Lost in Translation

I'll be honest and admit that I have been in a few Lost In Translation circumstances, the most recent being:

Un: A member of the public called from a state up north and I had to tell him - at least twice - to slow down. For I was having difficulty understanding him. He spoke very fast and in Kedah dialect too. Finally, I had to do an SOS and asked my colleague to talk to the poor chap. Er, and mind you, he was a Chinese, speaking in Kedah dialect. And I could not, for the life of me, understand him. How embarassing! Five years at boarding school and yet Adek somehow has never managed to learn dialects of her friends from various states. But before you blame me, as I recall it, we spoke only in our unique school lingua franca - Where Everybody Knows Your Name and understands each other of course - and we still do whenever we meet up. And also back at school, we had too much Respect for each other to resort to our various state dialects; and besides it'd simply be rude to make another feel left out.

Deux: I may have been quick to (mis)judge the guy my friend wants to introduce me to. As another mate explained, I wasn't meant to read his reply. And maybe I was reading too much of something that wasn't there and that he didn't even mean. So I should give him a break. And myself too. But I can't help wondering what my friend has told him about me for him to have that much Respect for me and to think of me that highly. It's making me slightly uncomfortable because I wouldn't like to encourage people to think I'm a perfect person when I have a lot of flaws. As I told my friend: 'I'm not actually that reserved myself and I am a bit outgoing. I still go to the movies, alone at times, and I do like to sing sometimes. I'm also learning this Poco Poco dance with some ladies in my department [all-girls session]. Sure there are times when I don't feel very sociable and don't feel like meeting certain people ... so I'm a mix of both and although I have gone for Haj, I still want to enjoy life the way I want it - within limits of course. I'm not sure if he could appreciate a girl like that. But then again, it's kind of normal for me to fall short of people's expectation, especially Malay guys... and if I ever notice anything it's that Malay guys tend to shy away fr me for reasons I can't explain myself. So to be honest, actually I'm not too confident about the success rate of this venture but I have confidence in you and I know you have my interests at heart.'

Confusing and confused Adek is always Misunderstood and she also sometimes misunderstands people. But she'll be quick to admit her error.

Trois: Some chap from another department called on Friday to seek clarification on the acronyms we used in our communication to his side. Now when the acronym is GDP, I suppose most people would just assume it to mean Gross Domestic Product when hey, it could mean just about anything [after all, why should we referring about Gross Domestic Product when it is beyond our realm?!]. And the thing is, we had clearly stated what our definition for GDP is in the very first paragraph and it was a short, sweet one too. Almost asked him whether his query was an early April Fool's joke.

Quatre: Nah, this is not as recent as those three above and besides it could be potentially embarassing so I shall not mention it.