Jalan Rosak

Jalan Rosak indeed is everywhere in Malaysia. When you travel on the highways here and call them a highway, no one knows what you are talking about, Although the maps indicate highway 3 or highway 92, or highway J172, you will get no help from a Malaysian if you ask anything about any of these.  You might be lucky to see a #3 sign on a stretch of highway, but not likely. The signs will more likely indicated  ‘road to Kota Tinggi'. If you are travelling to JB from Kota Tinggi you name a location (on the highway) by the name of some street that is along that route. For example, coming out of Kota Tinggi the street name is Jalan Kota Tinggi for a considerable distance, then as it approaches a T-intersection – simply known as a junction here, that same road becomes Jalan Sri Saujana, and so on.  When I first began my driving here and used that hag in my GPS I was constantly confused. She kept telling me to turn on to such and such jalan, and really all I needed to do was stay on the curve in the road and keep going.  BTW, there are few jalan (street) signs here so you have to guess what jalan you are on most of the time.  The word jalan is Malay for street.  Every road is called a street here.  Another way of naming your location is to say what street you are on (some highway between 2 points). If you are on your way to Mersing, the road you travel is actually highway 3.  You will never be found if you say you are on highway 3, but if you say you are on the ‘road to Mersing’, you will be asked ‘where’?  Then you say near Kota Tinggi or near Mersing, according to which is closer.  Someone might find you. Don’t say you are near the J172 cutoff. But you can say you are near the ‘Mawai road”. You will definitely be found. 

When I need a giggle after a long day and I have my GPS with me I will turn on the hag and get her to take me home. I do this simply to hear her try to say Kota Tinggi. She still has not mastered the word Tinggi and stumbles over it constantly sounding like she has a serious speech impediment and problematic stutter. She pronounces the double ‘g’ sounds with a ‘j’, but it is a hard ‘g’ sound,  and she allows several utterances of that ‘j’ stuttering along on her way to the next time she has to mention it.  Because that is the longest stretch of jalans on the way home I get to hear her make many faux pas with her pronunciation.  She can be more entertaining than the ‘Vinyl Café’ on CBC.

So, why are there so many Jalan Rosaks in Malaysia?  I keep forgetting to ask and forgetting to check my dictionary to find out what is significant with the word Rosak.  I asked the other day.  Rosak means ‘damaged’.  Need I say more?