I did an online ACNielsen survey this morning. It had something to do with online banking and it took up a long, long time to finish. The funny part is the survey is in Malay. The not-so-funny part is the surveyors literally translated English terms into Malay.
The first question asked something like, "Pernakah anda menggunakan perkhidmatan perbankan dalam talian?"
And I went, "Dalam talian? What's that? I don't think so." I was about to click the No option when I realized.... "Dalam talian" = "Online"! I don't know why 'on' was translated into 'dalam', which is actually 'in'. Hehe, "Inline banking".
The confusion doesn't stop there. There were some questions about halfway through that asked how satisfied I was with a bank's services. Among the common criteria like "Melihat baki akaun", there was one option "Fi & Caj".
"Fi?"
C'mon, take a guess. What the heck is Fi? I kept trying to recall any financial acronyms but Fi just doesn't mean anything.
It wasn't after a few questions later that I realized what Fi meant. An option read, "Fi yang dikurangkan untuk perbankan dalam talian".
Oh.......!!!! Fi.......
Still don't get it?
Fi = Fee!
Which bright graduate decided that fee in Malay should be spelled "fi"? And I was pronouncing it all along as 'fai'.
Sigh, the Malay language is a composition and adaptation of many languages. Who knew that its existence and integrity will be threatened by that very fact?
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