Lafu?

I've been seeing a new word being thrown around recently though up till now, only in print. I haven't actually heard it being used at yet if it is used verbally that is.

Lafu.

Lafu?

I gather it means 'like' or 'love' though the latter in the non-romantic context. At least that's what I think.

(Post edit - I just noticed that one of the blogs I read regularly used 'lafu' in post title. Not criticising Rabbit at all. Hope you won't be offended. This post is not a gripe on the word itself.)

Please don't misunderstand me and assume I'm criticising anyone (definitely not you, you read my blog? we're cool) but I have to confess to despise, or at least despise the idea of, Singlish and Manglish. To accept it's bad English is one thing. To give it identity and legitimacy is just plain wrong. It's like we're struggling for identity and choose to highlight a negative aspect of ourselves to gain character. My gripe is not against the use of our specialised Malaysian way of speaking English amongst friends. My gripe is giving it an identity and legitimacy.

I accept that my point of view is anchored to a great love of books. Speak in local slang and all it's fine but the written word is sacred. But that's just me. Up to the point that the text messages I write on my cell phone are grammatically correct, puncuated and words are spelled out in full. SMS-speak was bad enough but now we've already started to write poorly in messages, emails, IM and other cell phone or computer related media. It'll hit in a few years. Not now. Not in the near future but it'll hit us one way or another and it'll be in a bad way. My nightmare is that this sort of thing will leak into our literature, education, business world, and other formal scopes.

One day some politician is going to say, "You don't worry laa, I do for you wan. Vote me laa. You lafu me, I lafu you laa."

I will laugh my arse off then cry.

I would agree that using Manglish (especially now blogging is becoming increasingly popular) in written form is fine. In the sense that it adds character, gives it local flavour and such. But I worry that this is the best that we can speak and write. Writing poor English deliberately is one thing. Writing poor English when it's the best that the writer can do is another.

But chill.

It's not your fault.

It's not my fault.

It's the poor and absolutely ridiculous standard of English being taught in schools here.

However, whoever taught up the word Manglish should be shot. But only after prolonged torture. And it isn't even original. To gain identity, we copied the Singaporeans with their concept of Singlish.

It's sad.

Me no lafu Manglish. Seriously.

Don't mind me. I'm just an old man making some noise.