Tuesday, October 25, 2005

English or slang?

F, my new nerdy officemate asked me again after many times asking me about the same thing in the past.

F: AM, sorry for disturbing you. I need to ask you. Do you think my English is OK?

Me: Your english is much better than your other friends. I have no problem to understand you as I told you before. What's bothering you?

F: When I speak with others I felt that I don't understand what they are talking about...

Me: Oooooo..... it is not the english!...it is the slang or dialect...I have the same problem when I came here for the first time and it took me several months to understand what are they talking about.. even if they talked among themselves I am puzzled & don even catch a word.

F: It that so?

Me: One day, one of the native colleague asked me which I understood differently...it goes like this:

Mr X: whok is your hobbie?

Me: My hobbie is swimming, travelling etc...etc...(with a log lists...and asked him back the same thing..)

Mr X was puzzled with my answer!!! and he was silence for a while not responding back to me..I can see his eyes and face looking at me like blank..

Then he said..." I don't mean hobbie as hobby...I meant the other one... your husband..."
Me: haaaaaaaaaa...... (puzzled and LOL..) and Mr X laughed his heart out..


After telling that story to F, he was just laughed and laughed non-stop..Then I told him " So from now on, I do not want to hear you complaining to me that your english is not good anymore..it is just the slang that you need to get used to it..ok"

The next day, F came to office and telling me that he was still laughing about my story last night!

6 comments:

anggerik merah said...

Quite a number of them.

Nadia said...

ahahahahaha so apa sebenanye yg dia tanya? dia tanya who is your hubby ke, what is your hubby hehehehehe.susah gak yeh....at least american english..kita salu dgr kat TV..tp itu pun take some getting used to jugak masa memula hihihi...drawlnye pekat sgt....ni punsib baik bukan kat south..

anggerik merah said...

nadia, memang confused hobby dan hubby.

Ely said...

hehehehehe, too funny. we get that here a lot too.

Fara said...

and me still laughing guling2 ni!!!!! nak nak bila ingat balik .. ur hubby is swimming and stuff hikhik!!! sabor je la

anggerik merah said...

Hi Fara,

thanks for dropping in. i did hop into yr blog. Will visit again.