Starting with a little about myself, I am a foreigner currently based in Malaysia and also a digital artist. This road has been filled with many winding roads before I’ve decided which shit sandwich to settle with as a career. I am a Mass Communication student, initially an account servicing intern for an Advertising company, then a video editor cum social media manager, then a TVC video editor, a HR, and now a full-fledge Senior Compositor (if you know, you know).
It is no surprise that I love keeping tiny tidbits of my life story close to heart and replay it whenever doth shall amuse me (haha). So let me share one rather ironic, unfortunate and short story I’ve encountered.
It was the 2017 ice hockey Olympics at Kuala Lumpur’s Empire City and I was there with my colleagues for the hype. On that particular day, it was the Malaysia team versus the Singapore team. Oh by the way, I’m Singaporean (anyways). Around the ice rink, you can feel the deep rooted resentment some Malaysian groups have for the Singapore team, it was lingering in the air like some unspoken threat. Me being me, I went exploring around the brand new ice rink (they built it just for the Olympics lol) and found myself with a clear view of the game, but also surrounded by locals (and no clear ally in sight).
Towards the end of the game, it was down to the last second for both team to score another goal. I can’t remember which team is winning but I remember the crowd counting down with the clock. But alas, they were probably too excited and counted way to early, a second too early to be exact. The Malaysia team’s goalie let his guard down when the crowd counted to zero but in actual fact, the game has not end and the Singapore team sneaked in their last goal for the entire 2017 Olympic. The buzzer that signals the goal shocked everyone. I was rather amused, ever heard of the tortoise and rabbit folklore? Maybe it ended up being a draw? I can’t remember, if anyone knows of the score for that year’s ice hockey Olympics, feel free to let me know in the comment section below!
Sorry if the story is getting lengthy, I got rather narrative and I’m not even at the main plot of this story (😂), but anyways, when everyone was cheering for their team for doing a great job after the game. The group of locals around me got rather excited/passionate/heated (?) and started shouting the word “anjing” towards the ice rink. I never knew what it meant at that point of my life, but I later found out from my Malaysian colleagues that it meant “dog”, a noun meant to degrade an individual, a group and a Singapore ice hockey team. Imagine if I were to declare myself a Singaporean right at that moment! Ha!
I remember back in jail/detention, I was described as “anjing” because of my race (the only Singaporean among foreigners from Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia) but my knowledge has set me free and I do not hold grudge, only pleased with my tri-lingual skills (but that’s another story for another day). Now, I fully wield the capability and knowledge on when, where and on who to use the word “anjing”, and because I’m currently based in Malaysia, guess where this Singaporean has been flaunting her tri-lingual skills whenever the need for such word arises?
