"Where are you from ? Are you French ? 'Cause you are not like any normal Malaysian I have seen !"
See, it all started when she was in Carrefour, and she was shopping for rugs - she needed some for her room and stuff. And the cat apparently pooped on one of the rugs (or was it a tablecloth ?), so Shima had to throw it away. Now, one of the sales personnel actually took a liking to Shima's looks, and she doesn't look like any other conventional Malay. She is unusually fair. So fair, people would think she's white. And so that salesgirl asked her that random question.
Well, if you think one remark was funny enough, take my case - almost TEN people have said it to me. The first time, it was at Little Sisters of The Poor in Penang. That place was run by nuns. And all nuns in that order have to speak French, especially to the Reverend Mother. So I thought I would try out my level with them. It was surprisingly higher - I thought they would be francophones or something. So when I was speaking to them, they asked me, "Are you Malaysian or French ?" Truth be told, they go all the way to France to study French (unlike me, I never set foot in France ever).
My second time was in Cheras, KL - a whole French community [and I am not kidding, all of them were French] went for mass here - service was in French this time and I knew, because I could hear everything from outside. So when mass was over, I thought I would mingle with the crowd a little. At first I was embarrassed, but then I screwed up enough courage and went on to join them. I asked out about the service, but I started with the adults first. And they were looking at me as though I was one of them. And they asked me this question, "D’où venez-vous ?" which means, "Where are you from ?" and I said "Malaisie". And they were all the more fascinated because they said I spoke like one of them - they thought I was from the western region of France - probably the Loire Valley, where my teacher hails from... hey, I AM MALAYSIAN LAH !!! I still take delight in saying things like "where got", "ya meh", "no lah", and "can or not ?" And, I'm one of those people who Malaysianise my French.
There was another such incidence when I was sitting for my A1 and [much later] A4 exams. So in the A1 exam, I went for the oral section - my favourite because I could whack all the other students flat ! I spoke. And they listened. And there was one part where I had to ask questions about a certain topic. I had a topic on this new sports centre which had just opened and I had to enquire about it. So there I went with the advanced sentence being my introduction - "Quand est-ce que ce centre est ouvert ?" which means "When was this centre opened ?" No one would think of the word "ouvert", especially in its past tense, in Level 1 ! So they were looking at me, nodding in approval, and continuing !
In the A4, however, it was a different story - I had ten minutes to the end of the exam and I had finished answering everything there was to answer. So I wanted to get out of that room because time was passing me by so slowly. Then again, my parents were waiting for me outside the building. So I asked the examiner in French, "I know there are ten minutes to the end of the exam but I have finished answwering everything - please can I submit my paper and leave now ?" And he stared at me for a few seconds and replied with a wide smile, "Oui, vous pouvez le faire" - "Yes, you can do so".
It is not because of the way I look, but rather because of my mannerisms, or even the way I speak and accentuate certain words. Hey - get back to reality - I am Malaysian.
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