Effortless

Thursday. Morning. really...Morning. as in 9.03 am when I started this entry.

This blog is covered in spiderwebs. Metaphorically speaking of course. Blogging has not been on my utmost priorities list for quite sometimes now. No reason. I just didn't know what to write about.
Sure, i've been to places and done a lot this past couple of months, but i never seemed to find the best way to put everything down in writing.
Plus, my writing skill has somehow deteriorated. And, if anyone does read my blog, you would notice that my english is like a complete laughing stock. Way below par--> Am not laughing though.

So, I sorta realized yesterday after a conversation I had on the phone with my boss that I could not effortlessly construct a simple sentence in english the way i was able to. How effortless was I before? Well, constructing a simple english sentence did not include stuttering through out the whole conversation, when me is involved, then. Hurgh!! Really, i do not stutter. The reason I stuttered was because I was rushing my brain to find the word i want to use in the next sentence. And when the time came for me to vocalize the next sentence, i stuttered again because the sentence I anticipated in my head was somehow irrelevant to the conversation prior to the previous feedback from my boss---> hence the stuttering game.

Heck..! suddenly Joe’s “Stutter” song came to mind while I’m writing this.

‘I can tell you're lying
Cause when you're replying
You stutter, stutter, stu-stutter, stutter’

Damn! Don’t be getting any negative ideas. The conversation I had with my boss was lies-free. I don’t need to lie to him. He is a GREAT boss. I adore him...Seriously, he could be my long lost father from another lifetime.  Erk?? Heee..pretend u missed reading that part.

Anyway, back to the matter at hand. There’s a theory that i came up with as to why my english is no longer as good as it was before of course when I use the word good here it means in my standard where english is my second language and i do not use it in my daily conversations with people on a regular basis. So, if there’s anybody reading this right now thinking ;

“hek eleh, cam bagus sangat Inggeris die. Even my english is better ONE than hers”

 Serious?? Ape ko ingat ni cerite ONE Malaysia ke ape? Need I say more?
 for those who don’t get it, here’s a hint ......‘MANGLISH’.....

Ekeke, I funny one...Oops! ok, ok.
Again, back to the theory I was about to disclose.
I think the reason why my english is not as fluidly fluent as before is because I do not speak the language as often as I used to.
What a Revelation !!

Back in the days, I spoke a whole lot of english with my school friends everyday. I didn’t get to converse in english at home, so school was the perfect place for me to practice. The fact that i was also in the school’s english debating team helped too. English language was not so foreign to me. It was EffortleSS, should I say.

Hehe, I kid not. There was one time, my teacher asked me to read an essay I submitted for an essay writing competition for the school’s Mother’s/Father’s Day celebration. Actually, there were no entries from the students when the school first asked for essays about our mother/father. Guess what the school did. They asked all the English teachers in our school to give their students homework on writing an essay about our mother/father. Every single person wearing school uniforms in our school had to write an essay about their mother/father. Brilliant, wasn’t it? Hehe, takut kene marah sebenarnye.

So, when the teacher asked me to read it in front of the whole school, you can automatically guess I won the competitionDuh..!
And, no no. The point of this particular part of this entry is not about how I was super-duper–talented-in-essay-writing (little bit only..hehe), but rather about what happened the day of the presentation.

The school invited the entire essay writing competition winners’ father/mother to school to watch their kids read/embarrass themselves in front of the whole school. I was a nervous wreck. Why? My essay was about my mother, about how I love my mother, about how my mother molded me into this not so BeauTifUl, could be more RespONsiBle, un-TaLenTed person. Heck, did I need to parade around about how good of a job my mom was doing where me was concerned? YES!! HAHA..I mean no. But, technically yes. I mean, no. Erk, I’m not sure. What I meant was, I’m sure everybody’s mom is doing their very best when it comes to their children well-being…right?
Plus, I do not wear my heart on the sleeves, which meant going up on stage to ramble on and on about how I love my mother was unimaginable…

As I read my essay on stage, no sound came from the audience. ..My head went “WTF, everyone’s fallen asleep listening to me”. No sound came from the people on stage too. Oh, I forgot to mention, my school principle was sitting on stage along with the vice principle and this big shot called the ‘Director of the district education department’ (mouthful!). Now, can you imagine the pressure I was under? Heck, none! LOL!!!
Nobody made a sound. Good Gosh!! My mouth wished it could speak faster than ever.
I didn’t even look at my mom who was seated at the back of the school hall. ..Yeah, yeah..she was probably wondering why would all these people would want to listen to her daughter yapping about her?  Because they had to. It was a freaking celebration at school.

