Another blessing is that some Malay words are clearly based on their English counterparts. These remind me of early primary school's "spell it like it sounds" method and actually make more sense than English's convoluted spelling rules.
Can you figure out the following Malay words? Sometimes, it's "as easy as apple pie."
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| In Malay, adjectives come after the noun. |
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| I've just been robbed! Call the POLIS! |
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| I have a headache. Can we stop at the FARMASI to pick up some medicine? |
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| That crazy MOTOSIKAL weaved in and out of the cars. |
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| If you are looking for a job, read the KLASSIFIEDS. |
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| I'm starving. Let's go and eat at a RESTORAN. |
But before you start thinking that you totally understand, remember that some Malay words just look like English but have a completely different meaning.
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| JAM means "hour" |
If a store says "24 JAM," it is not advertising its variety of jellied fruit spreads. That means it's open for 24 hours.
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| AIR means "water" |
This post is part of Travel Photo Thursday on Budget Travelers Sandbox. Check it out for more around-the-world travel inspiration.
Very interesting but you just had to burst my bubble right when I thought I was catching on, didn't you? :)
ReplyDeleteI can't imagine trying to ask for googly-eye stickers in a foreign tongue. I'm sure it was quite the experience.
We are planning a family mission trip over the summer and I told my daughter that we would begin to brush up on Spanish. She asked me if we could play charades instead. Sadly, she was only half joking.
The phrase "Googly-eye stickers" is nowhere in the quick translation guidebook. Good luck on your Spanish mission trip! I bet your daughter will pick up vocabulary by just being there.
DeleteI find some similarities with other languages as well. Pharmacy and Police are recognizable in Italian and Spanish as well. Pity about Air meaning Water, and disappointed there were not 24 jams.
ReplyDeleteIt took me about a week to catch onto the 24 jams thing since the sign is usually at convenience stores which legitimately could have 24 fruit spreads.
DeleteVery interesting, thank you :)
ReplyDeleteI find languages so interesting - although I only speak English. But I try to learn a few words from the country I am visiting. Yes somewords are easily translated to English and others not! It obviously pays not to be confushed.
ReplyDeleteHave a great week. I am linking up to you through Travel Phooto Thursday.
For a while, I thought the word "Air" on my water bottle meant that it was carbonated and was always surprised that it wasn't.
DeletePolice and pharmacy are based in Latin and Greek - great to see that in Malaysia. But that water and air mix up? That could indeed lead to some problems. :)
ReplyDeleteMalaysia was under various European rule for centuries, so I suppose the words worked their way into the language.
DeleteI was getting all excited about learning a new language(sadly I am horribly bad at languages, I try so very hard though) and then you talked about air and water haha. Thanks for showing me that sometimes certain words in a foreign language is common sense based. Hmmm maybe that is my problem???
ReplyDeleteI am also horrible at learning new languages. That's why I'm glad English is used widely here.
DeleteI'm not great at languages but if there are visual cues I fell like it helps a lot. I would have been nervous too moving to a country knowing not one word of the language.
ReplyDeleteWe spent a week here before moving, and that greatly set my mind at ease about the lack of a language barrier.
DeleteGerman has a lot of words that look like their English version too! It always helps to learn a few words but pictures help a lot too.
ReplyDeleteGerman always looks so complicated to me. I have figured most of the important food menu words, though.
DeleteI've got an image of you miming googly-eyed stickers that may be stuck in my head the rest of the day! :) It's good to know that if I ever make it to Penang that I may be able to manage - especially with the heads up on "air"!
ReplyDeleteThose words that look like English but aren't are tricky. Once you figure it out they're pretty easy to remember - especially if you get 'air' all over yourself!
ReplyDeletehey, that was fun! And what a great idea for a post!! Enjoyed this one a lot.
ReplyDeleteBeen lurking around your blog for some time now and finally thought I'd say hello! I'm a Penangite, born and bred here, and I really do enjoy reading about your experiences - always interesting to see how other people view the things that seem so normal to me :)
ReplyDeleteThere's a Penangite who was blogging for a while about her stay in my hometown of Austin, Texas, and it was also interesting to read about her views of what seems so commonplace to me.
DeleteKoreans have their own script, but thankfully many signs are in English (or some form of English!: :)
ReplyDeleteGlad to see there are some words that looked familiar in English. I can't believe they totally threw off all the English speakers with air and jam. :) What a great experience to learn new language and immerse yourself in a totally different culture. We're going to Germany & Prague this summer and the German and Czech languages are mind boggling. I'm hoping they have some familiar words on the menu or there's a really good translation app.
ReplyDeleteYep, as you have shown us, assumptions in foreign languages can make for embarrassing moments!
ReplyDeleteAwesome post!
ReplyDeleteI'd definitely be the one putting AIR in my tyres, which is how it's spelt (spelled) here in Jamaica.
ReplyDeleteWonder how they got air for water and angin for air. Very interesting.