Hallo.
So, from the video (here’s the link) Scallon had
stated something along the line "people often don't say what they
mean and they often don't mean what they say".
But what is it
though?
Something that was
said but did not contain any meaning.
Something that was
NOT said but have meaning.
Hmm, that is totally
something that we are pondering about.As much as confusing
it was (gah!), we tried to wreck our brain to think of the example from our own
culture, Malay culture. So yeah, in our culture there’s this one habit/act
which has been practiced since EVER.
THE ACT
OF ASKING WHEN YOU ALREADY KNOW.
Confuse much? Let us explain.
Usually when people (usually older people)
accidentally met or
saw their friends, one would greet the other by giving out
statement like “Buying groceries are you?” (or in this case when they happen to
meet at the mall or the market) and the other would say “yeah”, agreeing to the
statement and then the conversation flowed.
From here we can see that sometimes
mothers, grandmothers or
anyone for that matter was just asking and stating of
the obvious
fact. And why would they do that? Because basically that is thought
to be a GREETING.
No, this does not
mean they CAN’T SEE what the other person is
doing BUT RATHER doing that as TO
START THE
CONVERSATION IN THE NICEST AND FRIENDLIEST WAY
POSSIBLE.
And this is the
example of something that was said, but did not
contain any meaning as they are
just asking but semantically they meant differently.
And to clarify, this
act is not even close to weird as it is like
unspoken rule (?) with us, Malays.
Until next post, Adios.
Love,
N & A.
Love,
N & A.
1 comments:
Hello Wan & Asmaa! :)
I can vividly remember the time when people commented that why Malaysian always ask when they already know?
If someone sees me doing some cleaning in my room and they ask me, 'hi, doing some cleaning huh?' I'd answer, 'yeah, its been a while since I last had my room clean. Hehe'
I think we need to be more aware that this is how we greet each other by asking (even though we already know the answer...) and to show our friendliness. Our culture has so much more to explore! And I'm looking forward to your next entry :D
Post a Comment