Every weekend, almost without fail, we would have family dinners. If it’s not on my side, it’d be on Alia’s. Family dinners, with its certainty of good company, will almost certainly lead to great conversation.
MIL: Itu la, papa accidentally tertinggal the sayur at the pasar this morning
Alia: Ha, next time Aiman kena ikut pergi pasar, he doesn’t even know what daun sup is.
Me: Excuse me, I watch Gordon Ramsay please. Gordon Ramsay use proper names, not “daun sup“. And by the way, daun sup is parsley.
MIL: No lah, daun sup is celery.
Alia: Huh cannot be la, celery is the one you dip-dip at Chilis. What did papa leave at pasar?
MIL: Papa left the petola.
Alia & Me: Homaigod, what is petola?
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#majorfailmoment
And so we got an education on what is petola, peria and bittergourd and its translated equivalent in BM/English – with drawings!
Although we are just bilingual, sometimes knowing the translated names of vegetables could be the hardest thing. Alhamdulillah we ended the night with renewed understanding of vegetables.
Possible next lesson: fish translated.
(Like c’mon, I know different types of fish exclusively in one language but not the other – like I know what ikan kembung is but what on Earth is ikan kembung in English?)
