AFTER almost six weeks of abstemious football deprivation (read purgatory) – hidup tanpa bola, tidur tanpa bola, makan tanpa bola (live sans football, sleep sans football, eat sans football) – to borrow the cue from a nationally-televised ad campaign; the new football season is upon us.
Sorry local footie fans, I am not referring to our own Malaysia Cup but to events yonder in foreign shores – in them thar England. Politically-incorrect I may be but in terms of sheer coverage, reach and popularity, the English Premier League (which by virtue of it being sponsored by Barclays Bank and therefore also correctly-commercially called the Barclays Premier League) is the sports programme of choice which countless Malaysian football fans will be permanently dialled in from now till late May next year. That is the length of the BPL season that will keep us all engrossed, Asian bookies busy and office workers bleary-eyed to keep up with the continuous offering of top-class live games. Astro subscribers will tell you that the major portion of their waking hours will see them sitting in front of the telly most weekends in the late evenings or the wee hours of the mornings to catch the action.
The mamak restaurant trade – already operating round the clock – has become the de facto “stadium’ where football fans gather to indulge in their triple passion of stuffing themselves unhealthily silly, puffing away stick after stick and watching 22 fit men chase a round ball all over the pitch!
If there’s a redeeming point at all, it is that these band of merry men get their kicks totally alcohol-free; so there’s no bar-brawling or hooliganism to contend with.
What grabs my goat though is their singular inability to get the names of the protagonists right. These fans are fully aware of the handover of the reigns of management of Manchester United having passed on from the venerable institution - Sir Alex Ferguson - to former Everton boss David Moyes. What they are blissfully ignorant is how the name should be pronounced.
Important you ask? Important I say!
For argument’s sake let’s put the boot on the other foot. How would you react when a Mat Salleh television anchor is faced with a script that reads a common Malay name spelt M-O-H-D? Now if “Mode” springs from his mouth, you’d quite likely feel yucky and maybe reach out for the remote control and throw it against the television screen.
Our television anchors and radio sports commentators – some of the uncouth ones – read out Moyes as MO + YES. They are not wrong. No, they are VERY WRONG!
Those amongst the footballing fan fraternity who have bothered to find out know that M-O-Y-E-S; when read aloud comes across as MO + OYS (to rhyme with Boys or Voice).
I felt strongly enough about the subject that I actually rang up the newsroom of one television station last weekend to alert the female anchor who read out the sports news in the early evening. Guess what? They admitted their gaffe and from the next bulletin onwards, that particular television station banished MO-YES out to touch!
It does not help however when Arsenal Manager Arsene Wenger insists on calling the one-time Everton manager MO-YES, but he’s French.
It bothers me that our local fans do not attempt to go beyond sitting in front of the television set in their favourite mamak restaurant and engage in spirited football banter. Listen in to their comments and some appear to spew rubbish while others merely regurgitate what they read in the back pages of local newspapers. Those with a little bit more panache however can rival Shebby Singh, one-time fullback and football pundit – now otherwise fully employed in running the affairs of Blackburn Rovers in England.
Away from the football pitch, academia is not immune to this bout of mis-pronunciation too. Quite a few Malaysians are aware of the existence of Johns Hopkins university, that venerable university famed for its excellence in medicine. In fact, it is setting up a branch campus in Cyberjaya and pretty soon Malaysian patients will gain the benefit of their brand of patient care. But first they would do well to get everyone to address them right.
It is Johns – with an S; and Hopkins – also with an S! Does it matter if us Malaysians call it John Hopkins? Of course it does!
On Saturday Proton launched its latest model – the hatchback version of the Preve. What was the name given to this latest model to come out of the Proton plant in Tanjung Malim ? They named it the Suprima! I have no doubt they are thinking of something supercalifragilisticexpialidociously grand to showcase its super duper-ness. But Suprima?
Is this Spanish, Latin or Javanese? Neither – it is a mish mash of BM and near-English that the marketing and branding boys conjured for the lexicographically-relaxed and forgiving Malaysian market.
