Name callings and teasing is something that has been part of my life for a very long time. All my life I have been called for so many types of name. “the kampung girl” cause I came from a rubber estate, “kuat harimao” cause my name has a “guat” and it somehow ended up that way, “laohuma” means means tiger cause I was very fierce in primary school, “roti kok” cause my sir name is “koh” which sounded alike, “pokok” which was given by my college friends cause i was blur, “alarm clock” cause i am always noisy in the car when thian hoe is driving etc. But somehow i got used to all of these. Because it is the way of life here in Malaysia.
It’s a cultural, if i may put it that way though there is no evidence from journals or research that i can cite to back up my view. We love to teach each other, about anything and everything. You are skinny you get teased, you are fat you get teased, you are smart you get teased, you are stupid you get teased. You like a certain boy or girl you get teased. And recently that added to the collection after miss lim class, the color of the shirt you wear also get teased.You are indian you get teased you are black.You are Chinese you get teased you have small eyes. The list goes on and on and on. We do racial jokes, we tease each other names, we make fun of what you wear. It’s normal for us.
Early this semester in speech communication class, Miss Lim said something like these, ‘people who has more friends are less prone to sickness’, and we go yeah right. But it is actually based on a research done. The logic behind it? If you have more friends and hang out more often, you get teased and make fun of very often that you are like immune to it. If you have less friends and go out less, you are not used to all these teasing and stuff, so when someone says something bad about you’ll get all defensive and some sort of hormone is released or some hormones don’t get released or something like that la, as long as it has something to do with hormones la, so you get sick easily.
My point is this culture is part of the Malaysian society. If you tell me that you never teased someone else’s name or giving them stupid nicknames or make fun of their race or anything else, i would not believe you and i would say that you are a hypocrite. However, no matter how much we are used to it or love this culture, it is not necessarily acceptable for some people. Which in my case, my boyfriend and his family, which is angry at me and others who teased his english name. I must agree that although we may not be agreeable with them, at least we should respect them. If they do not like it and has mentioned it, then we should stop. Although the problems have been settled, I still want to extend my apologies to my dear boyfriend and his family for my actions, and behalf on everyone else who offended their feelings, i apologize as well.
The purpose of writing this long post in which some of you might be cursing me now for it is not to offend anyone, but just to express a thought of mine, that might be agreeable to some and not to others. Either way, if any words has offend anyone, i do apologize. Plus i hope i won’t get into any trouble with this, as the image of the good girlfriend in my boyfriend parents’s mind has been ruin and i do not know where it is heading towards after this though i try not to think it as a big issue.
Conclusion. It’s okay to tease and make fun of people, but if they don’t like it, then stop it and sorry to boyfriend and his parents on my behalf and everyone else.
