Mother tongue, dialects and foreign languages
Assalamualaikum and greetings from Malaysia! I am a mother of seven. 5 girls and 2 boys. In my late forties and living in the city of Shah Alam. Yeay!☺☺ When I was young, we lived in the US. Pittsburgh, to be precise. So I acquired American English at school. At the time, we spoke the Malay language at home. Actually we spoke the Kedah or Northern dialect. Both my parents speak excellent English but we stuck to our mother tongue at home, nonetheless. Little did I realise what an advantage that gave me and my siblings. Because later in life I became aware that being able to switch from the Kedah dialect to 'standard' Malay, or to English, easily made speaking in other languages a breeze. Then, after high school, I obtained a scholarship to study Law in Cardiff University. (Hence the moniker - UstazahCardiff). I thought the British accent was quirky and cute. But whenever I met an American or Canadian over in the UK, I tended to switch to the American accent. Haha. Afte...