If we think our English spelling is bad because of confusion with Bahasa Malaysia, India is even worse because of their different pronunciation of English words...
In Malaysia, 'air' in BM means 'water' in English. Imagine the confusion of a British new to Malaysia at a petrol service station where there is air for pumping tyres and water in case of fire and for washing hands. Looking for paint? You might have to rely on your familiarity with names of international paint companies like Jotun, ICI, Nippon and the like. Otherwise, you have to look for 'cat' which is 'paint' in BM. These are just a couple of words of the same spelling but which have different meanings in BM or English.
There are many words in BM which are borrowed from English (just like English borrowing from Latin, French and other languages), but given different spellings. Examples which come to mind are restoran (restaurant) and bas (bus); with many which have spelling of the last syllable changed: institusi (institution) and universiti (university).
I can always remember the hilarity of direct translation from English to BM often seen in subtitles of films on television. 'Have you lost your marbles?' become 'Kau dah hilang guli ke?' Imagine there was a shooting scene when a commander shouted, 'Fire!' and it was translated to 'Api'!
Since English language was sidelined in national schools, the standard of English teachers had dropped to an appalling level. Many have difficulties in pronunciation and in urban schools, many students are actually more proficient in English than their teachers.
Since my breakfast 'kakis' are mostly retired English school teachers, I am exposed to many instances of wrong pronunciation, for words like 'crocodile' and 'lettuce' (crocodili and letoose); slightly more refined would be words like 'plumber' (pronounced with 'b' instead of silent) and the controversial 'flour' which is often confused with 'flower' in pronunciation.
Where foreign words used in English are concerned, it is understandable that most people (including some retired English teachers) have problems. For eg., the many Latin words used in medical and legal training which such professionals are expected to know better than us. But there are some words of French origin which many local teachers could not pronounce unless exposed to them (some did not bother to find out for years) : 'facade' (pronounced as 'fersard'), bourgeoisie ('boozwah') and debut ('daybiu'). Btw, I am not professionally trained, so please excuse my own way of spelling the pronunciations.
Update: Some selected examples from Donplaypuks:
In particular, for proper nouns, e.g. if a person’s name is Chandran, you may not spell or pronounce it ‘Candran,’ or spell it as ‘Cina’ when you mean the country ‘ China.’. Don’t pronounce ‘Canada’ as Chanada. It should be ‘Chit Chat’ not ‘Cit Cat.’
‘Isn’t it’ cannot be used in ANY of the following types of sentences:-
‘You were going home, isn’t it?’ - WRONG!! Since ‘were’ is past tense, the question should be ‘weren’t you?’
‘Lingam was going to make a phone call , isn’t it?’ - WRONG!! Since ‘was going’ is past continuous tense - the question should be ‘wasn’t he?’
‘The children will be playing football, isn’t it?’ - WRONG!! Since ‘will be playing’ is future tense - the question should be ‘won’t they?’
‘You think I am a trolley-dolly, is it?’ – WRONG!! You think I am a trolley-dolly, do you?’
Now, the Chinese. You cannot include the word ‘one’ wherever you like in a sentence e.g. ‘I wish to deposit some cash in my bank account one.’ Or, ‘Why you so like that one?’ or ‘When you talk like that one, I don’t know what to say one. ’The word ‘one’ should be left out completely in these instances.
Also, get this right!! ‘Rai’, ‘Latok’, ‘Can I lend your badminton racket’ or ‘Eh, borrow me your pencil’ should be Right. Dato. Can I borrow your badminton racket. Eh, lend me your pencil.
More:
70% OF MALAYSIAN ENGLISH TEACHERS NOT FIT TO TEACH? MANGLISH TO ENGLISH 1.01!!
http://donplaypuks.blogspot.com/2013/09/70-of-malaysian-english-teachers-not.html
Link
In Malaysia, 'air' in BM means 'water' in English. Imagine the confusion of a British new to Malaysia at a petrol service station where there is air for pumping tyres and water in case of fire and for washing hands. Looking for paint? You might have to rely on your familiarity with names of international paint companies like Jotun, ICI, Nippon and the like. Otherwise, you have to look for 'cat' which is 'paint' in BM. These are just a couple of words of the same spelling but which have different meanings in BM or English.
There are many words in BM which are borrowed from English (just like English borrowing from Latin, French and other languages), but given different spellings. Examples which come to mind are restoran (restaurant) and bas (bus); with many which have spelling of the last syllable changed: institusi (institution) and universiti (university).
I can always remember the hilarity of direct translation from English to BM often seen in subtitles of films on television. 'Have you lost your marbles?' become 'Kau dah hilang guli ke?' Imagine there was a shooting scene when a commander shouted, 'Fire!' and it was translated to 'Api'!
Since English language was sidelined in national schools, the standard of English teachers had dropped to an appalling level. Many have difficulties in pronunciation and in urban schools, many students are actually more proficient in English than their teachers.
Since my breakfast 'kakis' are mostly retired English school teachers, I am exposed to many instances of wrong pronunciation, for words like 'crocodile' and 'lettuce' (crocodili and letoose); slightly more refined would be words like 'plumber' (pronounced with 'b' instead of silent) and the controversial 'flour' which is often confused with 'flower' in pronunciation.
Where foreign words used in English are concerned, it is understandable that most people (including some retired English teachers) have problems. For eg., the many Latin words used in medical and legal training which such professionals are expected to know better than us. But there are some words of French origin which many local teachers could not pronounce unless exposed to them (some did not bother to find out for years) : 'facade' (pronounced as 'fersard'), bourgeoisie ('boozwah') and debut ('daybiu'). Btw, I am not professionally trained, so please excuse my own way of spelling the pronunciations.
Update: Some selected examples from Donplaypuks:
In particular, for proper nouns, e.g. if a person’s name is Chandran, you may not spell or pronounce it ‘Candran,’ or spell it as ‘Cina’ when you mean the country ‘ China.’. Don’t pronounce ‘Canada’ as Chanada. It should be ‘Chit Chat’ not ‘Cit Cat.’
‘Isn’t it’ cannot be used in ANY of the following types of sentences:-
‘You were going home, isn’t it?’ - WRONG!! Since ‘were’ is past tense, the question should be ‘weren’t you?’
‘Lingam was going to make a phone call , isn’t it?’ - WRONG!! Since ‘was going’ is past continuous tense - the question should be ‘wasn’t he?’
‘The children will be playing football, isn’t it?’ - WRONG!! Since ‘will be playing’ is future tense - the question should be ‘won’t they?’
‘You think I am a trolley-dolly, is it?’ – WRONG!! You think I am a trolley-dolly, do you?’
Now, the Chinese. You cannot include the word ‘one’ wherever you like in a sentence e.g. ‘I wish to deposit some cash in my bank account one.’ Or, ‘Why you so like that one?’ or ‘When you talk like that one, I don’t know what to say one. ’The word ‘one’ should be left out completely in these instances.
Also, get this right!! ‘Rai’, ‘Latok’, ‘Can I lend your badminton racket’ or ‘Eh, borrow me your pencil’ should be Right. Dato. Can I borrow your badminton racket. Eh, lend me your pencil.
More:
70% OF MALAYSIAN ENGLISH TEACHERS NOT FIT TO TEACH? MANGLISH TO ENGLISH 1.01!!
http://donplaypuks.blogspot.com/2013/09/70-of-malaysian-english-teachers-not.html
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