[genting episode]the man who could speak german

well, i usually do not talk to stranger. i mean, total stranger you meet on the road. however, that day was surprisingly interesting. back from genting, we had to catch the monorail from Jalan Imbi station to KL Sentral before getting on the commuter until Batu 3-the place we live in. we were extremely tired and exhausted from the whole day at genting. everyone has already had red eyes, fatigue from enjoying too much in a day.

we were waiting at the station when an utterly unexpected turn of event took place. i was creating a conversation with the TA as usual, asking how was the day and so on. suddenly, a man, out of nowhere, jumped in the scene and asked us, "are you guys speaking japanese?". i was stunned for a short moment before jauntily replied, "HAIT!" of course i giggled followed by translating it to "yes" to the man. he was kind strucked too i guess, for suddenly having a japanese language for an answer. He was a typical malay man, with straight not so short, not so long hair, wearing old school spectacles and of average height. then, he looked towards us, and smiled. there was a light of astonishment i guess, reflected from his eyes, perhaps, it was so weird to see us the typical malays to speak so cosily with the japanese-not that fluently though in my case who struggle to find the right sentence eveytime i speak to these japanese. but then, for people to instantly recognize japanese was not that much too, so i had this thought, "oh, does this guy know japanese too?", instantly i inquired him that. too much to my surprise, okay, he doesn't know japanese aside from the normal greetings such as arigatou, sumimasen, gomennasai but this person actually speaks german!

he was so 'ramah', asking us a lot of questions with the soft voice of his. he did know a lot, asking whether we are currently at UM which apparently we not and also he ask about our course and so on. when the monorail arrived, we entered and continued chatting with him. i was quite far, so for the earlier part of the journey when the train was so packed (it was half past 10 for god sake), i could not join their conversation. when people had gradually decreased, i got a seat and again we talked. without being reserved, i asked for his name, exchanging it with ours and like old friends reunited, we talked a lot. i'm not sure whether he is a student or already working, i guess it's the latter but he sure was interested in languages. we talked about differences in these languages, the letters used and how i mentioned to him i'm so troubled with numerous kanji existed to trouble me. on his side, i loved the way he made the analogy for german language that it's like add math when english is modern math. well, the letters are quite the same with common alphabets only with some additonals-did he said 'some'? but i'm sure he mentioned that german is actually like old english while french being a whole different language. italian too, he referred as quite rough, the same way the people always behave. the interesting part here is when we partially became translator for both this malay man and the japanese beside us. kudou-san however made the effort of practising english with this man. he pronounced it quite good i would say, at least i understood, and so the man. well, he had heard us enough speaking in japanese all the while, so we made him speaking in german. fairly interesting! now how i wish to learn another language too. his soft voice attracted me.

so, we parted ways at the kl sentral. happily greeting each other goodbyes. it would be a pure chance if i were to be able to run into this interesting man again. of course, i could hardly forget his name-the same as my friend i got here.