Sekarang, kita sudah dengar slogan baru. MBM dan MBI. Memartabatkan Bahasa Melayu dan Memperkukuhkan Bahasa Inggeris. Kedua-dua bahasa ini sangat penting sebenarnya. Okay, aku bukannya ingin memperkatakan tentang slogan itu. Apa yang aku ingin titipkan di sini ialah cebisan ilmu yang aku rasakan sangat menarik. Aku ingin berkongsi dengan kalian semua.
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I knew about this piece of work from my respective lecturer, Puan Rashidah. She encouraged us to find this poem and I managed to find an excerpt from the internet. Written by Richard Lederer, enjoy...
Let's face it: English is a crazy language. There is no egg in eggplant or ham in hamburger, neither apple nor pine in pineapple.
English muffins were not invented in England or french fries in France. Sweetmeats are candies, while sweetbread, which aren't sweet, are meat.
We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing ring are square, and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig. And why is that writers write, but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce, and hammers don't ham? If plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth beeth? One goose, 2 geese. So, one moose, 2 meese? One index, two indeces? Is cheese the plural of choose?
If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does humanitarian eat?
In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell? Park on driveways and drive on parkways?
How can a slim chance an fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? How can the weather be hot as hell one day and cold as hell another?
When a house burns up, it burns down. You fill in a form by filling it out and an alarm clock goes off by going on.
When the stars are out, they are visible, but when the light are out, they are invisible. And why, when I wind up my watch, I start it, but when I wind up this essay, I end it?
Now I know why I flunked my English. It's not my fault; the silly language doesn't quite know whether it's coming or going.
Q-F
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