To me this is taking the easy way out – bastardise a foreign language to come up with what is seemingly local. I personally prefer if we had stuck with the original word – Supreme. Offered as the hatchback version of the Proton Preve (now this in itself is not a local word to begin with); I do not see how the promoters could not simply call it the Proton Supreme?
We may embrace wholeheartedly the joys of the English football game, but when it comes to ascribing almost-Anglo Saxon names to local cars, now that is a big NO, NO on pain of raising nationalist ire!
Perhaps that's why we find ourselves almost calling Moyes – Mo.....NYET!
RAZAK Chik finds it so grating when local football fans sing; “We want goal, we want goal,” to egg on their local football teams. What ever happened to the use of the article “a” in grammatically-proper sentence construction?
Razak Chik
Mon Aug 19 2013
Mahu kongsi khasiat, bekas guru agama buka ladang dhab pertama di Malaysia
Seorang bekas guru agama membuka sebuah ladang ternakan dhab atau nama saintifiknya Uromastyx aegyptia yang pertama di negara ini.
UPNM guna bahan buangan kelapa sawit jadi peledak peluru
UPNM mengorak langkah dalam bidang inovasi apabila menghasilkan peledak atau bahan bakar alternatif dalam peluru daripada ekstrak bahan buangan kelapa sawit.
10 Berita Pilihan - (08 Mei 2024)
Antara pelbagai berita dalam dan luar negara yang disiarkan di Astro AWANI, berikut adalah yang paling menjadi tumpuan sepanjang hari ini.
Taikun dipenjara terkait kes cubaan bunuh dua dekad lalu
Taikun dipenjara terkait kes cubaan bunuh dua dekad lalu
Seorang ahli perniagaan Ukraine yang kini dipenjara akibat kes penipuan dan penyelewengan wang turut berdepan sabitan cubaan membunuh dalam kes yang berlaku lebih dua dekad lalu. Polis Ukraine dalam kenyataan mendedahkan bahawa Ihor Kolomoisky berkemungkinan bertanggungjawab sebagai dalang cubaan membunuh seorang peguam dalam konflik berkaitan hal korporat lebih dua tahun lalu.
Seorang ahli perniagaan Ukraine yang kini dipenjara akibat kes penipuan dan penyelewengan wang turut berdepan sabitan cubaan membunuh dalam kes yang berlaku lebih dua dekad lalu. Polis Ukraine dalam kenyataan mendedahkan bahawa Ihor Kolomoisky berkemungkinan bertanggungjawab sebagai dalang cubaan membunuh seorang peguam dalam konflik berkaitan hal korporat lebih dua tahun lalu.
Pesawat FedEx mendarat cemas akibat masalah gear pendaratan
Sebuah pesawat kargo Boeing 763 terpaksa melakukan pendaratan cemas di Lapangan Terbang Istanbul, Turkiye kerana berhadapan dengan masalah pada gear pendaratannya. Dalam kejadian yang berlaku pada Rabu itu, kesemua kru telah dipindahkan dengan selamat daripada pesawat milik syarikat penghantaran Amerika Syarikat, FedEx.
Rasuah $10.9 Juta: Timbalan Menteri Pertahan kekal dipenjara
Mahkamah Rusia pada Rabu menolak rayuan pembebasan yang dikemukakan oleh timbalan menteri pertahanan negaranya, Timur Ivanov yang kini disabitkan bersalah dalam kes rasuah bernilai 10.9 juta dolar Amerika. Ivanov yang kini berada dalam proses 'pra-perbicaraan kini masih ditahan di penjara dan permohonannya untuk melalui proses penahanan di rumah ditolak mahkamah yang mana ia adalah merupakan skandal rasuah terbesar melibatkan menteri kabinet negara itu untuk sekian lama.
