Pizza Cake
I met up with an old friend recently, someone who I had not
met for quite a while. It can’t have been that long, but I actually got
somewhat lost on the way to her house. To more specific, some of the roads were
changed and/or blocked, but all the same, I had not figured them to change
drastically enough until I couldn’t find my way around my own supposed
backyard.
I arrived in good spirits all the same, if not quite in good
time, and proceeded to have a pleasant conversation with both my friend and her
mom. I’ve known them for quite a number of years, and it is always a pleasure
to meet up with people from your past, especially those you really like.
In anticipation of my visit, they had taken the trouble to
order some pizzas, so as to make it a more complete Malaysian experience (of
course, we’re not the only country to do this, but no such experiences are ever
complete without food of some sort). The only problem is, though, that the
pizza took forever to arrive. They actually placed the order prior to my
arrival, but even taking into account of my unplanned detour(s), they should
have arrived a lot earlier.
Somewhat unhappy, my friend called to enquire about the
status of the pizza, and whether they would be arriving any time soon. Here,
dear readers, is where the issue began.
My friend is a Malaysian who, unless I am very much
mistaken, have lived in Malaysia pretty much all of her life. She speaks English
very well, with her pronunciation and cadences sounding all very
‘international’. She doesn’t, however, speak very good Malay. The person who
took the call for the pizza company probably speaks Malay fairly well, but
given the problems and issues about to arise, I’m guess her English is probably
not quite up to scratch.
And so you can see where I’m heading here. Obviously, there
is some problem with the pizza delivery service itself, whatever it actually
may be, but in trying to solve a problem, most parties would usually come
together and try to see what could be done to minimise whatever fallout there
may be. But what if the common ground between the two sides is so small that
direct and honest communication is difficult to carry out?
My friend’s mother then took over the phone. Her Malay is,
admittedly, not much of an improvement on her daughter’s, and so the fireworks
crackled. I looked at all this with much amusement, and wondered why it has all
come to this.
It must be noted that I am not writing this as an attempt to
point fingers at any given party. Speaking purely of the linguistic divide,
English is currently the main international language utilised by pretty much
everyone. There are many reasons for this, and the fact that the future may not
quite be the same for English does not negate that fact in the contemporary
world. Therefore, its study and usage is not something to be discouraged.
At the same time, Bahasa Melayu (and its variants) is the
language used by the majority of the people in this region. As bastardised some
of its origins may be (not unlike many other languages), learning and using the
language used by a very conservative estimate
of over 200 million people, especially when you have been born and bred fairly central to its region of origin, is somewhat useful, I would think.
Obviously, there’s more to this actual pizza situation than
we know. The true story may never truly come out (did the delivery boy’s tyre
blow out? Was he actually kept waiting by the customer prior to us? And why
would the girl who answered the phone pretend to be the manager of the
branch?), but all the same, as I see the two sides clash, I can’t help but
wonder how we, as an entire nation, can move forward as much when there still
remains linguistic chasms to be negotiated over something as simple as ordering
a pizza.
There’s more to this issue than meets the eye, and a more
complete discussion of the entire issue would have to wait for another day. All
the same, it is not a particularly new topic, but it doesn’t mean that it’s not
current. I do believe, however, that unless we make a more concerted attempt to
address these gaps between us, moving forward and progressing as a nation is
not going to a pizza cake (piece of cake). #thekol
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