M’sia Cleaner Who Spoke Fluent Japanese Turns Out to be Former Tour Guide Who Can Speak 5 Languages

There’s English, Science and Mathematics—the top three crucial subjects in school. But there’s one more subject that many of us have to learn: Mother Tongue.

Be it Chinese, Malay, Tamil or others, most of us dread going to Mother Tongue classes. The ones who do? They’re a different breed. Don’t even get me started on the ones who ace every Mother Tongue exam.

59-year-old Nirmaningsih Mawi, also referred to as Kak Ning, is probably one of them. This lady is one heck of a multitalented person who not only knows two languages but five.

Yes, five.

And she can speak them fluently.

Malay, English, Japanese, German and Arabic. On the other hand, some of us are struggling to even speak two but we’ll get there.

Kak Ning was spotted in a video that was uploaded on a Facebook page on 19 August 2022. In the video, she was seen speaking fluent Japanese to a few guests in the National Mosque in Malaysia.

“Thank you for teaching in Malaysia,” Kak Ning says at the end of her conversation and bows to the guests, a common gesture in Japanese culture to show respect.

From the video, it seems like she was discussing the differences in grammar for the Japanese and Malay language with the guests.

The video has since garnered 45,000 views and 563 reactions on Facebook.

So How Does Kak Ning Know So Many Languages?

It turns out that just before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Kok Ning was a tour guide. For 30 years, she brought tourists around Malaysia and even brought them to the same mosque that she now works at as a cleaner.

Kak Ning started her career as a tour guide in 1990, which was when she started to take language courses. English was her first foreign language that she learnt.

A year after, she decided to learn Japanese and in 2010, she took up Arabic. She didn’t stop there and began learning German in 2011.

Working as a Cleaner at the National Mosque to be Close to Tourists

Because of border closures and lockdowns, Kak Ning’s job as a tour guide had to change.

Kak Ning currently works as a cleaner at the National Mosque in Malaysia and the reason for working there was pretty sweet.

In an interview with Harian Metro, it turns out that Kak Ning chose to work at the mosque because her husband works there as a cleaner too. Not just that, she also chose to work at the National Mosque to be able to meet tourists during her work.

“Sweet isn’t it?” she says.

Very sweet indeed.

With the pandemic situation getting better, Kak Ning is now working as a tour guide again, but only on the weekends. Think of it as a side hustle but with something she loves.

This means that she’ll be working almost every day. Not many can do that and she does it with no complaints.

Go get that bag Kak Ning.

Here’s some wise advice by Kak Ning: If you wish to do something, it doesn’t matter if it is small or big in the eyes of other people: What matters is your heart.

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Featured Image: Facebook (ibangi.my : Bandar Baru Bangi Online Community)