Research Objective
The aim of the research is to :
1. Identify the characteristics of Malaysian English used by Malaysian writer in personal blog.
Literature Review
According to Hauck M. and Hampel R. (2006), the usage of Internet-based computer-mediated communication technologies for language teaching and learning (e.g. email, internet relay chat, or, more recently, instant messaging and audio-conferencing), is not adequate to see the new learning spaces as replicates of conventional face-to-face settings. They also suggested that it may be useful to consider how meaning is made using the modes and media available in electronic environments. On top of that, they also found one study which involves students learning a second language using multimedia and which reports positive effects of matching instructional modality to students’ initial modal preference (Plass, Chun, Mayer, &Leutner, 1998). The participants retained more words studied in their preferred modality (or modalities) as compared to an alternative modality. Despite this evidence they agreed with Klein (2003) that “representations that can be categorized as a single kind of system are less common […]than those that combine two or more such systems” (p. 66). Learners in such environments constantly have to deal with narrative texts accompanied by images or audio, prose texts with illustrations, images with audio, etc. with one being embedded in the other(s) to different degrees. Hence, when planning tasks for language learning in environments such as Lyceum, tutors need to take the right modality mix into account as well as the different modes at their nature; their specific potentials for representation and making meaning, andtheir limitations.
Ramlee Awang and Lydia Wong Su Mei stated that,
”Blogs are now marking a new mode of communication, making impact on domains such as virtual formation of speech communities, knowledge-sharing, pedagogical implication as well as formation of virtual identity. It is estimated that more than three billion websites in the world today and more than 70 million are blogs. In Malaysia, it is estimated that half a million blogs existed. Language used by bloggers could reflect the unique pattern of discourse within the blogosphere where the combination of both monologue and dialogue in a space-bound, digital environment is observed. Some studies show that a strong sense of identity is seen within the literacy practices in blogosphere where bloggers tend to use code-switching and code mixing in their blogs.”
In a research done by Gebhard M., Seger W., and Dong-Shin Shin mentioned that learners were able to gain confidence as well as develop their own writing styles (Murray and Hourigan’s, 2008). In the same research, Lee (2010) also reported that blogging gave students the opportunities for personal expression and to interact collaboratively, which collective influence learner’s writing fluency positively as well as increased their motivation to write for a broader audience.Next, the research also identified that the subject developed an ability to write in structures in more complex and vary in which required the subject to attend and to gain control over aspects of the English tense system develop conceptions of text. The subject also demonstrated greater control over uses of text to interpret and produce informal exchanges with her teacher and peers in order to expand the set of functions. The second consequence of this study can be relate to classroom practice and the potential of linking genre-based pedagogy with a blog-mediated reading and writing curriculum as a way of providing under-serviced language learners attending under-privileged schools with more opportunities to interact through blogs with wider range of audience regarding topics in which are academically, socially, and politically related.
Methodology
Corpus selection: The process of finding the suitable blogs to be analyzed includes several blogs of Malaysian bloggers which the theme of the blogs were narrowed down to the specific theme which is food. Among those blogs, we have chosen one blog to be specifically analyzed.
Data collection: All the contents of the blog were relocated to Microsoft Word for an easier process of analysis. It is analyzed according to the framework of Malaysian English. The organizations of the contents were presented in a table for an easy understanding.
Findings
From our analysis we found out that Malaysian blogger exhibits the characteristics of Malaysian English in her writing. Table 1 shows the distribution of features of Malaysian English. The characteristics of Malaysian English are divided into 11 categories and they are: 1) Special feature of Malaysian English, 2) Duplication of words, 3) Code switch, 4) Spelling, 5) You-deletion, 6) It-deletion, 7) Copula-deletion, 8) Past continuous tense, 9) Direct translation, 10) Overgeneralization of vocabularies and 11) Lexical features.
One distinctive feature of Malaysian English is the addition of the words such as –lah, -meh, and –lor at the end of a sentence. This feature is frequently exhibit by the blogger in most of her writing. This shows a sense of belonging to the Malaysian society as this is the style of Malaysian speakers. For example, Not a restaurant meh, it was yummy too lei and must be good lah.
