Touché?
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I read RPK’s post titled Touché and must admit wasn’t aware his use of the word touché went beyond what I had in mind all along about the meaning of this word – goes to show I get to learn something new everyday.
To me, touché was a one-word admittance of one’s error or absurd logic when countered by one’s opponent’s right-on-target sarcasm against one’s statement, or perhaps a polite reminder for one to first look into the mirror before making such a statement. It’s almost, though not quite, like a ‘stone thrower’ confessing to the proverb ‘Yes, you right, those who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones’.
Thus it’s a word to be said by the person who has the table turned against his/her statement.
Okay, maybe the above explanation of my impression of touché is too much of a mouthful so let me instead provide a few examples, starting from the general to the particular, to wit, episodes in our Malaysian lives.
If an American bloke says to you “Your English is damn good for a Malaysian”, and you cheekily (or sarcastically) reply “And yours too for an American”, he would, if he has a sense of humour or appreciation for witty conversation, say touché – meaning he admits he has been far too presumptuous in believing only he an American could speak good English.
Incidentally on the description ‘American’, if I may digress here a wee bit (being t’ng k’ooi or chong hei), I have an Argentinean friend who one day lamented that most people automatically assume that word points to a person-citizen of the United States of America (USA) when the term ‘America’ refers to two continents which have within them several countries.
He cried out that he too would be an American, and so too the Bolivians, Mexicans, Canadians, Ecuadorians, Cubans, etc. Why must the USA seize the word as a label for only its people? After all, the word ‘America’ was derived from the name of an Italian, Amerigo Vespucci (Latinised as Americus Vespucius), after he proved that Brazil and West Indies belonged to a new massive land mass totally separated from Asia, hence the term New World.
It was a German cartographer, Martin Waldseemüller, who first used the term ‘America’ to describe the new continent when he published a world map, stating:
“I do not see what right any one would have to object to calling this part, after Americus who discovered it and who is a man of intelligence, Amerige, that is, the Land of Americus, or America: since both Europa and Asia got their names from women”.
In other words, the word ‘America’ was first used to name the southern continent mass, today known to us as South America.
I suggested to my matey that it might be a bit of a mouthful for the USA to call its people … er …. United-States-ians, and when he rejected that as a poor excuse, offered a new description for citizens of the USA, namely, gringos wakakaka. My mate was finally mollified with that appellation for those Yankee gringos.
Okay, back to touché.
Suppose a Chinese friend of Aneh who sells Indian mee-rebus in Ayer Itam, says, “Aisehman Maniam, for an Indian hoe liao lah, you sure know how to use Chinese mee noodles for your speciality”, and he replies with a twinkle in his eyes, “You know Ah Chong, I just love your mum’s curry”, it would be appropriately gracious for Ah Chong to smile and admit touché to the clever banter.
Hmmm, I wonder whether you’ve got this one? Never mind, one more.
But this one may not please anwaristas wakakaka. Recall that Perak debacle when the state government changed hands after 3 PKR and one DAP ADUNs defected to the BN. Let us say Anwar condemned Najib for dabbling in underhanded political defections, and Najib responded, “Don’t Nasarudin Hashim, Jamaluddin Radzi and Osman Jailu … reflect the sentiments of their voters, namely the Malays in their constituencies … as the beginning of a new wave?”
That would have been a situation where Anwar Ibrahim could, if politically gracious, acknowledge touché wakakaka. But alas, the tussle was too bitter to be gracious because the political consequence of the mirrored actions of Anwar and Najib was far too traumatic.
Still don’t get it? Wakakaka. Never mind, another one ler.
