And another one

I just found another (well actually two) article on FreakOnomics that mentioned Malaysia. Read on. And also do read all of the comments they have. To me they are just fun reads, maybe to you there is something for you to think about?

You will not find any LemonJellos in Malaysia

By Steven D. Levitt

As reported by the BBC, Malaysia has banned “unsuitable” first names. An excerpt from the article:

Parents will not be able to call their babies after animals, insects, fruit, vegetables or colours.

Numbers are also not allowed, so little James Bonds cannot flaunt their 007 status on their ID cards.

Other restrictions stop parents giving children royal or honorary titles as names or calling their little ones after Japanese cars.

The most amusing part of the link, actually, is not to the article itself, but to the list of other BBC articles under “see also” in the upper right-hand corner of the webpage. It seems the Malaysian government has been quite busy handing out bans recently: no botox for Malaysian muslims, no suicides in movies, no plays mentioning “Volkswagen,” no lesbian kissing on screen, and a warning to tourists about kissing in public.

By the way, we are still looking for OrangeJello and LemonJello. Despite many good leads, we have not found them. If you know how to find them, please contact Dubner and Levitt. There is a small gift for you if you lead us to them.

Good Communication Skills Have Never Been So Important

By Steven D. Levitt

I got an email the other day from a blog reader who tells me that there are now more non-native English speakers than native English speakers. That leaves ample opportunities for linguistic subtleties going unnoticed. I suppose it can happen to native English speakers as well.

Here is an example:

Back in 2006, I wrote a blog post entitled “You will not find any LemonJellos in Malaysia.” The blog post referred to new laws in Malaysia that banned a variety of non-standard names for children:

Parents will not be able to call their babies after animals, insects, fruit, vegetables, or colours.

Numbers are also not allowed, so little James Bonds cannot flaunt their 007 status on their ID cards.

Other restrictions stop parents giving children royal or honorary titles as names or calling their little ones after Japanese cars.

I ended the post with a plea to blog readers to help us find the ever-elusive twins named OrangeJello and LemonJello:

By the way, we are still looking for OrangeJello and LemonJello. Despite many good leads, we have not found them. If you know how to find them, please contact Dubner and/or me. There is a small gift for you if you lead us to them.

A few days ago I got a friendly email from a woman in Malaysia. Here is what she wrote:

Just read your column. I know of two stores that sell Jello in Kuala Lumpur. Look in the Ampang area for the two expat groceries. I can’t vouch for what flavors are currently in stock but they do sell a variety of Jello flavors. Hock Chun on Jalan Ampang also might sell Jello. I believe that the grocery in KLCC also sells Jello.

Especially the one right above, is the Malaysian lady for real? Or was she pulling a joke on Steven and Stephen?

Note. One of the comments on this article said

"The French also officially practice name-banning, and a prostitute in Italy cannot call herself Maria."

Hilarious! I bet the parents didn't see that coming from their daughter when they named her Maria. Haha.

Jokes aside, this person's comment made most sense to me.

“there are now more non-native English speakers than native English speakers”

You mean in the world? Or in Malaysia? Or in the U.S.? Because if it’s one of the first two, it’s absurd, but if it’s the third, then the fact that a Malaysian woman isn’t a native speaker of English seems totally irrelevant and unsurprising.
But it is a funny story.

Malaysia-Finance posted this on Saturday. Something we all have heard one point or another.