Malay woman wows TikTok viewers with fluent Tamil, Cantonese

 

Burger stall owner Fatimah Mat Kasar recently took TikTok by storm with videos showing her conversing with neighbours in fluent Tamil and Cantonese.

In her first appearance on a TikTok video, Fatimah, from Ipoh, was seen speaking to her neighbour in Tamil, saying that she was travelling to Batu Gajah.

The video garnered over a million views.

Fatimah, 54, told The Malay Mail that she had many Indian friends as she grew up in an Indian neighbourhood in Buntong, Ipoh.

Being one of the few Malay residents who lived in the area, she learned how to speak Tamil with the help of her friends and neighbours who often corrected her pronunciation.

In another video, she was spotted speaking Cantonese with another neighbour.

@maiyahrahim_ Reply to @kingmrboyboy ♬ original sound - Cikk.Mayaaaaa

Fatimah told The Malay Mail that she learned Cantonese from an old friend.

Her friend had difficulty speaking Malay, so Fatimah helped her master the language in exchange for Cantonese lessons.

“I worked as a salesgirl in my late 20s and had to approach many customers so that was also how my language skills improved.

“However, my Cantonese is still not as fluent, compared to my Tamil,” she said.

When asked about how her multilingualism has helped her, Fatimah said that she has assisted many in filling up forms in Malay in government offices.

“Yesterday, I helped an aunty to fill up her form in Malay before she got her first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine.

“At other times, when I see older people who have trouble writing in Malay, I would help them by communicating with them in Tamil.

“Most of them would be shocked when I initiate the conversation in Tamil,” she said.

Fatimah said that she is also encouraging her children to pick up both Tamil and Cantonese so that they could befriend and learn from those around them. - Mkini