Journal: 4 Aug 2012

Salamun Alaykom,

Alhamdulillah, today was a good day. After few meetings has been cancelled due to work hectic all of us managed to sit down for a meeting. We should have this meeting done on last Thursday then we postponed it to Friday and again we have postponed it.

So tonight after Tarawih four of us meet at our usual 'lepak' spot - Bilal's place. FYI 'lepak' is a Malaysian terms for hang out. Few years ago the word 'lepak' was used to described a group of people wasting times by lepak-ing (hang out) for hours for nothing. The favorite spots for this activity will be at friend's house, gerai (Malaysian tearms for food stalls), and video game arcades. Teenagers & young adults between age of 15 - 35 years were usually involved with this budaya lepak (lepak-ing culture).

But today - lepak are commonly used to described meeting and hang out. It also can be use to described berbincang which means discussing. Malay language is special - every year we always have a new words to describe actions, behaviors or anything. It's a jargon. You can't find most of these Malay jargon in any Malay dictionary nor you could translate it using google translator. Not only that - even a Malay will have a hard time to describe their own Malay-made jargon. Sometime it is impossible for us to explain it regardless in Malay or in any other language.And plus each Malay speaker will have their own dialect and jargon which only can be understood by their native speakers.

For example: That is why in Malaysia today we say our national language is Bahasa Malaysia (Malaysian Language) and in Indonesia who also speaks Malay generally say Bahasa Indonesia as their national language. It is impossible to generalize the Malay language anymore today but of course the roots of the language is still Malay. Although we speak differently but most of the time we still can understand each other - only when we speak slooooowly. lol. Some other country like Brunei - they also have their own dialect and jargon - and in fact they called their language as Bahasa Brunei. It is just that they have yet to make it official, so officially they claimed Bahasa Melayu (Malay language) as their national language although they all speak Bahasa Brunei. Some other minor area such as small province in Singapore (Malay used to be the majority population in Singapore, today the Chinese is the majority group) Philippines, Australia, and Africa who also have Malay speakers over there - they claimed Bahasa Melayu (Malay Language) as their mother tongue. Since they are the minority group in the country there's no point of them to segregate their dialect accordingly. After all it is still Malay.

How is that come about? From my point of view this could happen because Malay Language sounds very formal. Especially when we speak - it was as if we are reading news script. Not only that, Malay - we also import of so many foreign words due to reason of we do not have the right word to described of that particular word. So to avoid any complication and to make it more 'conversable' we started to creates our own jargon and made it as if it has been there for such a long time. Complicated eh? But its fun - you (non Malay speaker) should try to learn. Actually it's not that complicated after all. Bilal and Mehdi started to pick up few words just few months after they arrived here in Malaysia such as Nasi Goreng (Fried Rice), Teh Tarik (Pulled Tea), Teh O Ais (Ice Tea), Ayam goreng (Fried chicken), Roti Canai, Telur (Egg) etc. Oh and Boleh (Can), Tak Boleh (Cannot). Well, that's all they know so far and that is because they used these words to order their food from restaurant. Haha! But its good - practice makes perfect, right? They stilling picking up new words from me and Ihsan. lol.

Ok enough of that.

Back to the story, at Bilal's place there we discussed on our projects and 'what next' of our long lists. So when I said we 'lepak' it doesn't mean that we were wasting our time for nothing .. ok  we did ended up battling FIFA on PS3 but that only happen when we have done with our discussion and was about to go home. So technically we don't waste time. For the record - I beat the self-proclaimed Master FIFA Bilal...and of course he beat me too (that's because I give him face - you don't want the owner of the house got upset with you) Haha. I joke. He's actually a good player, very hard to beat. But I love challenges so I beat him although most of the time I was on the losing side. And his son can play too. Just like father like son.

Well - on top of that, during the meeting Bilal, Mehdi, Ihsan and I have signed on the agreement - acting as the directors of Ummati Trading Sdn Bhd. Ihsan got the papers from our company secretary who we had a meeting appointment on last Friday but we have to cancel it at last minute because everyone was so busy + with Bilal having a problem with his eye. Alhamdulillah, we have signed the papers and now it is just matter of time to officially incorporated Ummati Trading Sdn Bhd as a company. Alhamdulillah, Alhamdulillah, Alhamdulillah. It was a relieved for us and now we can move on and to put full concentration on our upcoming projects. Although we faced set backs occasionally but it's worth it. All the struggle won't be for nothing. Insya Allah we will do our best in order to achieve the organization missions and objective - to provide halal necessity to Muslim Ummah and to promote da'wah around the globe. Insya Allah.


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