Oh English! We are so lucky that we speak you. When we concentrate on not mumbling, we can even speak you in a way that other people understand. It is easy for us to think we own you and that only we speak you correctly, but alas, you belong to no one.
The title of this post is from a sign in Johur Bahru, Malaysia.
Italy, is famous for its gelato. To me though, it will be remembered for its ubiquitous misuse of “Self-Service” at gelateria where you were not permitted to … serve yourself.
Finally in Malaysia, we found a real self-serve ice cream place. Of course the name of the store included playful use of Italian.
KL, the capital of Malaysia, has very nice public transportation with very large glossy ad campaigns. This station was plastered with KFC ads, but the detail I liked most was the usage of “inlet” and “outlet” on the turnstiles.
That’s the delicious thing about English – we have so many words that we can afford to keep words like “smirch” and “inlet” for really specific circumstances.
My very favorite example of this is the word “auspicious.” In my opinion, it is the most Chinese word in English (more than words like “gung ho”) because I have only ever seen it used to describe Chinese concepts. It actually makes me think of The Joy Luck Club every time I see it.
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