Misinterpreting

“Aku tak dapat pergi kerja la hari ni... tak cukup rehat...”

When a Malay really thought they were allegedly able to comprehend the Malay sentence and verb phrase above pretty well, this was what had actually happened. What was said may seem as brief as meaning – yet, there’re a throng of people out there who’ve still misunderstood the meaning quite umpteen times. What a shame! That’s why I guess Semantics is to be studied. Aha. But, is that relevant? Hmm...

It’s their weakness that I’ve noticed after several days. Hence, using my so-called intelligence, I’d tried out coming up with a simple sentence together with a verb phrase. My expectation was that they could see what I meant. Obviously the Malays failed to get the meaning as expected. One question has come across my mind: Are you sure you’re truly a Malay? Should you be very good at Bahasa, you oughtn’t to have found any complexity interpreting the understandable sentence this easy!

I’m positive that if you think I’d have cheated all of them... I’d strongly deny, “Na, I didn’t!”

Even though I didn’t go to work the other day, I didn’t lie, frankly. I didn’t even tell I was feeling unwell or something. I just said I hadn’t yet got enough rest. Hoped they got it right. Working at a private sector like at a sundry shop only gives me one day off FYI. Thinking of that I felt idle like hell that morning to get up for work, I then decided to be absent. I used the reason above. I texted my colleague that I didn’t get enough rest. In other words, I meant I demanded one more day off! Got it?

What else can I say? They misinterpreted it so badly. It’s not me who cheated, seriously. It’s they who misinterpreted the sms. I recalled once upon a time, Prophet Muhammad used his intellect to give a reason and in the meantime to avoid telling a white lie. He didn’t lie but he came up with another reason instead even if the disbelievers during that time thought they’re so smart and believed that Prophet could never lie. Yeah, Prophet didn’t lie! The disbelievers were idiots for interpreting his word wrongly.

Back to what happened to me on that day, the situation was quite similar. I’d like to advise, “Please never take language for granted or this what’ll happen to you too!” I didn’t intend to lie but they’ve felt cheated by themselves.  

Strictly speaking, I dislike nagging at anybody here. Nabil says, “Lu Pikirlah Sendiri”. So, I leave you to think alone. In this case, do you think I’m real guilty? Cos I think not.