Mayat terakhir pekerja dalam runtuhan jambatan AS ditemui
Mayat keenam dan terakhir kemalangan sebuah kapal kontena melanggar jambatan Francis Scott Key, Baltimore Amerika Syarikat ditemui pada Selasa. Mayat yang ditemui itu dikenali sebagai Jose Mynor Lopez, 37 tahun, seorang pekerja binaan di jambatan berkenaan berasal dari Baltimore, Maryland.
[TERKINI] Selangor FC umum tidak hadir ke perlawanan Piala Sumbangsih
Pengurusan Selangor FC mengambil keputusan untuk tidak hadir dalam perlawanan Piala Sumbangsih dengan Johor Darul Ta’zim di Stadium Sultan Ibrahim yang dijadualkan pada Jumaat ini.
Dalam satu kenyataan pada Rabu, kelab itu berkata, mereka mengambil maklum keputusan Liga Bolasepak Malaysia (MFL) yang menolak permohonan Selangor FC untuk menangguhkan perlawanan itu.
Dalam satu kenyataan pada Rabu, kelab itu berkata, mereka mengambil maklum keputusan Liga Bolasepak Malaysia (MFL) yang menolak permohonan Selangor FC untuk menangguhkan perlawanan itu.
MB Johor yakin kemampuan polis siasat insiden serangan ke atas Safiq
Kerajaan Negeri Johor yakin kewibawaan Polis Diraja Malaysia untuk menyiasat dan mengesan individu yang menyerang pemain tengah Johor Darul Ta'zim (JDT), Safiq Rahim.
Azalina ketuai delegasi Malaysia ke Kanada untuk kajian pengasingan kuasa
Menteri di Jabatan Perdana Menteri (Undang-Undang dan Reformasi Institusi), Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said, kini mengetuai delegasi Malaysia ke Ottawa, Kanada untuk menjalankan kajian terperinci mengenai konsep pengasingan kuasa Peguam Negara dan Pendakwa Raya.
Tugu bekas bos Arsenal Wenger didedahkan di luar Stadium Emirates
Sebagai tanda penghormatan dan kesyukuran berterusan kelab, tugu Arsene yang tersergam indah kini berdiri di luar Stadium Emirates.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic bersara pada usia 41 tahun
Masanya telah tiba untuk Ibrahimovic mengucapkan selamat tinggal kepada bola sepak.
Ferguson, Wenger dua pengurus pertama dalam Hall of Fame EPL
Dua bekas pengurus yang pernah berseteru itu tersenarai untuk menyertai Hall of Fame EPL, yang mula diperkenalkan pada 2021.
EPL: Arsenal padu di Emirates
Wenger kembali ke Stadium Emirates buat kali pertama sejak meninggalkan kelab itu pada 2018.
Piala Dunia Qatar: Aksi cemerlang Messi bukti evolusi sukan bola sepak moden - Wenger
Persembahan menakjubkan Lionel Messi di Piala Dunia Qatar 2022 'menunjukkan evolusi sukan bola sepak', menurut bekas pengurus Arsenal, Arsene Wenger.
Piala Dunia dwitahunan: UEFA percaya FIFA tidak akan teruskan idea
Idea ini telah mendapat tentangan meluas oleh ramai pihak dalam bola sepak terutama di Eropah dan Amerika Selatan.
Arteta jemput Wenger kembali bersama Arsenal
Bekas pengendali kelahiran Perancis itu kini berkhidmat sebagai ketua pembangunan bola sepak global FIFA.
Wenger sokong cadangan Piala Dunia dianjur setiap dua tahun
Cadangan itu menggembirakan pihak penyiaran tetapi ditentang oleh liga dan kelab kerana bimbang pemain kehabisan tenaga.
Rashford ingat pesan Mourinho cara menangi sepakan penalti
United meraih sepakan penalti yang luar biasa dalam beberapa tahun kebelakangan ini berbanding seteru mereka dalam Liga Perdana Inggeris (EPL).
Arsenal hukum kealpaan Liverpool
Arsenal memadam gol pembukaan Sadio Mane dan mula mendahului susulan kelekaan Liverpool yang dihukum oleh Alexandre Lacazette dan Reiss Nelson.