Quickie before I head off to bed because I have got an extreme early wake up call tomorrow as I will be heading to Tabur Hills. Nature, I love.
Anyway, today, like any other day of late, the skies decided to pour unexpectedly. After our visit at Stepping Stones, we boarded the KTM back to Subang Jaya since bus rides will result in soggy footwear and chills over the air-conditioner at full blast.
As usual, I was standing in-line when all these 'civilians' decided to be impatient and pushed themselves onboard the KTM as its majestic doors open up wide at Platform 5 (hey! it rhymes). I was feeling really agitated, why can't they QUEUE UP? It's not like the train will leave without them. There is, afterall, a 'driver'.
Upon successfully entering the train, I turned to
PH and made a general remark,
"So Malaysian of them to push their way into the train, and don't even bother queueing!"PH could not agree less.
Out of the blue, this old Chinese man walked in and retorted us. He was speaking in Cantonese, some really foreign one to my ears. However, I was able to make out what he meant.
Mr. I-am-so-proud-of-my-Chinese-roots, said aloud, so loud that even the guy standing next to me was sniggering away, and some passengers were staring with awe.
He literally told us off for conversing in English.WHATTHEFUCK, right?
He started commenting about
PH and I being Chinese, yett conversing with each other using the English language. Then, he gave examples telling us a Malay, when conversing with another fellow Malay, do not use English, but stick to their own mother tongue. He accused us of loosing our roots, not being proud of our heritage, all that crap and bull. After that he made a remark going on and on about if we do not know Chinese, at least speak in Cantonese and not use the language of a foreigner (he was talking about how the English colonized Malaysia in the early days,etc)
Throughout his entire "sermon" I was literally rolling my eyes, so much that
Carmelia texted me and told me to stop rolling my eyes.
SERIOUSLY.
This is complete bullocks. I was gritting my teeth, resisting myself from asking him to shut the fuck up. Yea, not very polite, I know. But who on earth tells people off for speaking in English. UNCLE, ARE YOU IN THE 21st CENTURY??
He kept repeating himself, directly insulting
PH and I for forgetting our roots and speaking like the foreigners (he said it in a rather rude way though. I am roughly translating what I understood from his rants)
blablabla...
To be honest, I really wanted to tell him that I do not understand what he said. He was using Cantonese jargons. One should know, I only know enough Cantonese to survive. pfft!
And you know what's funny?
He started talking about One Malaysia, Barisan Nasional, and even some really touchy racial issues (to some people), which I would not deem appropriate to discuss in the open. Hey! I'm just being considerate. It's not like I'm against open discussions as such, but one needs to think about others too. Some people are just sensitive towards issues like that.
After 3 stops, I was praying so hard he will get off quickly. When he finally did, I said to myself
"Good riddance", went up to
Carmelia and
Ivan, and burst out laughing (with the whole cart staring at me, but they were witness to that unfortunate event).
Gosh! No wonder it's hard for Malaysia to develop at a speedy rate, with the existance of shallow minded people like that.
I still respect my roots, and I do not need to prove so by speaking the language. And I can't help it if I am Chinese illiterate. What does he expect me to do? Stare blankly at
PH's face if he managed to force her to talk to me in Chinese?? Dimwit!
Besides, there's a reason English is known as the international language.
It would absolutely satisfy me if I'd just get into an argument with him, because that was what I was tempted to do. Tapping his shoulder and correcting every single statement he made about the political scene in Malaysia. But on a second thought, what would I gain out of that beside satisfying my ego? Nothing. So I decided to keep my mouth shut.
Now, I would be delighted to find out what he told his family members/close friends about PH and I. I think we might be labeled 'traitors to the Chinese race'.
*clears throat* Thanks, Mister.
Oh, I am Malaysian by the way. I totally despise the racial categorization.
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