( this poem taken from The Star, 3rd Dec 2010 )
Why English is so hard.

We’ll begin with a box, and the plural is boxes,
But the plural of ox becomes oxen, not oxes.
One fowl is a goose, but two are called geese,
Yet the plural of moose should never be meese.
You may find a lone mouse or a nest full of mice,
Yet the plural of house is houses, not hice.
If the plural of man is always called men,
Why shouldn’t the plural of pan be called pen?
If I speak of my foot and show you my feet,
And I give you a boot, would a pair be called beet?
If one is a tooth and a whole set are teeth,
Why shouldn’t the plural of booth be called beeth?
Then one may be that, and three would be those,
Yet hat in the plural would never be hose,
And the plural of cat is cats, not cose.
We speak of a brother and also of brethren,
But though we say mother, we never say methren.
Then the masculine pronouns are he, his and him,
But imagine the feminine: she, shis and shim!
Let’s face it – English is a crazy language.
There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger;
neither apple nor pine in pineapple.
English muffins weren’t invented in England.
We take English for granted, but if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly,
boxing rings are square, and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.
And why is it that writers write but fingers don’t fing, grocers don’t groce and hammers don’t ham?
Doesn’t it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend.
If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?
If teachers taught, why didn’t preachers praught?
If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?
Sometimes I think all the folks who grew up speaking English should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane.
In what other language do people recite at a play and play at a recital?
We ship by truck but send cargo by ship.
We have noses that run and feet that smell.
We park in a driveway and drive in a parkway.
And how can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites?
You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out, and in which an alarm goes off by going on.
And, in closing, if Father is Pop, how come Mother’s not Mop?
- Anonymous

I was having my breakfast and saw this article. funny , esp the last line, but it's true. for me. because i had ( or still having this) difficulties of learning languageS! Yes, LANGUAGES! I'm suck in both Malay and English Languages. yes. I m Malay ( with Chinese blood-father's side , according to my mom! ), but that doesnt mean I m good in BM. Bahasa Melayu saya tunggang-langgang! saya boleh bercakap BM tapi 'broken BM( as well as broken English)!' -Imagine this, ok, bayangkan, bila kawan-kawan saya , guru-guru BM, membincangkan pasal BM , saya seperti 'hilang' , bukan sebab tak faham tapi , haiz, their standard! and there is a BM teacher , Cikgu Rahim, fuh! superb! hahaha..saya ambil masa untuk 'absorb' apa yang dia cakap! kadang-kadang bila masa invigilation peperiksaan BM, saya curi-curi baca karangan pelajar saya . God! I cursed myself, their karangan much, MUCH BETTER than mine. they use bombastic ( for me ) words, some which I dont even know the meaning , and worst, words that I thought dont EXIST AT ALL! lagi satu , peribahasa or simpulan bahasa, sure I kantoi!!!So , as usual, back to my staffroom, cari guru BM , Anelyza or Salina, like ,
" Salina, ada ke perkataan " TUNTAS". apa maksud? " . and, mereka , akan terangkan maksud dengan panjang lebar. Oh! Need I tell you, I failed, yes, FAILED my BM, when I was in form 4! ? sebab?
" karangan awak sudah keluar tajuk. dan tatabahasa awak..teruk! lagi satu, bahasa awak terlalu ringkas.Awak faham ke apa saya kata?" , Itulah yang cikgu BM saya kata, Cikgu Saadiah. Sarcastic! hahaha...tapi malu jugalah sebab kawan-kawan I yang bangsa Cina pun dapat markah yang lebih baik dari I. Chow Lap Yen, Chin Fan and Poh Kin... I salute you!! haha.
but one of my few malay friends , Areen, said " aza melayu yang tak macam melayu..!!!"

So what about English? sama saja. All about tenses, vocabs, gerunds, tapi I tak pernah GAGAL!! NEVER ok!


Wait! since I'm talking about my 'pathetic' languages, i must include my chinese language.
haha.I used to learn and used to speak Cantonese , as i said before, growing up, surrounded by Chinese friends.Yes, I learnt Mandarin too. No. not from my Chinese friends but from my sister who took Mandarin classes. Not good, but , yeah. boleh faham! but Cantonese better than Mandarin.That was years ago. I found my Cantonese skills " more pathetic", "deteriorating" and "dead" after I started working-joint MCKL. NO ONE SPEAKS CANTONESE!!! Now? Hardly understand Cantonese..let alone Mandarin. ( except the BAD words! I still use some to swear and curse people !!!)


So ,
Conclusion? Tuntas? 结论?

As long as people can understand what I'm saying, itu sudah sangat baik bagi saya. mingbai?


Love, Sayang, 爱

happyheartaza