It the movie, both Jason and Oked are stupefied for five seconds when their eyes meet
for the first time at the market as they are attracted to each other. Since the opening, Jason is seen to be
conversing in Cantonese until he meets Oked at the morning market. Instead of phrasing “Nak beli
video”, Jason asks Oked if she “wants to buy some videos.” It is his first line of English dialogue in
the movie since the opening scene. According to David & DeAlwis (2010b), English is associated
with “better education and quality of life, given the economic opportunities that come with the ability
British Journal of Arts and Social Sciences
to use the language.” Jason‟s choice of English in initiating the conversation could be his intention to
impress Oked, his love at first sight, in order to show that even though he does not have a proper job
(selling pirated VCD), he is capable of speaking English, which indicates that his educational level is
not low.
Oked‟s friend Lin however, does not seem amazed by Jason‟s English utterance that
she code-switches from English to Malay instead. She sees Jason‟s question as a form of redundancy
because buying video is the purpose why she and Oked had visited the stall. Lin consequentially
tantalises Jason by answering his question with irrelevant subject matter in Malay, saying that they are
there to look for shoes. Her act of starting off the reply in English and then altering to Malay (“No,
actually, I nak beli kasut la…”) could be a form of mockery rising from her dislike towards Jason, a
pirated-VCD seller who eyes on her best friend. She could also be sneering Jason as a VCD seller who
is able to articulate simple question, but not capable of understanding long English sentences.