I was walking by a hotel on my way to a meeting. I spotted this fancy car parked outside the front entrance. Nice car! Then, I stopped to look carefully at the license plate. You can take a closer look below:
Huh??? "MATI"??? I couldn't believe my eyes! Then it dawned on me. It's "MAT1", not "MATI".
For the uninformed, "mati" in the Malay or Indonesian language means "dead" or "death". Why in the world would anyone choose a license plate for a fast car that pronounces "death" on the driver (and probably the passenger too!)?
The owner of this car probably thought he'd gotten a really cool license plate. Well, unknown to him, he might not live long to enjoy driving the car!
I said before in "SAKitToMe" that we really need to be careful in choosing a name. The car owner might have gotten away with this plate name in the US, but certainly not here in Singapore, where practically every local knows the meaning of "mati", whether they speak Malay or Indonesian or not at all.
My suggestion to us all: go learn at least the basics of a language. You will learn so much, and certainly avoid grave mistakes (no pun intended!) such as this one.
Have fun learning a new language!
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