I have a few games on my iPod, just to amuse myself sometimes. One of the easiest and most addictive is the evergreen Solitaire.
Recently, due to my almost constant use of Malay, I found myself thinking the card placements in Malay, and even thinking of various other things in Malay... As I play, instead of thinking 'Red 3 on Black 4' I find myself going '3 Merah ke 4 Hitam' or something like that. And going 'Nak makan apa ni?...' instead of 'What should I eat?'.
Moving on into Perak, I expected to speak more Cantonese and indeed tried with most shopkeepers. As such I suddenly found myself thinking in Cantonese... 'Hoong sik sam fong lok ke hak sik sey...' It became second nature to be wandering the streets of Teluk Intan and the short while I stayed in Taiping with Cantonese thoughts running through my mind.
The reality, as I have discovered, is that Mandarin is replacing Cantonese, especially among the young. And Hokkien is still spoken very widely - more so upon entering Penang a couple of days ago.
I speak neither Mandarin nor Hokkien. And yet I have recently encountered Hokkien phrases floating through my consciousness. I catch them there lingering furtively in the corners of my mind, sneaking up on me when I'm preoccupied with some menial task. They sneak unobtrusively through... 'Bey yau keen'... 'Ka kee nang'... and I am hardly aware of their quiet peregrinations.
I have no idea what 'Bey yau keen' means. And that makes this phenomenon even more worrying! In a way I'm glad I'm not cycling through southern India... 'anneh, sappare uneh'
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1 comment:
Hey ! you say 'beh yau keen' or 'ka kee nang' is hard to understand. How about 'quiet peregrinations' ? :)
I had to do a wikipedia (cannot find word) followed by wiktionary (ah finally found meaning). Your english very 'chim' lah. Can relax a bit ah.
BTW, hope you 'beh yau keen' me closing in on you in fantasy premier league. God was on my side this weekend. :)
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