PSS SMK TINGGI PEREMPUAN: Essay: Manglish

Malay + English = Manglish…..??? Englay….???

What is Manglish??? Is it even a proper word? Nah ah! Even if you search in all dictionaries that exist in this world, you will never find it! This is because it’s a slang that is used mainly by Malaysians especially teenagers. But the main question is how does this unofficial ‘language’ exist and how does it affect our people daily life?

“Once upon a time there was a British boy who moved to Malaysia and met three kids of different races about his age. The boy didn’t know how to speak Malay, Chinese nor Tamil. But on the contrary the Malaysian children knew how to speak British English. So they started to be friends and would always converse in English. One day the Brits boy fell in love with a local girl but the girl refused to accept him because he couldn’t converse in Malay, Chinese or Indian although she could easily converse in English. So the Brits boy asked his friends to help him to get his dream girl by teaching him some of Malaysian conversational words. His friends felt sympathized with him and agreed to help him out. After a few lessons, the boy was able to converse in Malay but not fluently. The British boy once again asked the girl to meet him. The boy began to converse as he had practice.

Selamat pagi awak, saya sekarang sudah boleh berbahasa Melayu. Jadi saya nak luahkan perasaan saya kepada awak sekali lagi.

Suddenly, he began to feel nervous and started to forget everything that he had learnt. He didn’t know what to do as the girl waited patiently. So he began to speak whatever crossed his mind,

I love you-lah. Why language barrier kena become problem to us-meh? Why not we just put that aside and mula lagi sekali-lorh…. Saya really betul suka awak, amma.

The girl laughed and accepted his proposal. Years later they were married and had many children. However, her husband still used the mixed language or more known as ‘bahasa rojak’ and used it when he conversed with his close friends. Then like waves, it spread widely to local people especially the younger ones. Then the ‘language’ become sort of heritage and was passed down and used by younger generations until now. Fin.”

That is just a fun bedtime story not a real deal. Many aspects can be consider as the main causes on how Manglish exists such as confusion between languages, mother tongue dialects, text languages and other causes that I can’t explain as I am not a language expert. But I stress this again that Manglish is NOT a language. Sure it is much more convenient to use Manglish but still it is not proper English.

Try to imagine if you coincidently meet a really good looking foreigner (Mat Salleh) who is lost and only knows English and suddenly that person asks you for directions to some place like the infamous Red Square, Stadthuys for example and you answer like this,

[Excuse me, are you lost-ker?? Oh!! You want to go to Stadthuys. OK-OK, listen right-right. You go straight from here-tau, you see corner don’t turn where-where. Just go straight until you see three roads-tau and you turn right. If you wrong road don’t worry just gostan-lah. If you still lost, you stop side road and read the board sign road. OK?]

Do you really think that the ‘Mat Salleh’ will understand you? Think again and for sure that ‘Mat Salleh’ will get more lost thanks to you. It’s ok to use Manglish but it does not make us a better speaker especially in English. Maybe when we speak Manglish with Malaysian citizen, we will not face any misunderstanding as we can cope with it but it doesn’t mean that other people will understand it too. They will not understand us unless we speak proper English language.

Manglish causes us many unnecessary problems especially among students. Many students wonder why they can’t get A+ in English Language subject. This is because they make many errors in speaking and it is reflected in their test papers. If they learn to speak properly, they can tell the differences between right and wrong sentences. Surely everybody can score A+ in English and Malay too.

Proper English is the best way to avoid any misunderstanding with foreigners especially to native speakers. Information can be transmitted correctly by speaking properly and this will save us from getting ourselves or others into unwanted situation. We also gain respect from others as we speak properly and with confidence. We can be a better debater, politician, teacher and most importantly a better person.

So, I invite each and every one of you to speak proper English as it will help us in many ways especially in our studies and lifestyles. Proper English is the best. (Ganbate!Fighting!Terbaik!)