1 post tagged “english”

So I went to this Indian shop along Birchfield Road after uni to get a phone card. The phone card is sooooo cheap! 60 mins for a pound! I was an ALPHA BLUE regular customer. It costs me 3 pounds for 142 mins. But since they are no longer selling alpha blue (Boo to them who stopped it) the shopkeeper introduced me to this 1 pound phone card. Which I think is not bad either. It's called the WILD CARD.

Me: Hello, can u give me the 1 pound phone card please?

Shopkeeper: U mean the WILD card?

Me: Yes please. (I was damn serious. Lain bah usulnya when he said WILD! BERIGALI!!!!)

Shopkeeper: Which country?

Me: Brunei ( BRUNEI bah! inda jua kan ke India ku call!)

Shopkeeper: Brunei Darussalam? Wow! I thought you are from America.

I just kept quite. It's not my first time. So I'm not kambang lagi. Hehe..

Shopkeeper: How come u can talk in good English? And your accent is totally American.

I was like...EH! Brunei cakap english jua!  Our subjects are all in ENGLISH medium infact! (emm..all in english jua kan..i think)

Me: Bruneians can speak English very well. It's not our first language but English is widely used and it's considered as our second language.

That's why we have TESL kan..Teaching English as Second Language?  I assume lah ah... Hehe..

Shopkeeper: Oh, nice. Have a great time on the phone later!

So, what's wrong here? Why do people think that the Bruneians can't speak English? Or maybe they think the Asians don't speak English? To make things worse, some people think Brunei is uncivilised. NO CINEMAS, NO SHOPPING MALLS, NO MOBILE PHONES, NO NOTHING.

Ali even told me that one of his colleagues asked him on his first day of uni "So, how did you survive in the jungle?" JUNGLE!!?!!! I was wondering if Ali was wearing the right outfit that day. Macam Tarzan kah bajunya? DUH! Sometimes paloi jua dorang ani ah.. If we do live in the jungle do u think we will get accepted to study in any university? Ali is doing degree in Psychology for crying out loud! So...Ali, the jungle boy is a future psychologist? Think people, Think! Apalah!

So listen peepz, Brunei is not uncivilised. We do have big malls, up-to-date mobile phones, great cinemas, bowling complexes (eventhough inda banyak) and we do talk english. Even my nenek speaks english wah.. (Banar ni my nenek can!) We are not what you think we are. We WERE uncivilised back then but hey, it's year 2007 now people!

Ok, I am not mad am I? Bulan Ramadhan ani selalu kena test kali bah ah.. Sometimes you just feel so pissed when people didn't know that Brunei exists! Serious! No jokes ni.. Most of the people around the world have never heard of Brunei. And one of my colleagues was so shocked to know that we have a Sultan. She thought Sultan was just a fairytale. *err, weird huh* But anyhow, this link can tell u MORE about Brunei. It's awesome! I love it. Happy Reading :)