Another distinctive feature of Malaysian English is duplication of words. An example that can be found in the blog is the usage of word ‘blur blur’ by the blogger in order to emphasize the blurriness of the lens. This indicates the significance of the meaning conveyed. Among the reasons duplication of words happens in Malaysian English is because it is similar to Malay language which use duplication of words to show the plurality of a certain thing.
Since English is the second language of Malaysians, Malaysian speakers tend to code switch in their conversation as well as writing. As for this particular blogger, although she writes in full English language, she tends to insert some Malay words in her posts. For instance, 4 ladies and 1 gentleman sapu all wor, Hebat, dear cousin and Hungry dah were written in her posts.
Other than that, the writer also tends to use short forms in writing entries in her blog. An example that she used is Just right for me coz I do not have sweet tooth too. The spelling of the word ‘because’ was shorten into ‘coz’ to save time and to show her informality in writing the blog.
Besides using short forms in writing, Malaysian writers tend to dismiss certain linguistics features such as pronoun You and It as well as verb Is. This happens without the writers noticing it because they are bound to follow Malay language grammatical structure which omit these linguistics features. This is illustrated in the sentences she used such as Can [you] see me? The omission of the word ‘you’ is done by the writer. The pronoun It and the copula Is are dropped from these sentences I liked [it] and The texture [is] a little sticky like our “men ku”.
As foreign speakers of English, Malaysian speakers have limitation to English vocabularies as well as the knowledge of grammatical structures thus, Malaysian speakers always use the alternatives of translating phrases or sentences in accordance to Malay language’s grammar. The method of translating used by them is direct translation. There are two types of translation which are phrase translation and sentences translation.
Phrase level:
Hopefully it’s not cut throat expensive hor – this statement contains the phrase cut throat expensive which gives the unconventional meaning of expressing that a certain thing is very expensive.
Though it started with a wrong footing – this phrase is the direct translation of something started in a bad decision made.
Sentence level :
This, I must give praise. – this sentence represents the direct translation of complimenting something. In Malay the sentence used is “Saya mesti memberi pujian”. The writer tends to translate the verb “memberi” in Malay to give and “pujian’ to praise.
One morning we had dim sum breakfast, one morning we had bo lo bun and milk tea breakfast! – in the same note, this sentence is also the exact translation of Malay grammatical structure.
Due to the limited vocabularies, the blogger tend to over generalize words of different contexts. Some of Malay words have little lexical which can mean the same thing but at the same time give a different degree of it. Therefore, this particular blogger are not aware of the different vocabularies which English has that can give the appropriate words according to contexts. For examples:
English words used by the blogger
|
Appropriate English words
|
Intended Malay words
|
They had freed themselves
|
Make themselves available
|
Meluangkan masa
|
The star dish of the meal
|
The significant dish of the meal
|
Hidangan istimewa
|
I had enjoyed feasting on the pigeons
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I enjoyed eating the pigeons
|
Saya seronok makan burung merpati
|
We were driven there
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We were brought there
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Kami dibawa ke sana
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When we reached it
|
When we arrived it
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Bila kami sampai disitu
|
Last but not least, characteristics of Malaysian English are through its lexical features. This feature is divided into two types which are 1) English words which have acquired a local meaning and 2) Local words which entered English language and has became a part of it.
Conclusion
In conclusion, this research has fulfilled the research objective which is to identify the characteristics of Malaysian English. Therefore, it can be seen that the characteristics of Malaysian English can be distinguish from other English varieties thus making it special in its own way.
Reference
4. http://Liongirlblog.wordpress.com
5 pages corpus
Appendix A
Dear cousin’s HK friend and hubby were so nice. They had freed themselves for a day to take us to Sha Tin, for HK’s popular pigeon and visit their racecourse!
Only 3 out of 5 of us tagged along coz the other 2 preferred shopping wor…. ;D
Yup! We were driven there! The car was parked on the opposite side of the road from our destination. We were going to Lung Wah Hotel! Huh? Not a restaurant meh??
