Knowing Melanau Language

Location: Kg Bungan Besar, Dalat, Sarawak

I got overwhelmed with the feeling of complete misery. An English-written novel’s been left unintentionally. The truth is I’ve been long reading up yet another Sophie Kinsella’s latest novel i.e. “Wedding Night”. And the only lame excuses for having to leave it there away in ‘Land of the Hornbills’ were:

(1) The size of the novel looks far bigger (heavier as well) than an ordinary one.

(2) Mightn’t have the time to do the reading. Allegedly...

Time flies and I’m all for that. Just like how utterly half-conscious I feel regarding my ending two-week holidays. Apparently, each teacher’s gotta agree with me that the most perfect combination of Eid ul-Fitr and school break seems to be, like, a massive bonus for us to have so much pleasure over the much longer holidays. (It really is longer than ever.)

Not only that, I too deserve credit from you guys since I’ve been so wisely, beneficially spending the first week of Raya to the fullest. It’s called a learning enhancement activity. I’ve been learning Melanau language, to be more outspoken. With the continuous help of the two lower-form female students of mine, very proudly I’ve got every confidence that my Melanau mastery is obviously getting a lot better! And needless to say I’m currently top of the world. Yahoo!

Learning a language demands too high determination, passion and, of course, consistency. Verbs, nouns, auxiliary verbs, adjectives – these are among the part of speech I’ve been taught about.

Talking of Melanau language, strictly speaking, I genuinely have no other intention for doing all this. Merely fancy discovering the hidden uniqueness of the literature, varieties of local cultures and customs and that’s all. And surely, language is undeniably included, isn’t it?

The very first Melanau word I knew was dibei, the translation of which is tiada in Bahasa. And, words such as kaau (you) and ko (I) I suppose are another first vocab I gained before. I’m not saying Melanau language’s such a tough one in that there’re still a bunch of people like me capable of memorizing a massive number of Melanau words. Most significantly, continuous enthusiasm, consistency and passion.

Being able to speak in a ‘foreign’ language should be something to be honoured and proud of. The local people would also feel really too astounded if Peninsular Malaysians can use and speak their own language properly, let alone fluently. And yeah this is so incredibly awesome!

I’ve yet to consider writing in Melanau for the blog however. ‘cause the world are my readers, rather than merely a minor number of certain people.

PS: Gonna fly away to Brunei Darussalam before long!