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Thursday, April 15, 2010

"Kadazan Celup"

This is the traditional costume for Kadazan from Papar district. Ehem!! Hehe

Familiar with the term Kadazan Celup? Hehehe. Celup is a Malay word for dipped. They often use the term Celup to describe a person who appear to belong to a race but not really belong to the race. Like, they just admit or show it in a way that they belong to a certain race but the fact is, they don’t. They just want to be known as one who belong to the race.

Usually, Language is the main indicator of one’s race. When you hear someone talks in Kadazan language, automatically you guess that the person belong to Kadazan race. How about the Kadazans who don’t know how to speak the language?

I can say that I am one of the Kadazans who doesn’t speak Kadazan language. The reason for that is because my parents never really make it compulsory for us to learn the language. We are the City kids who don’t mingle with our cousins and relatives who speak the language everyday. My parents very much speaking the language to each other but they speak Malay to us. As a result, all of us in the siblings are very odd with our own mother tongue but we do understand the common phrases. Even how hard I try to speak, I could only end up getting laughed at because I could not even make the words sound right. Like I don’t belong to this race to be sounding like “an outsider who is trying to be friendly”… hehe.

Because of my language, strangers can’t always guess my race. According to one customer, I sounded anything but a Kadazan because I don’t have that distinct Kadazan “sound”. But I do have that slanted eyes that most Kadazans have. But we know that people don’t rely so much on looks to guess one’s race, especially in Sabah where people are mostly from mixed races. I also received very odd comments from my customers. After talking for a while, this customer told me, “You must be married to a white guy, right?” And I was like, “What? What makes you say that?”. She said something about my English. No no no… I am a Kadazan who doesn’t speak Kadazan but proud to become one. What do you call this category?

So everytime when I shocked people by telling them my race, I was not surprised because my mother tongue skill is very bad so I just jokingly told them, “Biasalah…Kadazan Celup”. I live with that because I’ve been this way forever. But I know it’s not good when we speak about the mission to preserve culture and traits of my race. We need more people who can speak the mother tongue and hopefully to pass it to the younger generations. I am not proud of myself for this. I have seen it long ago that I could be one of the Kadazan people who could not help to preserve the uniqueness of my race, especially if I marry a guy from a different race. I don’t speak the language, I don’t eat the traditional foods, I don’t follow their customs and traditional lifestyle – so now you understand why I just surrender to “Kadazan Celup” and admits my weaknesses.

But after all said and done, I do still wear the traditional conservative thinking about keeping the good names of the family, where quite a number of distinct Kadazans (who live at the village and who speak the mother tongue fluently) have stopped doing. I do care about becoming a talkabout of a village because of my misconducts so maybe that explains why I am very careful in my steps. Despite being a Kadazan Celup, I am not at all urban with lifestyle and thinking.

Celup or not, I am proud to be born as a Kadazan.

NOTE:I put one Kadazan/dusun number at the playlist upon the posting of this post. Hehe

6 comments:

Gallivanter said...

My better half is Kadazan and I intent to instill the Kadazan language into my future children :-)

It's not easy being called "celup", just like me, I can't speak Tamil at all, brought up in an English way, but I've no regrets of not learning the language. :-)

I think English & Mandarin are the most vital, then comes Kadazan, with Malay being fourth important, to me personally.

AngeL BeaR said...

join the club........I speak no Dusun Tatana...but still proud to be one...thank God I speaks chinese..so at least my chinese ancestors buli lagi nod nod and not frowning at us from above...hehehehe.....

StellaClaire-Richard said...

Me too... although my mom is Kadazan Papar and my dad is Dusun Lotud, i can't speak both the language with well pronunciation and tune because i don't speak kadazandusun since i was a kid. But i'm really glad that i still can understand about 80% of the language.. My parents also did not use the language to communicate with us.. For me, as long as i still can understand what the adults/relatives at my village chit-chatting about, i am really glad about that..hehe!

Anonymous said...

i belong to one race but i dont speak n look like tem..i look like one race but i dont belong to them which makes me feel like an alien sometimes but happily im accepted to both races heheheh.u know u can recognize d acitmon race hakhak

Anonymous said...

sori d button is too sensitiv..tesend 2x..dun pasik me 4 tat

Twofivesix256 said...

Gallivanter: You guys surely gonna produce bright Indian-Kadazan kids; and as for the intention to pass the Kadazan language into your future kids; I can imagine how thankful our older generations would be to have people from different race appreciate and help preserve the uniqueness of our tribe. Way to go and wish the 2 of you a great future together :)

Dingo: Bagus laitu dingoo... tersangkut tu sakap cina pun buli2 sudah tuuu...heheheh

Stella: Our case is pretty much the same but yours definitely a winner since you can understand the language very well. As for me, sometimes I even got mixed up the words for the numbers. Vahu and Sizam <--- are 8 and 9 right? I couldn't even get those right. I am also a Kadazan Papar...both my mom and dad. But I am sure the language is still very strong at the kampung. One more thing, we still can do something about it. As long as we live, so long do we learn. Hehe

Citmon: You're almost right about being an alien. I could not guess your race cos u can hide it so well, omg!! /me pasik acit. Hehe I think you're one of those urbanized citizens. If people got confused with your race, I suggest you just give them a dose of your acitmon's laugh with the message, "Yeahh right...whatever you say." This urbanized thing has landed you into Acitmonisme. Face it, acit. (Hahaahahahahahahahahaha)