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.
After returning to Malaysia, I took a course to obtain a Certificate in Legal Practice. I got engaged along the way. It was an arranged marriage. It was my idea. My parents were surprised at first but they went along with it. My fiance was a Malaysian student at Al-Azhar University in Egypt. We wrote letters for 3 months, got engaged 3 weeks before the wedding and met each other 'live', 5 days before our wedding.
My husband speaks the Kedah dialect because he is from Kedah. His English is ok, but his Arabic is good! Alhamdulillah. I accompanied him to Cairo a month after the wedding. And what an adventure it was!
Loved the food, the sights and Egyptian Arabic. But I couldn't wrap my head around the dialect. I was determined to learn Arabic somehow. I already knew the script, right? I could read the Quran.
So later in Malaysia, I landed a job as an English teacher at a college that offers Islamic Studies programmes. I worked with Arabs! There, I finally got the chance to learn and use Arabic on a daily basis. 12 years at INSANIAH/KUIN/UniSHAMS (it has changed names many times) gave me something valuable - Arabic, my third language.
Fast forward to 2011, we moved to Shah Alam. I managed to get a teaching licence to teach Arabic in mosques and musolla in the state of Selangor. I have since taught 5 groups of adult learners basic Arabic. I also teach 'English and Culture' to groups of young Japanese students who come to Malaysia during their spring break.
On top of that, I teach Malay and the Quran to a Japanese muslim lady who is married to a Malaysian. And guess what? She is a Japanese language teacher! So, I am also learning Japanese at the moment.
Really, learning languages is fun, fun, fun. And surprisingly, the starting point for me was not so much another language...but my own mother tongue - the Kedah dialect!
#ustazahcardiff
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.
After returning to Malaysia, I took a course to obtain a Certificate in Legal Practice. I got engaged along the way. It was an arranged marriage. It was my idea. My parents were surprised at first but they went along with it. My fiance was a Malaysian student at Al-Azhar University in Egypt. We wrote letters for 3 months, got engaged 3 weeks before the wedding and met each other 'live', 5 days before our wedding.
My husband speaks the Kedah dialect because he is from Kedah. His English is ok, but his Arabic is good! Alhamdulillah. I accompanied him to Cairo a month after the wedding. And what an adventure it was!
Loved the food, the sights and Egyptian Arabic. But I couldn't wrap my head around the dialect. I was determined to learn Arabic somehow. I already knew the script, right? I could read the Quran.
So later in Malaysia, I landed a job as an English teacher at a college that offers Islamic Studies programmes. I worked with Arabs! There, I finally got the chance to learn and use Arabic on a daily basis. 12 years at INSANIAH/KUIN/UniSHAMS (it has changed names many times) gave me something valuable - Arabic, my third language.
Fast forward to 2011, we moved to Shah Alam. I managed to get a teaching licence to teach Arabic in mosques and musolla in the state of Selangor. I have since taught 5 groups of adult learners basic Arabic. I also teach 'English and Culture' to groups of young Japanese students who come to Malaysia during their spring break.
On top of that, I teach Malay and the Quran to a Japanese muslim lady who is married to a Malaysian. And guess what? She is a Japanese language teacher! So, I am also learning Japanese at the moment.
Really, learning languages is fun, fun, fun. And surprisingly, the starting point for me was not so much another language...but my own mother tongue - the Kedah dialect!
#ustazahcardiff
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