Yesterday we went over to our friend Din's house for the Majlis Kesyukuran to celebrate the birth of his son. He's leaving the UK soon as his wife as already completed her PhD studies. They have been here for nearly 4 and a half years now.
As usual, most of the Malaysian families were there in full force with the kids. Most of the children were born or grew up here including two of Din's kids. It's quite funny because the parents would be talking in a mixture of Malay and Malaysian English with the occasional Lah! thrown in while the kids would reply with a British slang. Most of the kids can't even speak a single sentence in Malay.
I wonder how they are going to adjust to Malaysia and Malaysian schools when they get back. I remember a story one of our friends told us about her kid, who's very bright and talkative. He had a culture shock when they got back to Malaysia. Unlike in the UK where kids are taught to be inquisitive and to speak up in class, the Cikgu (teacher) actually fined him every time he said something in class.
Anyway, I was watching the kids (between 5 and 10 years) playing with the computer and they were searching for a song on YouTube. They finally found it and told me the singer is "Jojo".
I told them, "Sorry! I haven't heard of her."
And they gave me that "where are you from" look.
BTW, JoJo is the stage name of Joanna Noëlle Levesque, a popular American pop singer.
Already see a generation gap here.
Tags: Kids Jojo
7 comments:
I have a friend whose father was a Malaysian diplomat.He was born in Yugoslavia,raised in France,other parts of Europe, went to schools all over the world and stayed in Turkey for 6 yrs before he finally "came back" to Malaysia for the 1st time in 18 years...he hates it when ppl ask where he's from cuz he doesn't know the answer.
Salam...agree with you Adam. Our kids here are very "advanced". Sometimes, they make me realize how old I am now hahaha :-)
walau di mana pun anda berada, jangan lupe pada asal usul kita...
p/s:tidak hilang melayu di dunia...
i guess it's natural for the kids to experience culture shock... though this is a different kind of shock... shock of their own culture! never mind though, they will adapt well soon i guess being kids.
at least the kids are lucky to learn get the english well. and perfect.
i got one friend who came back from UK when i was in primary and yes he talked very slangish. lucky the teacher didn't fine hime though.
what?! you don't know jojo?! haha!:) i don't know much about her myself. i only know her because i have a teenaged sister!:)
Raven: Must have been hard for a kid to make and then lose friends so often.
Rosydi: No lah! We are still young. ;-)
Cikdinz: Agreed
Lucia: It would be harder for the grown up kids.
Pink: They will soon lose it after they reach Malaysia.
Babypink: Nice to have you back again.
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