“This place is very popular for their roast pigeon!”
Hey, the locals telling us that wor, must be good lah! Drooling already!
Must cross the overhead bridge to get to the other side! Ya wor, we going up to Lung Wah Hotel… Need to go through another entrance. Like the alley feeling. ;D
Our HK couple said that this place has not changed its furniture and sitting arrangements since the 60s and that we can see this scene in many HK movies! Waaaa!!! Impressive!!!!
The plate of pigeons came with plastic gloves! The star dish of the meal ~ roast pigeon! See, this was how we ate our pigeons ~ with our hands after wearing the gloves lah! Haha! Stylo lei!
All of the above came with that plate of pigeon coz they all belonged to a set meal!
4 ladies and 1 gentleman sapu all wor… ”sai lee” (terror) or not??!
Note:
We ordered one stewed pigeon to taste the other cooking style of the pigeons. Hmmm, it was yummy too lei! I liked!! We arrived just before lunch time. By the time we finished, it was lunch time and the place was packed! Rest assured that every table here had a plate of pigeon on it!
After lunch, we walked around the place and found this interesting display! Even a playground. And this funny mirror! Can see me??? Sound travels faster??
Oh, yes! I heard sound of mahjong tiles before I sa w them!
Isskhhh… hands itchy lei! How ah?
We were being told that HK government does not allow slaughtering of birds in HK since SARS. Hence, the pigeons we ate were frozen ones from China Mainland.
Personally, I had enjoyed feasting on the pigeons. The meat was not tough and was cooked just right. Not oily and well marinated. ;D
This was the second pigeon meal we had; the first was in Stanley (when we were there for a day’s visit)! The pigeons served there were bigger in size and the meat was not as tender as this place although they were tasty too!
Still more food post coming soon!
Continue to watch out!
;D
Visit: Hong Kong’s Bo Lo Bun
One morning we had dim sum breakfast, one morning we had bo lo bun and milk tea breakfast! Great thinking, eh?
In HK, we must do what the Hongkies do one mah …
Let me now share our bo lo bun adventures with you. Yah lor, food hunting must have adventures one! ;D
This morning, we refused to have buffet breakfast in the hotel again!
Observation:
1) I saw many senior citizens everywhere in HK; having their walks or dim sum or taking strolls or sitting in parks. Whether they are healthy and walking around or walking with a stick or even being wheeled around, they get into action in the crowd, among people. It is a wonderful observation coz it shows that there are more caring young people and there are lesser depressed old people.
2) All civil workers, including many senior citizens, work in the wee hours of the morning or late nights. No obstruction to traffic and the city was cleaned by the time we started our new day in the city.
A local bread shop whose owner was too busy to serve us!
So… we walked a little further to find a “cha chaan teng” for bo lo bun and milk tea! Bo lo bun with a piece of butter in it! Wow! Nice!
Their bo lo bun texture was so much finer than our local bo lo bun!
The fragrance of butter from the bun and the melting butter added richness in the bun!
I must say I can find some of our local shops able to make HK milk tea just like HK’s! So, no surprises lor..
We tried their “g par” (pork chop) bun too! This, I must give praise!
The pork chop was perfectly prepared in taste as well as done just right! Simply delicious!
After having our first bite into bo lo buns, dear cousin and I were thrilled to find another shop in Mong Kok Road;
so much so we told our HK friend to go shopping with our Power lady so that we could have tea time although we knew very well we were going for a dinner appointment in two hours’ time!
Yes, we saw big crowd in front of Hong Lin Restaurant! People were queuing to buy whatever displayed here! We were so excited with our discovery that we walked into the shop immediately! Wah! Crowded wor…
The waiter ushered us to sit in front of a couple who did not even looked at us when we sat down.
They just continued talking about their children’s education, blah blah blah!
We ordered one bo lo bun to share! Freshly baked! Soft and warm, even without butter, it was heavens!
French toast, HK style! Yum yum!
Egg tart! Hot from the oven!
