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Saturday, March 27, 2010

Loose One "o" lah!

"She's gonna let you down," Take It or Leave It by The Strokes.

As a product of the Malaysian Education system, we have all been required to learn English for at least 11 years (that's if you study until Form 5-lah). But with a whole pre-adolescent's life of going to English classes, a LOT of fundamental mistakes are still found in the English usage of Malaysians, but I'm only going to touch on the mistakes that make me cringe inside, because even some TESL/TESOL students make these. Seriously. And since I'm a future teacher, I'll kindly correct the mistakes. So if you find yourself saying "Eh, salah ke ni?" after reading, please take note. (Most of these mistakes are committed in written form, since it's hard to detect 'em when spoken)

"We're going to win and you are going to loose!"
It's lose, ok? Loose means longgar, or ill-fitted, so just imagine what the person at the receiving end feels like. (Most probably laughing his/her ass off in his/her head) (Ass in the head? lols!)

"You will only make it more worst!"
What? A comparative and a superlative put side-by-side? Cannoooooot. It's like saying (in BM) "Itu yang lebih terburuk". Yeah, some even say THAT in BM, but bottom line is that it's still wrong. The correct way of saying it would be either "You will only make it worse," or "That's the worst," depending on what you want to say.

"Man, this is unfair! You're so buyers!"
What does being unfair have to do with liking to spend money? Nothing, that's what. It's "bias" in it's base form, "biased" as an adjective.

"Your not funny!"
Yep, it's wrong. It should be "You're", the combination of the words "you" and "are", instead of the possessive pronoun, "your". Click here for further reference. Let Ross explain it to you.

"Let's go inside of the house."
This offence is actually committed even by Westerners. Does "Inside of you" ring any lyrical bells? The "of" is supposed to be omitted, as in "Let's go inside the house." If you insist on using the "of", using after the noun form of it is okay, like in "The inside of the house was beautiful".

"We also can bla bla bla.."
It's "can also" lah! This is a direct translation of "Kita juga boleh..", and direct translations don't work.

I risk looking like a total douche by posting this, since my English isn't all that perfect either. But I post this to rectify any person who has made these errors in the past and bring enlightenment to them. It is my hope that in the future, people who have read this post will no longer make the above mistakes. And if I have made any mistakes in my writing, please tell, because I know I'm far from being the next Obama or the Queen of England (English usage-wise).

Any other mistakes that make you wince? Drop 'em in the comment section yaw!

Cheers!

13 comments:

Chom said...

it must be that boring for you to write something like this? hahaha :P

anak pak man said...

Chom,
Not boredom, but hypertension.. wahaha
Assignments have thrown me off the wagon..

chalkies said...

mistakes, miss take

cik penguin said...

yeah. those are only some of the mistakes people do. let's not forget all those plural/singular confusions. and stuffs.

well, then maybe i should be called a really bored person too. :D

p/s; darlings reading this post, this isn't boredom. it's awareness of reality :)

mahpuzah said...

did you notice some of the malay singers when they sing a malay song the way they pronounce the 't'? but when they sing an english song 'the' sounds like 'de'. i can still remember damien mikhael asks a contestent in gangstarz lg: what do you do for a living? he can't answer because he does not understand the question. some people think when you speak english you're a show off but it is not always like that. practice makes perfect.

anak pak man said...

afifi,
miss taken? :P

cik penguin,
Yeah, but for me to list 'em down would take infinite space.. Plus, I don't think I could keep myself sane by reading that many errors made by ESL undergrads.. hehe
awareness and the will to try to correct 'dem mistakes.. ^_^

mahpuzah,
Malays unable to pronounce the "th" are just too recurrent that it's not even noteworthy anymore.. Plus, those who are able to often mix between the usage of the voiceless and voiced form of the "th" sound..
And totally agree on the "English speaking=show-off" thing..
I think if you exaggerate a British accent when speaking, becoming more "English" than English people, then that could be considered showing-off.. hehe

nuhan said...

clap..clap..\(-.-)/..

anak pak man said...

nuhan,
*blush

nuhan said...

*pang!!*..hahha

Megan Chng said...

misuse of the apostrophe pisses me off. your/you're, his/he's, their/they're.

OH OH OH AAND REPEAT AGAIN! Ahahahaha.

anak pak man said...

nuhan,
bang! bang! hihihi

megan,
hehe, yeah, i can see that ur pissed~

Anonymous said...

he is 180 cm tall. that's mean, he is taller than you.

i'd give anything to be allowed to slap people who do this.


comment replied~!

anak pak man said...

max,
mind if i keep calling u max teacher?
yeah! totally forgot to include this BIGGY!
thanks for pointing it out teacher..