lu peranakan?

scene: hawker center. i was in a queue for vegetarian bee hoon when a chinese auntie and a younger woman (daughter?) cut right into the front. they were speaking to each other very quickly in malay and commenting on how nice this store's bee hoon and kway teow were. and after a short moment, the younger woman realized they had cut the queue and apologized. the following conversation occurred.

young woman (turning to me): oh, sorry sorry.

auntie (turning around): apalah sorry? kalau dia tak happy, nanti gua pukul dia!

me (shocked by her sentence, and sounding a little annoyed): auntie, tak boleh pukul gua tau? kalau auntie pukul, gua report polis, pangil polis tangkap

young woman (laughingly): ahhh, auntie sudah ada umur, polis tak tangkap punya

me (smiling): are you indonesians?

auntie & young woman (proudly): no no we are peranakan!

me: me too (which is only half true la)

auntie: ohhhh, ni macam, lu tau cakap melayu tak?

me (doh! what other language was i speaking in?): tau...

auntie (turning to the young woman): sekarang, banyak peranakan youngsters tak tau cakap melayu tau? (and turning to me) oh, by the way ya, kalau lu mau makan cendol melaka, boleh pi jalan tua kong ya? they have very good cendol there. tapi must go early ya, if not they very early jual habis...

by which time, their food was ready and they took their food and went off yak yak yak, as they continue their auntie talk. quite an interesting experience if you ask me. and when i thought about it, i thought it was regretful that the first question asked these days between peranakans is whether he can speak malay or not. not being able to speak one's mother tongue/ dialect is the start to losing one's touch with his/ her culture.

but on the other hand, waaaaaa! auntie called me a "youngster".

mata auntie memang sudah rosak!

hahaha!

picture from http://www.peranakan-kl.org