My 5 year old son insists that he can speak English better than he can speak Malay. Many times he would get confused between English words and Malay words. One day during his usual storytelling, he mentioned about someone farting. He used the word ‘kentut’ meaning ‘fart’ in Malay (Bahasa Malaysia). Just to test him, I asked him in what language is the word ‘kentut’. He told me that it is in Malay. My next question was, how do you say ‘kentut’ in English? Confidently, putting on a Mat Salleh ( Malay slang word for white man) accent, my son answered “Kern-Tayt”!
Sunday, December 17, 2006
My son, the linguist
My 5 year old son insists that he can speak English better than he can speak Malay. Many times he would get confused between English words and Malay words. One day during his usual storytelling, he mentioned about someone farting. He used the word ‘kentut’ meaning ‘fart’ in Malay (Bahasa Malaysia). Just to test him, I asked him in what language is the word ‘kentut’. He told me that it is in Malay. My next question was, how do you say ‘kentut’ in English? Confidently, putting on a Mat Salleh ( Malay slang word for white man) accent, my son answered “Kern-Tayt”!
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