min·ion: Middle French Origin.
Date: circa 1500
1 : a servile dependent, follower, or underling
2 : one highly favored
3 : a subordinate or petty official
slave: Middle English Origin, from Anglo-French or Medieval Latin
Date: 14th century
1 : a person held in servitude as the chattel of another
2 : one that is completely subservient to a dominating influence
Now which is better off?
Doesn't really matter I guess, either way, it's definition still states that I serve a master..a dominator but hopefully favored.
Just don't ask an Ah Beng about words and their meanings..here's one where a teacher ask a typical Singaporean heartlander to form a story using numbers. These non-conformists who never think twice about toeing the line, they can creatively do it from 1 to 10 and better yet, back 10 to 1. Read the following in Ah Beng style and see if you get all of its meanings-
1 day I go 2 climb a 3 outside a house to peep. But the couple saw me, so I panic and 4 down. The man rushed out and wanted to 5 with me. I ran until I fell 6 and threw up. So I go into 7-eleven and grabbed some 8 to throw at him. Then I took a 9 and try to stab at him. 10 God he ran away.
10 I put the 9 back and pay for the 8 and left 7-eleven. Next day I called my boss and told him I was 6. He said 5, tomorrow also no need to come back 4 work. He also asked me to go climb a 3 and jump down! I don't understand. I am so nice 2 him but I don't know what he 1.
Singaporeans who often grow up with mix of Chinese, Malay and Indian kids since young, have the privilege of learning a bit of dialect and other languages through the years. It is only through this path, we grow up having the best of the worlds enjoying all kinds of jokes and somehow become more creative. Would that stop you from sending your kids to "atas" schools and let them mingle with the norm? Somehow as I kid, I never knew I was from an "atas" school until much later and also later learned that I was switched schools because I came home one day speaking Hokkien profanities without knowing the meanings and stupidly asked my folks. But that never stopped me from having a childhood of fun and lots of bullying and canings. I guess the key to a proper childhood lies more in the parents than in the educational system which sometimes do fail.
