Friday, July 01, 2005
Too Much Words
menyimmenyim
This Indian guy said (with thick Punjabi accent) we come to this world alone, leave also alone, you think it’s bloody crime if I think of myself first? bloody hell.
And I watched him without saying anything for good 5 seconds. Only quietly blanking any expression, blinking I think occasionally. I put away the book I was reading by the couch, and made tea, like people do when the air is setting an awkward stillness.
It was a movie and the Indian guy is a troubled owner of a strip club somewhere in the States and he just killed his choreographer. That aside, isn’t that just right though? Straight on the nail, blunt, a straight blow and eyeball to eyeball.
Sometimes if we mean what we say, the simplest words will express it just as well if not better. No beating round the bush, no messing about. Just look at the letter I received today from United Overseas Bank.
‘We reserve the absolute right to discharge you from handling this matter in the event that such position is not declared to us immediately, in which event, the Bank shall not be liable for any costs incurred by your firm in the preparation of the Bank’s security documents’.
Oh hell, what is that? I felt like crumpling the whole letter and set it on fire. - you might notice it’s easier to light a paper when it’s crumpled, and try make it wringed and long, bit like a cigarette. So, are these people not sure what they are trying to say in the first place or have they something to hide which only with diligent and meticulous reading between the lines would reveal the true meaning?
So in say 5 years time when I am even less law wise and in trouble, ask them why is so and so not given this and that, they’ll say, oh you see in this paragraph here it says blahblahblah, well what that means is miss (which by then I hope not to be anymore) you should have done this and that then, and so because you didn’t, now, you have to pay RM10,000 for the accumulating charges.
No it’s not funny. That’s not even English.
And the sad thing is this I always find true to formal letters percolating in Malaysia. I have never received a letter of such articulate degree here. Or maybe my English is slowly decomposing? Oh gosh there’s so much anger in me I need Brita filtered water. The closest I can get to getting purified.
This Indian guy said (with thick Punjabi accent) we come to this world alone, leave also alone, you think it’s bloody crime if I think of myself first? bloody hell.
And I watched him without saying anything for good 5 seconds. Only quietly blanking any expression, blinking I think occasionally. I put away the book I was reading by the couch, and made tea, like people do when the air is setting an awkward stillness.
It was a movie and the Indian guy is a troubled owner of a strip club somewhere in the States and he just killed his choreographer. That aside, isn’t that just right though? Straight on the nail, blunt, a straight blow and eyeball to eyeball.
Sometimes if we mean what we say, the simplest words will express it just as well if not better. No beating round the bush, no messing about. Just look at the letter I received today from United Overseas Bank.
‘We reserve the absolute right to discharge you from handling this matter in the event that such position is not declared to us immediately, in which event, the Bank shall not be liable for any costs incurred by your firm in the preparation of the Bank’s security documents’.
Oh hell, what is that? I felt like crumpling the whole letter and set it on fire. - you might notice it’s easier to light a paper when it’s crumpled, and try make it wringed and long, bit like a cigarette. So, are these people not sure what they are trying to say in the first place or have they something to hide which only with diligent and meticulous reading between the lines would reveal the true meaning?
So in say 5 years time when I am even less law wise and in trouble, ask them why is so and so not given this and that, they’ll say, oh you see in this paragraph here it says blahblahblah, well what that means is miss (which by then I hope not to be anymore) you should have done this and that then, and so because you didn’t, now, you have to pay RM10,000 for the accumulating charges.
No it’s not funny. That’s not even English.
And the sad thing is this I always find true to formal letters percolating in Malaysia. I have never received a letter of such articulate degree here. Or maybe my English is slowly decomposing? Oh gosh there’s so much anger in me I need Brita filtered water. The closest I can get to getting purified.
