We all know someone coming back from overseas with a different accent.
But to forget how to speak a language is a different matter altogether.
In a post on TikTok, a Malaysian woman shared that since returning after a one-year stint in the UK, her fluency in the Malay language has drastically deteriorated.
“I used to get A’s and converse moderately, but now I need to Google Translate 80 per cent of the time, and I stutter when I have to converse in Behasa Melayu (BM). But I’m getting there, I promise,” she wrote.
Her video naturally caused an uproar, with many netizens criticising the woman.
“[I] Stayed in the UK for 7 years and I am still fluent in Bahasa Melayu,” wrote an irate online user.
Her social media account has since been set to private.
However, some netizens empathised with her, commenting how brave she is and not to let her naysayers affect her.
One even called out her trolls and said, “I think everyone is missing the point of how she said she’s embarrassed about it, which means she knows it isn’t something to be proud of.”