Post Four: Why Are You Writing Like This??

Today's lesson left me deep in thoughts. Never has it crossed my mind that the writing styele and techniques can differ tremendously across cultures! Indeed this is something new to me. Maybe because written Malay and written English are to a large extent similar, hence, that explains my ignorance. =).

In Malay language, imageries are used only in the first 1-2 opening statements (not the entire introduction) in essay/composition/letter writing. Other than that, we use fancifully-phrased proverbs (see example) only sparingly.

E.g. Bagai pinang dibelah dua

Literal translation: Like betel nuts split into two

What it really means: equally pretty, equally nice

How it is used: Usually used to describe couples - "Look at the (wedding) couple, they're sooo made for one another; 'bagai pinang dibelah dua'!"

Side note: betel nuts when split into two, are not equal by the way ... =)

Simply, when it comes to serious stuff, Malays are rather straightforward. I bet, had Kaplan studied the rhetoric trend of a typical Malay-speaker's English essay, its discourse arrow would have looked something like this! =)

Another fine example of 'beat-around-the-bush' use of Malay words is in pantun, syair, gurindam and sajak (these are the variant forms of Malay poems/prose). Other than that, the use of imagery is rarely used.

Sidenote: Use of imagery in pantun (such as above) are often used to make the sentences rhyme with one another, often lacking meaning. But in other literary works, imagery do have its abstract meanings, which often many can't fully comprehend.

After much reflecting, I realise that I should not be too surprised after all. I have been attending Arabic classes for 3 lessons already now (before this I have taken Arabic classes at primary school level) hence, I've not really touched in-depth on the writing part yet. I am still at the introductory verbal aspect for the course. But I find that culture MAY after all influence how one writes in English and this I can infer from the Arabic language.

Unlike Malay and English, Arabic is a little bit different from these two languages. Not only is there greater variation in the sentence structure, some of the words/phrases, when translated into English or Malay doesn't quite make sense. An example:

As mentioned in class, this is what I mean by 'discrepancy' when translating the prepositions used in the Arabic language. Another example: Note how the term 'at/in' is used in place of ON ('ala). Most of the time, the words are used correctly but in some instances (as given above), the word 'at/in' is not used the way I would normally use it. Hence, this could possibly explain why some Arab-speakers make grammatical errors in their English essays.

After much reflecting, I realise that, I already know these things, but I never thought that it would matter so much. Like what was mentioned in class, even if we attempt to speak a common language (English) to understand one another better, the variations in the type of English we use (be it Singlish or Chinglish or Inglish) can be a potential for miscommunication and misinterpretation to happen. =S. Hence, learning more about written and spoken discourses across cultures may ameliorate these misunderstandings and hopefully, everyone can get along with one another with minimal friction.

Wow, that sounds like a recipe for 'World Peace'! =)