Malaysians Are Weird - Part I - ESL Blogs

I was eating one of my favourite fruits, persimmons, when it struck me that Malaysians always giving weird names to things/fruits/vegetables. The thing is that, those names didn't reflect anything about those things/fruits/vegetables that they want to describe. In here, I want to share with all of you some of those weird names that we are giving to normal things/fruits/vegetables.

1. Persimmons

Persimmons is also known as the 'fruits of God'. In Malay, we call it 'pisang kaki'. 'Pisang' means banana, and 'kaki' means feet. I don't know why on earth we Malaysians call it 'pisang kaki' because honestly, it doesn't look like a banana nor a feet.

I wonder, what did you call persimmons in your mother's tongue? Is it as weird as what we call it over here, or is it weirder? LOL

Tell me.

2. Slipper

We love our slipper especially plastic/rubber slippers. It's convenient and cheap. I go every where wearing one, even to a restaurant. LOL. Do you know that we call this kind of slippers as 'selipar Jepun'. 'Selipar' is slipper and 'Jepun' is Japan. So a plastic/rubber slipper is basically translated as 'Japanese slipper'. I guess it was called such a way because Japanese used to wear similar slipper in the past. However, this kind of plastic/rubber slippers are not made in Japan though.

Do you have similar kind of slippers? What do you call it?

3. Soaking Hippo/Bathing Princess

Do you ever eat a soaking hippo or bathing princess before? LOL. We Malays love them. Do not fret! It's just our traditional dessert. This traditional dessert is called either 'badak berendam' or 'puteri mandi'. 'Badak berendam' is literally translated as 'soaking hippo'. 'Badak' is hippo, and 'berendam' is soaking, whereas 'puteri mandi' means 'bathing princes'. 'Puteri' is princess and 'mandi' is bathing.

Basically it's a dessert made from glutinous flour, filled with shredded coconut flesh cooked with palm sugar and with coconut milk as the gravy. Photos were taken from http://imgarcade.com/1/badak-berendam/ and http://imgarcade.com/1/puteri-berendam/.

Do you have weird name(s) for your dessert(s)?

I think it's enough at the moment that I've shocked your sensitive souls with all these weird names. Please share with me and the rest if you can top up with weirder names than the three things I've mentioned here.

My previous blogs about Malaysia and weird Malaysians :-

1. Only In Malaysia, 2. You Know You've Met A Malaysian When .., 3. Festivals In Malaysia, 4. Amazing Places In Malaysia - Part I, 5. Amazing Places In Malaysia - Part II

I think I can tell you about the slippers because I remember when all of them coming into the United States came from Japan. Japan had its industrial base badly damaged in World War II. After that, Japan struggled to provide manufacturing jobs for the people and exported many very cheap products to the rest of the world.

During the 1950's and early 60's "Made in Japan" was not looked on as a good thing on a product. It meant cheap cost and many times cheap quality. At that time the slippers (called thongs, flip-flops. or shower shoes) were made of cheap rubber and were very cheap (maybe 10 pair for $1 US.) At that price they were very popular around the world.

This style of shoe had traditionally been made of rice straw in Japan, but after the war, growing petrochemical industries started making these and many cheap rubber and plastic items. The Japanese slippers became popular in most if not all countries that were open to trade.

Today "Made in Japan" carries a different meaning. If you are buying electronics or high-tech equipment, Japan is a good thing to have on the label.

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Comments

noaslpls April 1, 2015 2:01

Vieeetttt ... 'Wearing by toes' sound logical and obvious. :D :D :D
I am Vietnamese March 31, 2015 16:26

Mega told you the way we call banana feet here in Vietnam. I guess they are closely related to each other, but I prefer banana feet indeed lol. For slippers that you illustrate above, we call them "dép xỏ ngón" dép has a common meaning for all kinds of slippers or flip-flops, xỏ ngón means, ummm, wearing by toes ( hope that my expression is not too vague). I am not sure about the third dish here.
noaslpls March 18, 2015 15:03

Ok Arif. Looking forward to read all about it. :D
Arif March 18, 2015 10:34

I will let you and all my fellow know gradually. So, please be patient :D
noaslpls March 18, 2015 9:08

Uh uh Arif, so you guys are weird too? LOL. In what sense?
Arif March 17, 2015 13:33

Malaysians are weird, I can't disagree. Similarly, you can't disagree when I would tell you that Pakistanis are also weird :)
noaslpls March 16, 2015 15:33

LOL Elen, that is one 'hairy' cotton candy. LOL. I haven't eaten that cotton candy since I was a kid too, and that was more like 3 centuries ago. Hahahaha
noaslpls March 16, 2015 15:31

Thanks Mr. Bob for that information. It's nice to know the reason behind such a term. I remembered during the mid 80s, when Mahathir Mohammad became the Prime Minister of Malaysia, he changed the policy of Malaysia, and started the movement of 'looking East'. He wanted Malaysians to emulate Japan and Korea. All before this, we always 'looking West' for our thinking, work ethics and such. He instilled the belief that we Asians can also successful.
Elen March 16, 2015 14:29

Thank you Mr. Bob for the information about slippers. Noaslpls i read Galina's comment and i remembered one more weird name. "The hair of the old woman" and i mean the cotton candy. LOL. We call it like this because it looks like hair of old woman. Actually it looks more like cotton than hair. LOL. By the way i haven't eat it since i was a kid. :D
Mr. Bob March 16, 2015 11:40

I think I can tell you about the slippers because I remember when all of them coming into the United States came from Japan. Japan had its industrial base badly damaged in World War II. After that, Japan struggled to provide manufacturing jobs for the people and exported many very cheap products to the rest of the world.

During the 1950's and early 60's "Made in Japan" was not looked on as a good thing on a product. It meant cheap cost and many times cheap quality. At that time the slippers (called thongs, flip-flops. or shower shoes) were made of cheap rubber and were very cheap (maybe 10 pair for $1 US.) At that price they were very popular around the world.

This style of shoe had traditionally been made of rice straw in Japan, but after the war, growing petrochemical industries started making these and many cheap rubber and plastic items. The Japanese slippers became popular in most if not all countries that were open to trade.

Today "Made in Japan" carries a different meaning. If you are buying electronics or high-tech equipment, Japan is a good thing to have on the label.

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