The pros and cons of being trilingual in Malaysia

Ever wondered what are the pros and cons about learning 3 languages in Malaysia ? The pro is there are fewer pros at the language and the con is there are more cons. I'm kidding.

Most times , no matter what they say, most of my people ( I am only bambuing my people because I no wanna get raya invite from perkasa supporters ) ,can only manage one. No doubt, they may be able to read and write the other language but when it comes to perception and understanding, now, that's another subject altogether. Pronunciation wise, even mine is not up to par. I know where I stand.

See, for example, so many of the people from my kind, from the younger generation , can only converse in Mandarin today. Vice versa old loco people , no Bananas , like me, can only manage English. Put us two generational gaps together and it gets really comical cos we actually have a common language we can speak to each other , which is Malay, but due to some inbuilt pride, we find it odd and hence only use it on other races.

Enter the other races , which we conveniently pull in, to either help out or let off steam. Ok, so, imagine what happens when you get a chinese duck and a chinese chicken who cannot or won't bow down to using a common language in order to fully understand each other. 

I give you the first example . Chinese receptionist, English speaking gets a phone call from a Mandarin speaking duckling, I mean customer. What does she do ? She intercoms the following for help " Yang, boleh datang sini tak ? Saya tak tau dia cakap apa la !" Yes, the rescuer is a young Malay girl who speaks fluent Mandarin . You can put your jaw back now.

Second example. Both are true stories witnessed by me.

An Indian lady, asks the Chinese shoe salesboy for assistance. 

" What size do you have ?" 

He turns to the Malay assistant and asks her

" Dia cakap apa har ? "

Fuuuuuuuyooooooo. Our standard drop so much already.

Third. Yeah, so much drama huh ? Wait, got some more. 
My personal experience. Actually it was more of a confrontation with a bunch of Chinese boys who were oggling at my body parts , laughing and saying crude things about me...me ? You sie larrrr. I walked up to them, stared them straight in the eye and asked them directly. Ya, I very gangster wan. Don't mess with me.

 " So, what's the problem please ? Is there something about me you find very funny ? "

The leader of the pack looked at me , then turned to the back and asked them 

" Tar chiang sher moh ? " 

Case closed.

Then, there's the other time,(well excuse me,butI'm  turning old into somewhat of an oriental babushka ) I made a complaint over the soggy rice, to this Chinese waitress. I spoke to her in English and she looked like she understood what I had conveyed to her. Wrong. She not only passed the wrong message over to the Malay chef in kitchen, when I heard her and tried to correct her, she covered up her mistake by insisting again to the other side, this time in an angrier tone, what was the complete opposite of my original, repeated,  instruction to her. Seeing my distress, the other Chinese cashier who was better versed in English , tried to inform her nicely. " hey....she said...." 

Stubborn as a cow, she just wouldn't have her other colleague help out. No, this one wants to appear busy, hardworking, intelligent AND a better interpretor of your instructions than you.

I only know one way to deal with this type. You do not even attempt to get another Mandarin speaker to explain her folly to her. You pull all 5 feet of your short self out from the chair and blast her soundly in English only. No I didn't.

I walked straight past her and got the Iqram Dinzly lookalike ( Chinese women think he's very handsome mind you, no matter how lembut you say he looks ) and put my case forward.

So, again, what's the pros and cons about learning 3 languages ? There are more cons than pros. This time I'm not fibbing.