A Malaysia Culture - Our Slang
This was an unexpected visit to LINC Kuala Lumpur where I am having lunch with my wife and brother who came to KL to attend some courses. LINC has been an artsy and hipster kind of place to visit and the food there, Ben's is one of my favourite spot to go. After we had our lunch, we walked around and saw this gallery themed My Slang My Pride which talks about Malaysia's local slangs with a mixture of different language and used by Malaysian on different occasions. This is a really interactive gallery where it really rhymes with the locals. Some of the terms I am not that familiar which may be widely used in the Malay group or Indian group. Guess I gotta brush up my own Malaysia's slang.
So I had taken some of the interesting and familiar terms that I had been using in my daily life, let's see which you are familiar with?
Literally means someone is steady and well prepared. Usually refers to people who seemed does not care but at people's back, they are working their ass off.
A common not-that-vulgar term literally means "shit" in Hokkien. Well, when I screw things up, I will shout KNS.
Kantoi, it is like "Oh no, caught red-handed". Haha, you know when someone doing something naughty and get caught. As a friend, you will say "kantoi la you".
When you are expecting to complete certain things but ended up screwing up, it is something "frustmenonggeng". A term that I didn't know that it exists but now I see it is interesting. Rather than kanasai, maybe this is a more "civilised" way to shout it out loud.
Literally means "not bad" or "acceptable". However, by direct translation is "can endure". This is something that present to us that is not too shabby but may not be the best quality, then ok la, boleh tahan.
Haha, this one is a funny one and a very real situation to many of us. This is to those who borrowed things from you but ended up keeping the borrowed stuff and never return. Literally, making it your own asset (harta).
In the working world, we always see some people are slacking off and doing things that are not related to work or even disappear from office. Well, we can coin such people as Chiak Chua-ing.
Dey, what the hell = Oi, what the hell. It is like calling out to someone in a more bro or sis way. In Malaysia, we bro or boss to everyone lol.
Why you like that, it is so mempersiasuikan. It is a Hokkien term, Sia Sui when you are embarrassed with something you had done. Adding memper-kan, a Malay grammar thing that I forget what is that, it becomes "to embarrass". A fine exhibition on how Malaysia language can mix so well.
Easy job, no problem=sap sap sui. This is how we say it as you can really count on me to settle things.
Lately, our income decrease due to the pandemic impact. To prevent we zero out our savings (or we called it pokai), we need to be more careful, thrifty and resourceful.
Something like someone with "resting bitch face" but in reality, they are quite friendly. Personally, not that familiar with this term.
Ah, one of my favourite local snacks, fried banana slice or we called it Goreng Pisang. So in short, GorPis.
It can mean two ways, one is literally Good Game or another one which we usually use means oh shit, we are in trouble.
Easier way to pronounce Government by Malay.
Hokkien term for a busybody. Sometimes like we warn someone to mind their own business, we will say: don't kepochi la.
Chill and easy kind of person = lantak. Some time we do enjoy to being lantak and just doing nothing for the day. A good way to recharge ourselves.
Literally means I am feeling it, feeling the moment, in euphoria! Whoohoo
So how many of these terms are you favourite? If you have some terms of your own dialect or language, do share it with me! It is always fascinating to learn different fancy terms of many cultures.
Very interesting to see how Steem community has. This is a repost from my HIVE BLOG.