I found this when cleaning up a drawer. The newspaper cutting is so old, even the paper had turned brown.
When Encik Ahmah Aris Eckhardt said to his wife that he had committed a faux pas she was baffled.
( A motorist had stopped near him at a bus stop. Thinking that he was being offered a lift, he stepped forward. The motorist asked him to hop into the back seat. A Sweet-Young-Thing behind him then hopped into the seat next to the motorist. It turned out that the motorist had stopped to give the Sweet-Young-Thing a lift-not Encik Aris ).
Faux pas ? What new word in Bahasa Malaysia is that ? his wife asked him.
He said that faux pas is not Bahasa Malaysia but French.
And since when had he been speaking French? was the next question.
Aiyah, he said. Sometimes one has to use French- or Latin- to describe a situation for which English or Bahasa Malaysia has no erudite equivalent.
All right, then. What is faux pas ?
He said that it means nothing more than a false step. Or a mistake. For example, when she stirs coffee, would she use her right hand or left hand ?
Right hand, she said. " There you are, " he said.
" That would be a faux pas. We Malaysians use spoons to stir our coffee."
[ Adapted from a column by S.H. TAN ]