Wednesday, November 24

Bad Form? You Bet!

There are moments in our days when everything seems worth it, and we take a little extra delight in the things we do. I did not have such a moment today. In fact, I'll call it a non-moment, if you will. It all started when I received this creative composition in my inbox about an hour ago (and this is it in its entirety, no cuts):

"di sini sy nk bg sket cdgn mengenai projek.sy rasa utk subjek project management lebih baik en a___ bahagikan team member untuk final project.coz kalo pilih sendiri team member mesti xcampur melayu,cina dan india.sedangkan dlm organisasi sbnr pengurusan projek terdiri pelbagai kaum dan jantina.so sy nk praktik kan kerjasama dan komunikasi tersebut tp malangnya cina dan india xsuke utk 1group projek ngan student melayu..
akhir sekali sy hope en a__ dapat membahagikan kumpulan projek mix antara student melayu,cina,india ,laki dan perempuan..sekian.."

Now bear in mind that this supposedly comes from a third (read: final) year student in the project management class I'm taking over this semester. There was absolutely nothing in the form of a preamble, salutation, or even a general 'hello'. I like to think that I can relax myself when dealing with final year students, since they've got all of 3 years to acclimatise themselves with the way things work. To help that, I'm generally pretty much lenient when it comes to formal structures, especially since I don't like them too much myself.

Still, there is a time and place for everything, and I'd prefer at least some decorum from a supposed adult, but it looks like it's waay too much to expect from some people to at least keep their spelling full. Anyway, here's an excerpt from my reply (beg pardon, I had to use BM since I'm pretty sure this sorry excuse for a stain doesn't boast English as one of his/her strengths), and annotations are below:

"Assalamualaikum saudara (saudari?)*

Pertama sekali: saya harap saudara/i dapat menggunakan bahasa yang lebih baik ketika menghantar emel kepada pensyarah anda...Disebabkan ini kali pertama anda, saya tidak akan menghukum anda, tetapi saya beritahu di sini:

saya tidak akan melayan emel seperti ini lain kali.**

Saudara/i ada menyebut tentang kerjasama dan komunikasi, tetapi bagaimana jika kemahiran komunikasi anda sendiri masih lemah?....Jika anda tidak mahir menyampaikan maksud anda, mungkin tiba masanya untuk mengupah orang lain yang lebih mahir***..Anda harus memikirkan mengapa kaum lain keberatan untuk sekumpulan dengan pelajar melayu?....Jika seseorang itu pelajar yang baik, saya rasa semua orang akan tertarik untuk sekumpulan dengannya."

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* I wasn't sure if it was even male or female, hence the dual salutation.
** Sometimes, a little emphasis helps. Besides, I was angry.
*** A bit of sarcasm, which will undoubtedly be wasted.

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