Traveling and Translating
Gao and I returned to Awana Kijal after coming back on the earliest chopper in the morning. Without the permanent Wing, today was just going to be traveling. The road to Kuantan didn’t appear foreign to me. All my life I have gone up and down the east coast trail especially during the holidays. I can’t recall exact places one after another but I have seen familiar bends and corners as well as landmarks. Once I regularly drive back and forth this eastern track, I would surely be able to line up one place after another, like Cherating is after Sg. Ular, which is after Gebeng, going towards the capital of Terengganu.
Gao didn’t speak any Malay at all and the cab driver didn’t speak any English thus I instantly turned into a translator. The best part was none of them spoke even the proper version of the language - English with the Mainland Chinese accent and Malay with the eastern accent. It was good that I was ‘raised’ in an eastern Malaysian environment so the accent was nothing new and that I have had some conversations with non-native speakers of English before. I was shoving in my best communication skills for both of them to be comfortable - I never thought I was going to cover the whole spectrum today.
As we cruised on the eastern coast pathway I requested for the driver to stop for Keropok. Even though my parents are accustomed to purchase this tasty Terengganu cuisine, I never bothered to learn exactly how to pick the good ones. That’s my loss. I bought two bundles anyway as goody from the ‘home’ state. After the Friday prayer at Gebeng, which had left Gao sleeping in the car for a good three-quarter hour, we reached the city of Kuantan where Gao and I were hungrily looking for a place to eat. To accommodate his taste I insisted on inquiring his preference and finally led him to a regular western fast-food restaurant. It’s been a while since the last time I went there so I pun bedal sama lah.
The return flight was smooth except for the excessive heat from up above. Malaysia Airlines was not providing enough air-conditioning, perhaps due to the rising price of oil (does kerosene go up as well?) Gao thanked me for assisting and I thanked him even more for fixing the module.
Gao didn’t speak any Malay at all and the cab driver didn’t speak any English thus I instantly turned into a translator. The best part was none of them spoke even the proper version of the language - English with the Mainland Chinese accent and Malay with the eastern accent. It was good that I was ‘raised’ in an eastern Malaysian environment so the accent was nothing new and that I have had some conversations with non-native speakers of English before. I was shoving in my best communication skills for both of them to be comfortable - I never thought I was going to cover the whole spectrum today.
As we cruised on the eastern coast pathway I requested for the driver to stop for Keropok. Even though my parents are accustomed to purchase this tasty Terengganu cuisine, I never bothered to learn exactly how to pick the good ones. That’s my loss. I bought two bundles anyway as goody from the ‘home’ state. After the Friday prayer at Gebeng, which had left Gao sleeping in the car for a good three-quarter hour, we reached the city of Kuantan where Gao and I were hungrily looking for a place to eat. To accommodate his taste I insisted on inquiring his preference and finally led him to a regular western fast-food restaurant. It’s been a while since the last time I went there so I pun bedal sama lah.
The return flight was smooth except for the excessive heat from up above. Malaysia Airlines was not providing enough air-conditioning, perhaps due to the rising price of oil (does kerosene go up as well?) Gao thanked me for assisting and I thanked him even more for fixing the module.
posted by Zidni at 10:28 PM
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