Multilingual makcik impresses Malaysians
Malaysia is a melting pot, with several languages spoken in close proximity. Many of us are bilingual at least, but there are individuals who can speak several languages beyond their own mother tongue too. Such is the case with this Malay woman in Ipoh, who went viral online for animatedly speaking in Tamil and Cantonese with her neighbours, showing off her language skills.
She picked up the languages from conversations with her neighbours and friends when she was younger, and watching Tamil movies. Her casual chats with her neighbours had many netizens applauding her fluent use of both languages, and calling her an example of bangsa Malaysia.
Woman speaks with neighbours in Tamil and Cantonese
Fatimah Mat Kasar’s conversations with her neighbours in several languages were filmed by her daughter, and shared on the latter’s TikTok account, @maiyahrahim_. They’ve since gone viral, with one of them even gaining nearly two million views.
The first video, shared a week ago, came with the caption, “That day [she] spoke Chinese, today she switched to Tamil”. In the clip, the multilingual makcik can be heard speaking in Tamil with a neighbour across the street. The video has since received over 400,000 views, with many applauding her language skills in the comments.
Fatimah speaks Tamil with her neighbour
Image credit: @maiyahrahim_
A day later, her daughter uploaded a second video due to a request from a fellow TikToker, who asked for a video of her speaking in Chinese. The video didn’t disappoint, even though it didn’t show the multilingual makcik speaking in the requested language. Instead, it showed her chatting in Cantonese with a friend, and including her friend’s grandmother in the conversation by asking about her age and how she was doing – all in Cantonese too.
Coupled with her fluent use of Tamil – and the overwhelming responses she’s received for it – another video was shared on her daughter’s TikTok account, in which she is heard speaking Tamil again with her neighbour.
Reply to @putra.syg korang tgkla mak kita ni , dalam nak naik moto tu . Boleh membawang bahasa tamil tu dgn jiran walaupun jauh 🤣. #fyp #fypシ
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In an interview with mStar, 54-year-old Fatimah shared that she and her nine siblings picked up Tamil because they had many Indian neighbours. She is only able to understand and converse in Tamil from hearing the language spoken by those around her. But she enjoys watching Tamil movies and shows, and has a favourite Indian actor – Joseph Vijay Chandrasekhar – which made her more familiar with the language.
Fatimah speaks Cantonese with her neighbour
Image credit: @maiyahrahim_
On Cantonese, Fatimah said that she learned it from her Chinese colleagues while working as a retail assistant in her 20s. Now she’s able to use the language to speak with an elderly Chinese neighbour in her current neighbourhood in Ipoh – which earned her the nickname “1 Malaysia” online among netizens.
She’s also hoping to impart her diverse language skills to her youngest daughter. She views learning languages beyond Malay and English as a good thing, as it can come in handy when helping senior citizens, who may not be familiar with either of the two commonly spoken languages.
After her videos went viral, her daughter shared another video of her speaking in Malay and thanking everyone for their views, likes, comments and shares. She capped off the video by repeating the same words, but in Tamil.
Netizens applaud her diverse language skills
Many netizens have come out on her daughter’s TikTok account to applaud the her language skills, including the video which racked up nearly two million views. User @suma, for one, commented, “So nice. This is [the] beauty of Malaysia. If only more could speak like her.”
Image credit: TikTok
Another user, @davidsgeorge, also commented, “Anyway, your mum is fabulous! So hebat [great] speaking different languages.”
Image credit: TikTok
Some went on to praise her use of Tamil, including TikToker @valarmathiguna7, who said, “Wah, this makcik speaks Tamil so fluently like a native speaker.”
Image credit: TikTok
Multilingual makcik impresses netizens with language skills
Many languages are spoken in Malaysia, and common ones that we use to communicate with each other are either Malay or English. So it’s impressive to see individuals such as Fatimah, who picked up languages beyond these two common ones to interact with her neighbours.
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Cover image adapted from: @maiyahrahim_ and @maiyahrahim_
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