KUALA LUMPUR: An image of a food menu purported to be from a local Malaysian university cafeteria is making its rounds on social media, and along with it, ridicule from netizens.
The menu claiming to serve ‘bestan food’ (Western Food, presumably) listed items in English, but spelt in Bahasa Malaysia, phonetically no less.
Some of the items were; cika coop (chicken chop), fisan cips (fish and chips), lem coop (lamb chop), sedbij (sandwich), fenfarais (French fries) and burger sepesal (burger special). (The translation in parentheses are the writer’s best guess for the items listed and it could very well be something else).
The image was first sighted by NST on social media forum Reddit, uploaded by user ‘eccentricjack,’ who claims that it was from a local university.
To this, one user, ‘hytag’ said, “I hope you're only paying them (the university) a visit. God help you if you choose to study there."
User ‘Felinomany’ was being more forgiving than the rest, and said, “I go to stalls and restaurants for food, not for the literary quality of the menu. So this wouldn't bother me.”
This is not the first time a menu has gained infamy among netizens for its bad English.
Last year a menu from a formal dinner function in parliament featured “scissors salad” (caesar salad), which was ridiculed by everyone, including Youth and Sports minister, Khairy Jamaluddin.
Khairy, in reponse to the menu had tweeted, “Couldn’t resist. Hidop scissors salad!” along with a picture of lettuce leaves cut in shapes of scissors.
Despite the gaffes that are often highlighted in the media and by netizens, Malaysia ranks highly in terms of English proficiency.In the EF English Proficiency Index (EF EPI) 2015, Malaysia ranks second in Asia, only behind Singapore and at an impressive 14th out of 70 countries worldwide, only behind Scandinavian and Western European countries.