Oh, fuck - but please read this!

I was at the Food Court of the Gurney Plaza three days ago, minding my business and having a quiet dinner when suddenly, I was distracted by a group of six secondary schoolboys - not in their school uniforms but dressed in their fashionable togs - sitting not more than 10 feet away from my table.

They were probably in the fourth or the fifth form and talking away quite loudly. Even if you don't want to eavesdrop on them, you really can't avoid the noise pollution from that direction.

What appalled me were the expletives they were uttering in Hokkien. At one time or another, we may have said "Oh, fuck!" softly in exasperation to describe a situation or a condition. Okay, fuck s not a refined word - I'm usually inclined to say screw, anyway - but we do accept this word in private use among more familiar people even if we are only on the listening end of the conversation. But we still normally don't shout it out for the world to hear.

But what made me uncomfortable was that these schoolboys were talking very loudly among themselves and every sentence they uttered were punctuated with the Hokkien equivalent of this word fuck. If you haven't heard the word kan before, I tell you, it's very rude and usually associated with someone else's mother!

I winced. I saw people around them - those Chinese who understand Hokkien, and Penang has plenty of them - feeling uncomfortable too.

Really! Have these juveniles no shame to use this word aloud in public? They may think that using this word in their daily conversations makes them cool but they are mistaken. They are gravely mistaken. It makes them look dumb and stupid. It reflects poorly on themselves, their mentality, their maturity, their schooling and their up-bringing. Above all, it reflects on their families.

I'm sure their parents would have done a double-take if they had heard their children talk this way in public. It's nothing to be proud about. They are an embarrassment to our society. But unfortunately, society is generally very forgiving and because of this, society is partly to blame for not doing more to educate our youths properly.

Having heard this foul word rolled loudly off their tongues in public, as if it was second nature to them, made me realise that it was not an isolated case in itself. I had been told before that today's youngsters were starting to use this word in their daily conversations but I dismissed it. Now, I'm convinced after hearing it for myself.

If you are a youth in today's society reading this, remember, it's not cool to use this word. Leave it to the lancia lang (trishaw pedlars), the puay liew wah (uncouth gangster types), the boh kah si (disrespectful), the boh tak cheh (lowly educated) and the general rubbish in our society to use...unless you are them or think you are one of them.

If you are a parent with school-going children, remember, society is much bigger than the tempurong we live under. We have got to be more mindful of developments around us. Unfortunately, we can't cut off moral decay from our lives but we sure can try to reduce its influence on our own children.