The other day in class we were discussing a little about jobs and occupations. I gave them a simple word puzzle in which they had to find words that describe someone's work. At first they had to guess the meaning of them. Some were easy, like étudiant or professeur or architecte. Some did not sound anything remotely like English, like cadre or douanier.
Then one of the students raised his hand and asked, "Madame, what mean chanteur?" (itu adalah soalan standard para pelajar saya bagi terjemahan terus "apa makna..." ke dalam Bahasa Inggeris). I told them that chanteur meant singer, then added, "When I say singer I'm talking about the recording artist and not the one you see at the zoo." Yang faham gelak. Yang tak faham memandang kosong. Yang kemengantukan berpuasa buat-buat macam faham tapi meneruskan tidur dengan mata terbuka. One student started singing the Singer jingle. You know..."Singer...menawan keluarga bahagia!". Gelak-gelak lagi.
Tak apalah. Saya pun meneruskan kelas. Tapi 5 minit selepas itu saya tengok keadaan semaking meruncing. Makin ramai yang mengantuk. You know it when you see the eyes start to roll upwards and the eyelid shutter speed mula menjangkau 1/500 sec with faster flash sync interval (cuba bayangkan). So I asked them to all stand up. Siapa dapat jawab boleh duduk.
At one point I asked the meaning of chanteur. One boy excited put up his hand. "I, Madame!" (read: "Saya cikgu!" dalam Bahasa Melayu). Dan dengan penuh keyakinan dia menjerit, "Chanteur is sewing machine!"
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