Really, look the steam made the lens blur blur lei!
Yup! One more round of their milk tea!
Who cares about not able to sleep after drinking tea in the evening? Not when in HK lah!
I could not help noticing this guy! He kept on walking out a tray of freshly baked pastries every few minutes! Can’t blame him coz the crowd outside was really huge! So was the crowd inside!
Personal Note:
I must be honest to say that Hongkies do not have sweet tooth! Their pastries, tarts and milk tea are not sweet. Just right for me coz I do not have sweet tooth too! ;D
Whenever you visit Hong Kong, you must feast on their dim sum! Don’t you ever think that they are the same as the ones found in Malaysia! Don’t be fooled by the same term or name used for the varieties! Same name are differently prepared one! ;D
Now, let me share our dim sum adventure with you! Sit tight and read on, yes! ;D
Our stay at Shamrock Hotel came with buffet breakfast but 3 out of 5 of us chose not to take their breakfast and ventured on our own for food!
We noticed a few restaurants, near where we stayed, serve Dim sum!
So, off we went for our first adventure to… Pleasant Palace, just upstairs of McDonalds at Parkes Street. From outside, this restaurant looked posh lei. Hopefully it’s not cut throat expensive hor?
Got crowd also… mostly young people… Oh, in HK also we have to fill up forms like what we have to do in some restaurants in KL.
Just when dear cousin was busy ticking the dim sum list coz she’s the only one who knows how to read Chinese, dear Power lady was being mistreated by the waitress attending to us!
First the lady came and complained why dear Power lady sat on the chair near the walkway.
Next, she throw the chopsticks and plate on the table including dear Power lady’s at the place she wanted her to sit!
Dear Power lady looked at me and I looked at her, then she said,
“Do we want to eat here with this type of service?”
I said, “No!” and we told dear cousin we were leaving!
Poor cousin, blur blur looked at us and got up anyway to walk away with us! Haha!
We got out of the building, crossed the road … … walked to the next building near the traffic light and press 3… (haizzz…. why all their restaurants on 3F, which means the 4th storey one??) Hoi Yeung Restaurant given a number to wait for our table!
A couple who reached after us got a table so dear cousin asked the waitress in charge why was that so.
She said there were only 2 of them and they could share table with existing customers but there were three of us so no place yet.
However, noticing that we were really annoyed, she walked in and came out a few minutes later and said she found a table for us to share! We must really looked angry lor!
Dear cousin automatically started her duty to tick the papers, as if sitting for an exams! ;D While we were busy deciding, the waitress taking our orders assisted us with some promotion deals!
Aiyah, why didn’t you bring this out earlier lah?
We made it in time coz we had 10mins before the promotion hours were over!
These two varieties of porridge were the special, the fried sesame balls was not! You must taste HK “malai ko”! Though it may look similar to Malaysia’s, the taste was so much different!
The aroma and soft texture made it so, so yummy!
This was the prawn vegy dim sum which was not found in our local dim sum shops! Totally refreshing!
Another, not found in KL choice, the red dates pudding!
The texture a little sticky like our “nien ku” but it was actually pudding with dates flavour!
I insisted we order the steamed raddish coz the last time I had it in HK, I loved it!
Yup! This was it! And I still love it!
Only HK dim sum of raddish has mouthful of raddish in it!
Ya lor, one heavy breakfast we had that morning!
Though it started with a wrong footing, we had it right coz we had entered a restaurant filled with old people for their morning tea breakfast here!
It was nice to sit with the locals for good food!
We told our HK friend that we loved to have dim sum before we leave HK and she took us to this one! This place was packed with old and young!
We waited for awhile before we got our table for 7 !
The jug of Chinese tea was already on the table when we reached it.
Ah, don’t worry, our HK friend ordered everything for us!
Malai ko again, with har kaw (prawn) and choi kaw (veggie) and chee cheung fun! All yummy yummy coz the skin were smoother and finer than what we have at home! Everything ordered in 2 !
7 of us, remember?! No half half! Haha!
