“9 orang anak damit dilahirkan sempena Hari Ulang Tahun ABDB Ke-48” .....
That’s one of the headlines in the news. Before this I never thought somebody would give birth to commemorate (well that’s what sempena means to me in English) any particular date. At least now we know. Obviously there are people out there setting targets when they want to give birth, to coincide with major public holidays and historical dates.
Or is it a case of something not right with the reporting? Something gone wrong with the standard of our language expertise? I admit I am not an expert; in fact Bahasa Melayu or even English is one of my poorer subjects. Even now, I am still confused between verbs, adjectives, proverbs etc etc etc. Lucky I have my kids’ school text books I can refer to. But, with a very high degree of confidence, I am sure there are people out there who sees this headline as “a bit funny” to say the least. To some serious ones (I hope I do not fall into this category), it can be seen as a sign of decline in our linguistics ability. Well, someone out there knows the answer better than me.
The next magic date is 9th September 2009 i.e. 090909. I wonder if there is any couple out there working very hard on 31st December 2008 to have their babies born on this date. If you missed it, well, there is always 10th October 2010 to aim for........... or 11th November 2011... or 12th December 2012 .... pick your date ... I am sure you can count backwards!
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