International Mother Language Day is celebrated on 21st February

International Mother Language Day is celebrated on 21st February

On International Mother Tongue Day eve we talked about the Malay language with students from Malaysia - Nur Aisya Binti Mohamad and Muhammad Azim Bin Shaari. They are the second year students of Shipbuilding and Ocean Engineering Faculty SMTU

- How would you describe your native language in a few words?

The Malay is very melodious, sonorous. It is a universal language. If you speak Malay, you will understand Thai, Indonesian and Tagalog as well.

Noor Aisya: As for me, Malay is a classy and elegant language. Our ancestors liked to give advice to each other in different ways, for example, in poems and songs. Our ancestors wrote many poems and songs, which became an important part of people communication system.

- Russian is said to be very complex - few people have absolute literacy. Do you know all Malay rules?

Noor Aisya: Malay doesn’t have many rules, but I'm not sure I know them all. For example, it is important to place commas correctly. If a punctuation mark is in the wrong place, the sentence will have a different meaning. In our country, we study the native language from seven to seventeen and leaving school take an exam in Malay.

Muhammad Azim: I think our language is easier because we don't have cases.

- Every nation has its own proverbs and sayings. Tell us about the Malay ones.

Muhammad Azim: We have many proverbs. For example, this one is my favorite: tigers die and leave their stripes, people die, theirs names are left. This means, that a good person always leaves a good memory about himself.

-Now what language do you more often think in? What language do you dream in?

Nur Aisya: I try to think in Russian. I need to learn how to construct sentences correctly.

Muhammad Azim: I usually think in Malay or English - I just train myself to think in Russian. Although if I watch movies in Russian the day before, I dream in Russian too.