GLC Engrish So Good

ARCHIVES 2011

By admin-s On May 23, 2011

Is this the work of the Google Translate?

By Simon Templar

How important is the English language today?

In Malaysia, this is a very sensitive question. All sorts of people will throw in all sorts of argument regardless of if it’s an ‘aye’ for English or ‘nay’ for it. And it will not take too long for that simple question to deviate to racial issues, then to religion, then to social contract, then to ‘you are a pendatang’, then to ‘please respect the Constitution’, then to ‘BN is corrupt’ and what is and what not.

The Malays are divided on this question. So are the Chinese and the Indians. The urbanites are divided on this question. There is not going to be a simple answer – that’s for sure.

To me, the English language is so-damn-blardie-kau important. Hey, that’s my stand so no need to tell me yours. Am not going to defend my stand now because am writing to show something else.

English is a complicated language. No kidding it is. We Malaysians are used to the rojak version so most of us could not be bothered to improve ourselves. Besides, asalkan we can understand each another, cukup makan lah… So, that’s us in our daily lives. Fine and dandy. But on official documents, official events, good to be proper a bit lah. And on GLC websites, please put in a bit of effort lah. It reflects badly on the GLC, the government and we Malaysians as a whole.

I was trying to get a Unifi subscription for my house. Apparently I get to register online. Googled it and this is what greeted me:

What the…?

“Great News!!”

Dude, what’s with the double exclamation marks? Why 2? Why not 3 or 5 or 10? Satu cukup bro. Where did you learn to use 2 anyway?? See, isn’t it weird when I use 2 question marks? Cikgu kat sekolah tak ajar such things anymore?

“All Streamyx user is allow to Upgrade to UniFi services, except previously Streamyx user who have Sign Free Notebook and PC bundle package is no allow to upgrade to UniFi

Now you can Upgrade your Streamyx to UniFi or Apply new installation through this web site.”

I don’t even know where to start on these sentences. The basic grammar is bertaburan, capital alphabet is used in the middle of the sentence, the sentences are just rubbish… Seriously, this is embarrassing. This is supposed to be a big corporation in the country. This website is meant to reach out to a lot of people. Is this the work of the Google Translate? You can’t blame me for raising this question. We have precedents in the Teoh Beng Hock case and more recently the super large banner in Mandarin greeting Wen Jiabao when he visited us.

Wait! The nightmare does not end there. After I submitted my registration…

“Thanks for your registration! Your form have been submitted! We will contact you as soon as possible. Please check for the Installation Guide Video page so that you can more understand on the UniFi installation Process before the contractor come to install the UniFi Services for you.

For those applicants haven’t upload photocopy IC during registration, you can use you Scanner or Phone Camera or Digital Camera to take your photocopy IC (both side) and email to [email protected] within 24 Hours. All the order will no be process until applicant IC have been received, If you have any enquiry or question, please don’t hesitate to contact us at 010-7985600.”

Aiyoh… Painful, painful… This is not an Email between 2 friends la! On your Personal Term, nobody gives a damn! This is you reaching out to your Customers. And for crying out loud, this is not something some less-than-capable chap Emailed me on the spot!! The above are all programmed Webpages. Why can’t somebody check on this before it goes live??