Sunday, July 10, 2005

Fashionably Late

Linguistically it makes total sense, of course, since Malaysia is to Malay as Thailand is to Thai. Which explains why people here tend to refer to me as being Malay instead of Malaysian, (which actually isn't that far off, since the majority of my extended family is Malay). In a sense the real integration of Thai people is something to admire, there being no difference here of a Thai of complete Chinese ethnicity compared to say, one of more southern geo-ethnic descent. Everyone is simply Thai. There is some sacrifice in that the use of English among school-kids is not much in practical use even though it is taught, or one can look at it as a positive side effect for many Malaysians for whom it becomes necessary to bridge more distinct ethnic lines.

I'm looking forward to my little vacation, and being fashionably late along with everyone else: I can't use my "Malaysian time" excuse here, dash it. I miss my nasi kandar too.

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