Language and Identity

Do you know?

1. Mandarin Chinese has the most native speakers in the world, followed by Spanish and English.

2. There are 41806 spoken languages in the world today.

3. More people in China speak English than in the United States. (Regardless of whether they are native speakers or not)

4. Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch procejt at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosnt mttaer waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter.

5. There was no punctuation until the 15th century.

5. The word taxi is spelled the same in English, German, French, Swedish, Spanish and Portuguese. (It’s spelled the same in Malay, too!)

6. The dot over the letter 'i' is called a tittle (not title).

7. "Dreamt" is the only English word that ends in the letters "mt"!

8. The spoken language has four tones and a neutral tone.

9. What is called a "French kiss" in the English speaking world is known as an "English kiss" in France.

10. According to Illinois state law, it is illegal to speak English. The officially recognized language is "American."

Language is one of the "tools" to identify our own identity. I am always proud to be a Malaysian due to the fact that I was born and grown in a multiracial country which offers lots of diversity in term of food, culture and even languages that makes me feel so lucky.

Here, we were taught multiple languages since young. Hence, all Malaysians know at least 2 languages. Since small, I was taught to read and write in 3 languages (Chinese, Malay and English) and I spoke one dialect language in Chinese (Cantonese) with my parents, too. That's why I am always grateful that I am equipped with multiple languages since young, although I'm not fluent and proficient in all the languages, especially the Malay language. This is because I seldom use it since I graduated from my high school and the medium of teaching in college is English.

Knowing two out of the top three languages with most native speakers is always one of my greatest achievements in my life so far. This is also my identity and this makes me who I am today.

p/s: just as you might have noticed, the number 5 is repeated twice in the list above. :)