Tuesday, January 4, 2011

A New Urge to Learn Malay

Tonight when I was down eating dinner the one servant called me into the grandma's room. They showed me a phone number and to call the number. I was hesitant to call because I didn't know who I was calling, and they could not get across to me who it was. I picked up her cordless phone but she shook her head. The servant showed me the non cordless phone also on the table and picked it up showing me there was no dial tone. I pointed to upstairs and asked if the one male housemate that was home spoke English, but they didn't know what I was asking. I finally ran upstairs and got my cell phone and my new English/Malay, Malay/English dictionary. I tried to give it to them, but I don't know if the servant can read. I showed them my cell phone and they handed me this envelope that had a number written on it. I called the number but there was no answer. Then the servant went back into the grandma's room to get the other slip with a cell phone number on it, but she couldn't find it. The grandma and I headed back to her room. I dialed the cell phone number and it rang and rang. The one servant heard the other servant outside the front gate. She did not have any keys. The servant with the grandma and I ran to let her in, and I got the impression from the grandma I didn't need to call anymore, so I hung up. The grandma thanked me, and I said your welcome. Something must have happened to the servant that they were worried about her. She was talking animatedly, so something must have happened. Obviously if the grandma was sick that would have been easy to figure out that I needed to call whatever the equivalent of 911 is (which I should find that out). I kind of wonder why they didn't have the male housemate that has lived here the longest make the call. They can communicate with him in Chinese, I think, or maybe Malay.  He left probably about 10 minutes before I called but maybe the grandma was sleeping or didn't know the time. Guess I will never know. This has made me want to try harder to learn Malay though. I did pick up a phrase book over my holiday break that I was practicing pronouncing and memorizing phrases, but when I returned to school it is easy to just stick to English.

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