replace the merlion with something more relevant to the nonok, in light of this new information? =p
November 22nd, 2007 at 2:35 pm (#)
I know what nonok is!
The older women in my family use it oh-too-much!
November 22nd, 2007 at 3:07 pm (#)
I know what nonok means, probably coz im indon…
and hey guess what, thats my fav. word(thing) too :P
November 25th, 2007 at 2:02 am (#)
ah, we shall try and top the house cooling with your help
November 26th, 2007 at 12:46 am (#)
so so you coming for the “house warming” (in more ways than one) party? :D
November 26th, 2007 at 1:01 pm (#)
If I can help it, yes :) All you people are skanks.
November 27th, 2007 at 12:51 am (#)
http://staff.tpjcian.net/chu_chee_chin/pl/06082005.html
I was at Alfian’s reading of Nonok at the 2005 Contra|Diction. mp3 recording of the reading at the link above.