Friday May 29, 2009
A farewell ode
By LUCILLE DASS
After eight years of helming MOE
our erstwhile editor, KTC
bids us goodbye … in Span(gl)ish.
His services terminated,
the self-styled terminator
walks out with a swagger
a la Arnold Schwarzenegger.
KEE Thuan Chye’s (KTC) clever choice of the catchphrase hasta la vista! (translated from the Spanish “See you later”) is by no means a “lapse in editorial judgement” (see “Goodbye and thank you” – MOE, May 22). The expression, “now immortalised as a world-wide popular catchphrase” comes from a scene in Terminator 2: Judgement Day where Edward Furlong’s character John Connor gives the cyborg a quick lesson in communicative English as she is spoken in the cinematic street:
After “listening to the way people talk” in the MOE page, and minding our English for eight long years with back-up help from Fadzilah Amin, the ‘long-suffering’ editor exits in style.
A Google search revealed that the already famous expression hasta la vista was ranked #76 on a list of the best 100 movie quotes in the past 100 years of film. An honour bestowed by The American Film Institute, alongside another earlier Terminator quote at #37:”I’ll be back.”
Since then, the savvy Schwarzenegger has put the phrase to good use in his political career. I was reminded of one of our own, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s “Apa nama … ?” But I digress.
As the pioneer of the MOE page, Kee will surely be remembered, especially by those he has so painstakingly named in appreciation. He acknowledged how each contributor “helped shape MOE.” Just prior to its anniversary, feeling nostalgic, I pored over eight years of MOE clippings in my safe-keeping. Under his auspices, the page allowed language lovers to:
Make their mark through exciting
Overtures into the linguistic stratosphere
Embracing and examining English
to explore and to explain
to discover and to dispute
to learn, unlearn and relearn
and oh, also to delight and to entertain!
For those who may have missed out on the page in the past, it’s never too late to make a start. You have much to gain, that’s for sure.
Since KTC, you started it in parting, I’ll end with: Muchas gracias amigo, from all of us and hasta la vista to you, too! After all, only one door closes in retirement; new doors simply await your knock. We wish you all the best.
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