had my breakfast at the marine parade hawker center, the place where i spend most of my childhood/ early adult life. and at 8am in the morning, the place was filled with aunties chatting away. it was a really warm and nostalgic experience for me.
seated on my table were 2 aunties, both probably in their 70s. one of them a nonya (straits-born chinese, just like my mum) and the other, a chinese. what was really interesting, apart from the conversation that revolved around the daily mundane topics of marketing, what's nice at the hawker center, etc, was the fact that one spoke in chinese-accented malay and the other peranakan malay mixed with malay-accented hokkien (a chinese dialect).
and as they chatted, their friends walked by, greetings were exchanged and little gossips made. it felt so warm to hear the mishmash of different accents coming together. it really reminded me of my younger days.
i decided to take my time to eat my bowl of noodles as a savour in the whole atmosphere of local culture, something that we will be losing very soon as the younger generation generally converse in english now.
No comments:
Post a Comment