bahasa

hello. i hope everyone is doing ok in coping with pandemic. eventhough i'm not (mentally), but i hope everyone else is doing well. 

this is just another once-in-a-while-rant, just to keep my blog updated.

so yesterday i was having quite a conversation with my sister - about language. she was doing an assignment about it. she picked the title by herself - about how bahasa melayu menyatukan pelbagai kaum di Malaysia. surprisingly, when she mentioned about it, i have this thought inside my head for a quite some time now. not specifically about that topic, but it is about the use of Bahasa Melayu, in general.

ok soo brief idea about the topic, let us start with the general one - of how Bahasa Melayu as a lingua franca, which means it has been used as a tool of communication between people with different native languages. bahasa melayu has been used worldwide, a long time ago. how wonderful it is, that people appreciate Bahasa Melayu at the top, that they were willing to learn and practicing the language all over the world, for the mean of business or for diplomatic purpose.

but now, as you can tell, bahasa melayu gradually turned from bahasa melayu klasik to bahasa melayu moden and now, bahasa melayu rojak (the combination of bahasa with english words here and there); and not only just that, but people nowadays are even ashame of using bahasa in their daily life, that they're even saying it is 'kuno'/'outdated' when someone were  using a full sentence of malay words. how frustrating it can be that instead, they see people with english profeciency as an indication of intellectual person with high IQs. it's like the unspoken rule that exists out of thin air that 'if you're excellent in english (or any language/s other than bahasa), then you're genius.' i don't know how does it turn  out this way, but i certainly can tell that there's a lot of people with this kind of mindset. 

to be honest, this matter came across in my head just because i was about to address someone with position 'Sister' in clinic. then i start to wonder, is this title an official name/position used? can it be replaced by a malay word instead? 'Kakak' doesn't sound right though. and right after that, i found out we ARE really be using those english words as an official title/position. how lacking bahasa melayu is, when we actually can't afford to official-ize our own word for the formal use. 

another one more example to point out that has been used a lot lately is - 'Lockdown'. even for an official announcement, the media used the word 'lockdown' without even trying to figure out what's the word in malay. but Alhamdulillah some of internet users are thoughtful enough to introduce the translation of the word in malay. it is Kuncitara = Lockdown. 

of course, if you're using english - you'll reach a wider audience of whatever things you would like to deliver to people around you or on the internet, but still - if you really would like to 'memartabatkan' bahasa melayu, even the smallest efforts would count. you would expose the use of bahasa in your text - which indirectly promotes your own language. it sure is a small step, but still - the effort counts. 

on the side note, i write this post in english just for education purpose. i haven't been writing in english lately. i need to polish up my language too. :P i surely will write a post in full malay language soon. in shaa Allah.