ക WhyAskWhy¿ (04) ~ 'Gostan' & 'Calefare'

GOSTAN ~ Remember Bananaz last post about double parking? See I told you and even warned you much earlier not to double park! This is the cause and effect of double parking.. *just kidding*. In Malaysia the Malays, Chinese and Indians would use this common colloquial word 'gostan' without any problem its more like a national word now. Give a wild guess what the hell is this word 'gostan' and how did it come about?

Slowly and surely this word 'go astern' has gradually gone 'a turn' into the Malaysian scene and evolved to become 'gostan'. "Can you please 'gostan' your car a little bit more I need to get out from this parking lot?" Does this word 'gostan' rings a bell, sounds familiar? There is even one flyover in Penang near to Lam Wah Ee hospital nicknamed "gostan flyover" because its a single lane and only one car can go through the flyover and if there is any car breakdown all those cars behind would have to 'gostan' hence the nickname.

CALEFARE (Pronounced as "care-lair-fare") [Cantonese] ~ Lately have been seeing this word "calefare" being flowing constantly in the comments columns from Donna and quite timely to share how 'calefare' came into being. In the movie industry in Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong this word 'calefare' will not be missed from the lips of movie directors or filming crew. Calefare refers to those 'non-important' acting roles for actors or actresses or the so called extras. Just like us during our primary days we would have done this before in school where all students be given a small flag either to welcome some VIPs or in school activities. Our role is to 'Carry Flag' and waive as hard as we can when the siren of outriders echoed the school compound with the VVIPs tailing behind or participate in any streets procession celebrating Independence Day waving the flags.

Hong Kong would be no exception with the students doing the same itsy bitsy tiny role of carry flag. Knowing the HongKees who are renowned for their Cantonese slang while speaking English coupled with the Asian consonant syndrome of mis-pronouncing 'R' with 'L' ended up as 'cally flag' and eventually cemented the word as 'calefare'. Bananaz got this version from an elderly optician who learned about it while on vacation in Hong Kong, of course there could be other version but I found this quite close as some refers to the food with curry and cafe [Mandarin version]. If you know of the original and true version would truly appreciate your comments please.

There is one Singaporean sitcom series titled "Calefare" starred by the 'Don't play play PCK' Gurmit Singh but nothing being mentioned about the origin of 'calefare'.

ஞ Blunder : #08.

Those days after watching war movie we would imitate the marching of soldiers and yelled it loud 'lap by lap' all the way home from the cinema. Naive thinking then thought it got something to do with footwork so that's it must be 'lap by lap'. It went on for quite some years until we finally realised our 'lap' does not synchronise with the right arm. We have to kiss our lap goodbye after so many wrong donkey years 'lapped by'. Take a wild guess what is the actual three words? .. its 'Left Right Left'. What the heck 'lap by lap' dude!!! *Paiseh* Blushing..

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