Of Germans and Canadians in Putrajaya

Now, since Jordan wrote something about my accent, well, I have to react quickly, and tell my side of the story.

We started to write to each other irregularly a couple of months back but never managed to meet up. So he read my entry into this blog about my journey to Immigration yesterday and quick as he is, contacted me to finally meet up, once our official activities are behind us. We agreed to meet in the mall there

Putrajaya is confusing. I had some problems to get to Alamanda Mall from immigration. Circling around the round-about at the mosque, chasing some of the tourists that wanted to take pictures of it. I think the road signage is confusing, but well, it is a new city and needs time to develop - as mentioned in last Saturday's Business News of The Star. I found it and we, my wife and I, bought some cookies from Famous A.... (always get that name wrong - it is similar to the German word of backsite, so I don't want to write the wrong staff here. Talk about marketing, branding and name searching for a company), while waiting for Jordan.

He must have been totally lost, and well, it took some time, and three telephone calls, to get the message that he arrived. He looked starved and lost, even in the mall (remember his post about the weddings and how he gets lost - Jordan, I see similarities here) - so we thought that something fast is needed.

However we got along pretty well in A&W (time to write something about them as well). Which shows that he is a great teacher, since he could actually understand me - at least he looked like he did. Those who meet me for the first time might have some trouble understanding me from the beginning. Germans never get rid of their accent - not in a million years. Don't know where it comes from, but it really is interesting to know that a German is immidiately recognised as a German, the moment they try to speak German.

Interestingly, a friend from The Edge thought I am from Jamaica, the first time he met me. I really don't see the similarity.

I am happy I could understand Jordan. I mean, Malaysia is a great place to meet people from many different countries, and there are those that I will never understand. Their accent is just too much. There were Australians that spoke a dialect - I got bored (and they probably with me) by constantly asking "What?", "Can you repeat?" and so on. Luckily I have the ability to somewhat sense when a "is it" or a "oh yeah" or something like a "unbelievable" is required in a conversation. I learnt this when I drove taxi during my student times in Germany - talk to somebody drunke or to those that haven't spoken to anyone for three months, and you know what I mean.

Other accents that are unbearable are Scottish, Irish, or from Eastern Europe. There are some Chinese that try to imitate British accents, and well, I sometimes don't get it. Not a cent.

But I think that this is the beauty of language. We have "S-English", "M-English", G-English" and so on - tell me more - , so yeah, while we have problems understanding each other, it is something that evolves. And may be the people in immigration just want me back to hear it all again. May be they understand me finally!! May be that is the reason why my company hired me? They just couldn't get it and now I stuck with them? Wah - I don't know. So may be my accent is something that brings me forward, makes me unique and interesting. Lol. Something to live by. Anyone daring to take the challenge to talk to me?