Imitation of words.

If there is one thing I have observed about language, it is that people around you may copy what another one may say.

In the last three weeks I have been back, I have been fairly consistent in my use of words in conversing with others. Particularly in the Cantonese language, being that is my family's main Chinese dialect.

In follow up to this practice, I have observed that they do repeat the words after me. My mother is mandarin educated and fluent in cantonese. However she has been slack in her fluency.

Malaysians have a terrible habit of using up to three different languages in one sentences. Obviously that is not possible when speaking to someone who is not from Malaysia.

Another is the pronunciation of the sounds in the english language to the blend sounds of "_th" or "th_". It was a bit of pain to my ears to hear the pronunciation of words like booth, teeth, them, and many other words where the last  bits have been bitten off.. LOL.

So the moral of this blog entry is, just use common words that people may fairly understand. People will imitate you if it makes sense, or sounds good to them.