Extras of stuffed fish paste, steamed beef ball, steamed fish ball and chicken feet! Then the loh mai kai came! Huh? Looked like lotus rice to me! Haha!
See, you call the same name, in HK, it’s different one! This one very tasty lor…
Love the sticky rice, well cooked and tasted just right!
“Chang pau”! Gotta shared liao… Really ate too much already!
Fried raddish, the popular siew mai, fried sesame balls and best of the whole lot; the “kwai far kee chi” (flower wolf berry) jelly!
Dear cousin actually learnt to make the flower jelly, recipe taught by her dear HK buddy!
Really tasted the same eaten in HK! Hebat, dear cousin! ;D
I must tell you about that gentlemen in grey shirt there!
Remember there were 7 of us? We were sitting at a table for 8, so, he just joined our table! Without asking, mind you! And according to our HK friend, that’s a common practice in HK!
You should look at the Power lady’s face when he sat right in front of her!
As we were leaving, we walked out into a big crowd waiting for a place for their breakfast!
We were being told that Tim Ho Wan’s owner is a famous dim sum chef who had ventured into business after he left a famous restaurant. He had chosen cheaper locations for his restaurants because he believes with cheaper rental, he could offer cheaper dim sum for all walks of life.
He would, however, not compromise with the quality! So, whether you are eating here or at the higher end location, you will still eat dim sum prepared with the same ingredients!
Watch out for the next HK food post ah….
got some more good food in HK one!
“Must eat the noodles! Springy! Best! Totally different from our Malaysia’s one!”
“Must eat their prawn wonton too! As big as a ping pong ball! Yummy!”
“Must eat their kailan! Young shoots! Sweet and tasty! No fibre! Not at all like Malaysian restaurants’ claimed HK kailan! Once you eat the real ones in HK, you will never, never want to order HK kailan in Malaysia! Ever!”
We found Mak Man Kee Noodles Shop, at Parkes Street (Jordan), within walking distance from Shamrock Hotel, where we had stayed. Hmmm… no English words one ah???
Small entrance into a small shop with limited sitting space! Cramped!
We were sitting shoulder to shoulder, knee to knee at one table and back to back with people of the next table! Yup! Menu in Chinese words wor… Don’t care lar, just order wonton noodles! Quick! Hungry dah!
Wah! Really ping pong size one! And extremely tasty!
Hungry until hands shaking liao… Picture also blur blur!
But I tell you, the noodles really springy! Tionk, tionk in my mouth!
No Smoking. Pets No Entry See, I know how to read lei!
Glad to find those signage on the shop’s window!
Can eat smoke free and hair (from dogs or cats) free in the shop!
After visiting Mak Man Kee Noodles Shop, we saw Mak’s Noodles just a few doors away!
We were told (later) that Mak’s Noodles also very famous for its wonton noodles!
Sigh, we did not have a chance to try it because we had so much to eat and did not want too many wonton noodles meal!! Haha! Action-nya!
Having said that, it did not stop our HK friend from taking us to another famous wonton noodles shop; Chi Kee ! This place completely filled! Wah, good business!
Yeay, menu got English description!
But not the special or promotion set! Haizzzz…
Our dear HK friend ordered a few of the restaurant’s specialties!
Err, that plate of chilly sauce free lah!
This was highly recommended but we, the Malaysians, found it weird to have barley and ginger in one drink!
“Barley is cooling and ginger is heaty, right?
How is it that they are boiled together lah?
Neutral effect ke?”
Dear friend shook her head and said,
“Don’t know but everyone loves it!
Very popular and sold out early one!”
The wonton we had been waiting for!
Err, not as big as Mak Man Kee’s though, and (to me) not as tasty!
Their noodles were served with strips of bacon.
I am not a big fan of bacon so I didn’t quite like the taste but the noodles were springy!
Plenty to eat, and this was supper!
After this we went for dessert some more!
Yes! 6 ladies ate like 10 men!
Okay, don’t tell me I never advised you ah!
You MUST have wonton noodles when you are in HK!
You MUST have their kailan!
You MUST listen to me!
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