Mat Salleh Celup

First of all,tak semua Melayu macam tu. But,this post just me talking about those Malay yang macam tu. Ever heard of these?

''Kau orang Melayu ke orang putih?''

''Kita kat Malaysia. Cakap Melayu je lah!''

''Bahasa melambangkan bangsa,bro..''

''Dasar Mat Salleh celup!''

Siapa pernah dengar ayat-ayat tu,kita geng!

Yup. I know. It hurts. Like seriously.

Biasanya jadi pada orang yang minat Bahasa Inggeris. Usually masa zaman sekolah menengah. Well,zaman buli-membuli kuat time tu. Hormon tengah belajar macam nak stabil etc. And ditakdirkan kau jumpa dengan those people yang cakap ayat-ayat tu dekat muka kau. Directly or indirectly. I experienced both. Or lebih janggal lagi,kau akan dengar ayat macam ni,

''Tahu tak Bahasa Inggeris tu asal dari Barat?''

''Ni mesti sokong Amerika & Israel ni?''

''Pergilah duk Amerika sana tu!''

Pelik kan? Out of all subjects kat sekolah tu,kenapa Bahasa Inggeris? I mean,kenapa tak Math or Physics or Biology? Tak pula kau dengar,

''Tahu tak Newton's Law tu teori orang kafir?!''

''Persamaan antara saintis yang perkenalkan Bohr's Atomic model dengan saintis yang perkenalkan Lewis structure adalah,kedua-dua mereka bukan orang Islam.''

Funny isn't it?

We,aku guna perkataan kami lah senang. Takut kena bash nanti bila speaking..

Kami,yang minat Bahasa Inggeris dan suka bertutur dalam Bahasa Inggeris di khalayak ramai dan apabila berada dengan rakan-rakan yang lain,sebenarnya bukanlah asal dari luar negara pun. Well,mungkin ada yang kacukan or dari kecil tinggal kat US etc. But,in my case,aku memang duduk Malaysia dari kecil. It's just I love English. Taklah nak kata yang aku ni sangat pro dengan subjek Bahasa Inggeris. Sebab tak pro lah aku practice. Like duh..

''Practice makes Perfect..''

Mungkin ada yang tak tahu pasal isu ni. But yeah. Sesetengah tempat,ada. Bagi diaorang,bukan subjek Add Math yang jadi killer subject. Tapi,Bahasa Inggeris. No need for me to write down negeri mana. Because that's just me over-generalization. Kat mana-mana pun mungkin ada orang yang berfikiran macam tu. Yeah. Bahasa melambangkan bangsa. We(those who love English) do speak Malay too,you know. Probably better than those people yang keep bashing us. Well, we speak with no thick dialect.. 

Oops..

Seriously? Kat sekolah lah some of us nak practice speak in English with other friends. Kat rumah,maybe susah sikit. Maybe ada parents yang cannot speak in English because of the education background. So,we speak full Malay at home. Tapi bila kat sekolah,those people persoalkan jati diri kita,kemelayuan kita etc. Laa tahzan,(don't be sad) in the end, diaorang akan sedar juga yang what they did were actually wrong. First sebab down kan orang. Yeah. I was depressed during those days back in school bila orang panggil aku Mat Salleh celup, tak cukup dengan tu, attack me on Facebook saying that, ''Bahasa melambangkan bangsa etc.'' Hashtag Cyberbully. Hashtag Not Cool.

Bila akan berakhir? First, bila exam dah nak dekat. Diaorang akan datang minta ampun minta maaf. Mungkin sebab dah sedar akan kesalahan dulu or maybe just for the sake of exam. But,husnul zhon je. Second, masa diaorang perlu bantuan dalam subjek Bahasa Inggeris. Or tahun tu, diaorang tengah nak ambil MUET. Time tu, kita just sabar je. I know. Mesti kita nak cakap, ''Baru sekarang kau tahu kenapa aku belajar and minat Bahasa Inggeris?'' But,sabar je. Kenapa? Because we worth it and they don't. Show that we can be better than them. Show that,we can show kindness instead of doing revenge.

P/S: And for the record,just because we love English the most,doesn't mean that we're bad at Bahasa Melayu. Actually,I am that kind of person who just love learning languages. My favourite subjects dulu would be Bahasa Melayu,Bahasa Inggeris & Bahasa Arab. Yeah. And Alhamdulillah,now I'm studying at Islamic International University Malaysia and I get to use all three languages that I learned. Well,still learning though. Kat sini ambil subjek elektif Bahasa Arab. Kat sini dapat kenal with people from all around the globe! Do make dua' for me that I manage to learn as many languages as I can. Au revoir!

UIA, Te amo

Alhamdulillah.

I was given a chance to meet with new people here at my university. They come from different countries and have different life background. But,all of us have one thing in common. Islam. The unity among muslims around the world is just amazing. They were stranger to me before this. But now, they are my friends. This is one of the things that I like about IIUM. It feels like you are 'studying abroad'.(for local students)

LoL.

In my opinion, I do think that all of us need to get out of our comfort zone. Use this once in a lifetime wisely. The local students should get to know with the international students as much as they do with other local students. Same goes to international students. Vice versa. Learn about each other. The languages,cultures and share new knowledge with each other. Expand your social circle! Besides,we are studying at an international university. :)

UIA,

Te amo! Uhibbuk! Wa ai ni! Aishiteru! Mahal na mahal kita! Je vous aime! Maim tumase pyara karata hum! Ya Lyublyu tebya!

Photo by: Jakaria Ahmad