Nickelodeon, Disney, Cartoon Network.

How does these three correlate with my life?

Other than giving me an insane perspective on every little detail, they have taught me to love the beautiful language that is English.

Let me first start off that I am not, whatsoever a ‘pro’ in English. I make multiple grammar mistakes and you may find a few in the next several minutes. My words jumble up sometimes when I speak or write trying to organize my sentences as I think in two languages (True story. I even took a minute to figure out what was the translation of the word ‘susun’ in English. Answer: Organize. How dense of me!)

I get a euphoric feeling every single time I write in English. In fact, I’m euphoric now~~~! I blame my parents for leaving me in front of the television with the remote at hand most of the time when I was in my toddler years. Nickelodeon/Nick Junior was my channel of choice at the time with shows like Dora the Explorer, Rugrats, Rocko’s Modern Life, CatDog, Ren and Stimpy, High-5, etc as my favourites.  Bear in the Big Blue House, PB&J Otter were my go to shows on Disney/Disney Junior while Johnny Bravo and Scooby Doo on Cartoon Network. Oh! And I was a huge fan of Barbie up until I was 13. Watching Barbie movies helped me improved my language usage as well.

Living with my parents and two sisters they often converse in Sabahan Malay (They speak fluent English too but prefer the former.). Whenever I talked with them, I would always, ALWAYS use English so much so that I didn’t converse in proper Malay with them until I was 14 years old (I wasn’t that good in Malay until then anyway). I remember my sisters would get irritated with me (not always though) whenever I reply them in English as a kid because it sounded ‘skema’. Haha! It’s true! Now that I thought about it! In my primary school years (6-12yrsold) my mom would lend me her Reader’s Digest books for me to read. I didn’t understand the bombastic words. I was only in it for the pictures (The old version of Reader’s Digest had pretty drawings). In my middle school years (13-15yrsold) as I begin to converse in Sabahan Malay, my dad did this annoying thing where whenever I asked him legitimate questions, he would say, “I don’t understand what you are saying. Can you ask in English?” ALL THE TIME. It annoyed the hell out of me. I blame him for me being bad in BM btw LOL. Kidding, I blame myself (I gotten significantly better as I entered Pre-U thanks to my BM lecturer).

There’s this old wives tale that’s still going on today in where I live that is when a newborn is sleeping and placed certain things next to them such as a book, an object it’ll somewhat influence them some traits when growing up. For instance, if you place a calculator next to a newborn as they’re sleeping, the baby would turn up to either love math or be a math wiz or placing a science book would make the baby more science savvy. My mom placed a Reader’s Digest book next to me as a newborn and I’m not sure for certain whether that was the reason for me to automatically click with the language. I joked with my mom that when I have a baby, I would buy an iPad, download e-books, educational applications and place it next to my baby so the cradle would be less crowded. It would totally save space and add more benefits! She found it amusing.

I love English because I legitimately love the language, I love the slangs that come along with it, and I love the vast words available for me to create more profound meanings to my sentences. I love fulfilling my need of knowing more bombastic English words for me to use. I’m addicted to decorating my sentences with complex terminologies as so a picker scouring a junkyard to find hidden treasures. Whenever I read a story, a book or an article whether it be on the internet or on my hands, whenever I see a word that I don’t understand or a brilliant phrase, I would get an itch if I do not write it down as a self-reminder to look it up. I have a bookmark folder for all the 100+ complex words I saved from googling and I used to have a notebook (prior to having a laptop) with the title pasted on, ‘Complex Terminologies’ for words I do not understand.  That’s how addicted I am. I may not form the best sentences nor do I use some terms correctly, but the point is, I never stop learning. I love learning.  Especially when it comes down to this language. I strive to not be the best but to do my best in what I’m passionate in. It completely consumes me.

English is and forever will be my first love.