Finally, the essay came down to its last sentence after what seemed like an eternity. Darn, this part is so like ‘WTF-why-did-I-just-do-that’. At the end of the presentation, I paused to look at the audience and my mom I swear to God, I heard a cricket rolling on the floor laughing somewhere, hysterically. Ehem, ok, no applause. You know what I did? I said “I love you mom. She’s the pretty lady sitting at the back there” while my hand pointing at the back of the school hall like I was giving an acceptance speech at the Grammy’s. ..Damn, I could’ve been a Rock StarIrrelevant to the post.
Hak hak! You know what my mom did? She stood up from her chair and waved back at me while the whole school turned their head trying to locate which lady I was pointing at. Of course they spotted her. She ain’t no tall lady, but when she was the only one standing up waving at the stage, poof !! she was an instant celebrity.
By then, the cricket laughing was just drowned by the sound of hands clapping and people cheering. Dude, if I knew it was that easy I wouldn’t have read the whole damn essay in front of everyone and would just get up the stage and say that one magical sentence.Regrets?hee..I shy.

Afterwards, my mom was invited on to the stage to accept a trophy engraved with the phrase ‘Exemplary Mother’. Sheesshh..did I make my mom proud, huh? Hehehe..
She was stoked, I tell you. I mean, it was one of those few times I think I could clearly see how proud my mom was of me and how she could see how proud I am of her…*tearing up* (n_n) pause for dramatic effect.

Ok, tissues are almost out…(T___T)
Later, when we were treated to some refreshments after the assembly, my mom said that a lady who sat next to her during the ceremony asked her whether she married somebody from overseas i.e: UK/USA? Then that lady and other people who were listening to their conversation asked whether I was born overseas i.e: UK/USA? Then they asked whether I had, by any chance gone to an international school? The answer to all those questions were NO. Then, all of them speculated that everyone in my family speaks English at home. Again, she said no. We speak our mother tongue at homeBahasa Malaysia la wei!!

It was somehow perplexing to them that I was able to speak and write a good essay in english without having any obvious history on how I came to do just that. They said that it was not how I was able to produce a good essay, but rather how I speak the language as though I was a native English speaker.
In short, how come I don’t sound like a Malaysian speaking in English? Erk..i dunno.
I watch MTV a lot..?.hey! they have very interesting vocabularies used in there. Seriously, where else can you hear the word bootylicious, bromance, fugly? RTM 1?

Hehehe, witty me, eh? Anyhooooeeeee…My friend from USA as in a ‘Minah Salehah’ from California once asked me where I learned to speak English? I said “school”.
She then asked “you mean school outside of Malaysia?”
 memangla bangang gak soalan die ni kan. Omputeh ni memang perasan die je la gamaknye bes. Aiseh!! Ingat orang blaja kat Malaysia xle pandai ckp omputeh? Ceitt!!
I said “no”. Aku tak rase cool pun jawab sepatah-sepatah.
And then she said “that’s strange. You don’t sound like you have an accent (she doesn’t consider an American accent as an accent, cause duh! she is one) and when you speak, you don’t sound like any other Malaysians I’ve spoken to”.
Friendly reminder: I do not speak with an American Accent. I do not think so, at the very least. DO I?
Pokak apo minah salehah sorang tu?

Please be reminded; this is not a ‘get in the basket and lift it up yourself’ entry about how ‘mind-blowingly-good’ my English proficiency is. IT IS NOT. I’m sure there is a lot of grammar mistake towards the completion of this entrywhich strikes me: maybe I should get myself a book on improving my grammar. Heck, while I’m on it, a book on vocabulary sounds tempting too. Whenever I go blog-hopping and bumped into a blog where the author’s vocabularies include some of the best bombastic words, me get jealous. Not to mention, when the author use some words I don’t understand me get embarrassed *T_T*

Pardon my French, Moi English needs to sound effortless…again.