Big City Life

Downtown Calgary

I miss the big city life. There is so much youth at night … variety of exquisite places to eat, be it just to sip tea or indulge in ice cream. It is fun and vibrant! I guess it is really a different place to be. Even though I like to retreat to the suburbs once in a while … it is quite unlike me to enjoy living in a small town for long. Perhaps, it is just an age thing. And no, I’m not thinking about marriage yet

So … it is big city life for me!!!

Masked Faces

“Do you work with B a lot?”

“Not much. I work mostly with A because I have to cover his position whenever he’s not in the office.”

“NO, what I meant was, do you work with him as a group??!”

“Erm … no not really.”

At that point, it didn’t matter if I answered wrongly or was not sure because I was shocked at the way she responded. Perhaps, she was mad or frustrated. But hey, that was simply rude. Naturally, her question wasn’t clear to me, and if she wanted clarification she could have asked it in a better way. The way our conversation took off was a little weird. When I met this girl for the first time, we were in a colleague’s car. She was so different … very friendly and easy to talk to.

Today, there was a sign of distance … tone of dislike … it was as though I had put dead roaches in her lunch box or something.

At times, I really can’t comprehend why people want to be so mean. I don’t know when this feeling started to grow in me, but it takes me a long while to trust someone. Perhaps, that is why I have so little friends. I just can’t stand the fact that I am befriending a person who is not sincere and bound to back stab me anytime.

Bahasa apa ni?

Once upon a time, there was a debate over the importance of language proficiency in a Malaysian forum, namely Recom.org. The issue was that some people, who are not so proficient in the English language, voiced their opinions in a somewhat incomprehensible manner. Grammatical and spelling errors were evident in their posts, and this caused a great deal of stress to certain others who were trying to understand their response.

To me, I didn’t see a great deal in other people’s grammatical or spelling mistakes. Perhaps, there were a few who went below the “acceptable level” … but as long as the message is clearly conveyed, there is really no need to restrict access to only forum users who are well-versed in English. The forum victims who were attacked under this claim fought back by defending their rights to freedom of speech. Moreover, some were adamant in learning from others and felt comfortable practising their language skills at the forum.

And I agree. Until I saw this. I am not a big fan of forums, and I am not too sure of many forums that use “short-cut English” (or more like SMS colloquial texting) … but do check this out and see if can stay at least 5 minutes reading this. I came across this forum through mindspacemind and was intrigued by the depressing quality of everyone’s post. I don’t mean the content only … but the language itself … you be the judge yourself

kalu pompuan nak minang lelaki tgklah jugak lelaki yg camna hndk dipinangnya… jgn yang xdak saving pompuan tue gi pinang mmg cari nahas

I guess … I can understand the plight of those well-versed forum users who complained about this issue. It’s amazing how language transforms in forums. And I tend to pity those who seek alternatives (e.g. registering in forums) to improve their language proficiency.

Note that tidak ada or tak ada becomes “xdak” …

[English translation: Don't Have]

I don’t know what is the significance of removing the “a” from kalau to become kalu …

[English translation: If]

In fact, why was so much effort put into kalau when lelaki can be quite understandably laki?

[English translation: Boy/Man]

I still don’t comprehend the meaning of camna … or solve the proper spelling …

[English translation: ???]