Learning the Indonesian way of pronouncing all 26 alphabets. Work at the clinic came to a standstill one day as everybody was amused and entertained by what they feel was a rather hilarious scene. An Indonesian doctor teaching a Malaysian (which was me) how to pronounce alphabets, as if it was a kindergarten. And i got to say, i'm a very attentive student. Attentive to the point that i paid so much attention to him and to learning what he was saying that i didn't notice the many eyes looking at me until i got to Z. Nurses, doctors, patients. It was quite embarassingly funny. Embarassing for me. Funny for them. haha...
A (ah), B (beh), C (che), D (deh), E (aye), F (F), G (geh), H (ha - as in the first sound of honey), I (ee), J (i can't remember!), K (kah), L (i can't remember either!), M(m), N (n), O (o), P (peh), Q (malay pronounciation of ku), R (r), S (s), T (teh), U (oo), V (veh), W (weh), X (don't remember), Y (don't remember), Z (don't remember - i think i got really concious about the crowd as we were ending!)
The whole lesson took about 2 minutes. But it saved me a lot of confusion later on.
See, we medics are weird people who come up with a lot of weird long names. Very unfortunate for people with Hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia. yes, that's a real word for people who are phobic of long words. Anyway, we create long names for everything just to use acronyms so that we sound cool. Typical medic talk would consist of Latin, alphabets, and very little english.
But yes, there i was getting confused between USG (or ultrasound, pronounced OO-S-GEH) with OSK. so went the doctor asked me to write down on patients notes i would write OSK.
And there were morning reports with a whole lot of wehbehche and r-beh-che (WBC and RBC), and the best ha-che-teh (HCT). was lost for a whole day or so. Thank goodness ICU was I-C-U and not ee-che-oo. I'd have been so entire lost!
#7
For the outpatient department, there's a row of examination rooms with two doors each. One door for the patient from the waiting area and one door for the doctors from the Doctor's area. For a doctor to call patients, there's two phones in the doctors area which are connected to loudspeakers audible throughout the hospital compound. 541* and you'd be on air. Usually, the doctors would say in their Indonesian language and accent ' [Patients' name] dari [patient's hometown], sila masuk ke kamar (room) nombor [room number].' Simple. How hard can it be. So we Malaysians decided to give it a go...After all, how often do you get to sound Indonesian and be heard by an entire hospital?
And for the first few times, we succeeded. In providing entertainment to everyone, that is.
here we go.
Lift phone
Press 5-4-1-*
[loud beep]
laughterlaughterlaughterlaughter
*Doctor slams phone down*
more laughter laughter laughter
It's okay. Take 2.
Lift phone.
hold laughter
Press 5-4-1. Ready? Press *
"XXX dari..."
laughterlaughterlaughterlaughter....
phone slammed.
Darn. How hard can this be?
It's okay. we'll try again.
Take 3.
541*
"Ibu xxx dari xxxxxxx, sila pergi ke bilik nombor 9. Ibu xxx dari xxxxxxxxx, sila pergi ke bilik nombor 9."
*Relief from the Malaysians*
*More suppressed laughter from the Indonesians*
"Eh, eh. Pergi itu maksud pergi...you know, pass away?"
"and it's kamar not bilik!"
sigh. Malaysia Boleh. Indonesia Bisa. It's different, okay?
#8
Late night chats in doctor's room while on call, post surgery. Post 'flower pot surgery'. (see previous post).
Surgeon: Aiyo, you never do handicraft when you were young? Why you don't know how to cut?
Me: err...no?
Surgeon: Your hands must be more steady! Go practise. Take up some hobby. Crossstitching.
Me: errr (as the question slowly process in my brain that has gone asleep)....
...
...
...
WHAT?!
Surgeon: Ya, cross stitch! My sister used to be a great surgeon and she did a lot of handicraft.
Me: Do you cross stitch?
Surgeon: Ya...
Me: *picturing male surgeon (you know how surgeons are always the boss around) cross stitching*
*tries harder*
*page cannot be found*
*refresh*
*refresh*
*refresh*
*error 404 page not found*
Me: really?
Surgeon: Ya...
Other doctor: You cross stitch? Do you do precious moments? I like precious moments cross stitch...
*Conversation topic changes into cross-stitching. At 2 in the morning! 2 am! seriously! while i sit and stare and try hard to picture them or me cross-stitching...*
No comments:
Post a Comment