Monday, June 15, 2009

Let's Teach English in Malay

Asked about the possibility that the policy on the teaching of Mathematics and Science in English would be scrapped Dr Mahathir said: “I feel very sorry. In future, all Malays and Malaysians will be stupid.” - The Star


The Education Minister said it was a revelation to him as he had always thought that it was a prerequisite (one have to pass English in order to pass SPM) since students had to learn English in school.He was also shocked to learn that national schools no longer taught English grammar - The Star


I am one of those privilege student, who got to experience teaching of science and mathematics in both languages, English & Malay. Up till form 5 I study them in Malay and form 6 in English. I do not think any parent can qualify themselves to comment on this matter more than I do. They sit on the rooftop and speal, I went to the war and bleed.


I have to agree with Dr Mahathir that in future all Malays and Malaysian will be stupid, not that we are very smart to begin with. Just even more stupid if we scrapped off the importance of English. The language is by far the world's language. Even though Mandarin is gaining a more important role, it is still 50 years behind to even come close to rival English. The Malay language on the other hand, is only important to preserve the precious culture and history of the Malay people.


I speak, read and write in all 3 languages fluently. Which again put me on top of the chain to comment because a majority of Malaysians don't do so. No kidding, bite me.


It is true when some argue that no nation in the world has ever become smarter, or invented greater things just because they adopted another language. I am amused they actually think Malaysians would ever have the chance to create, invent or achieve great discoveries. Our nation is so far left behind that we are now at best, only able to imitate and follow the footsteps of others in achieving greater substance. Not in my lifetime will Malaysia be able to come up with something so amazing it can impress others.


Look at our Malaysian Guinness book of records and see what you can find. The only thing Malaysian can truly do is coming up with the tallest things, biggest things, longest things. Like the biggest roti canai or the longest Kuih Lapis. When was the last time we patented a marvellous invention. When my brother, the so called scholar from the most prestigious University in Malaysia wanted to patent his method of producing bio-diesel with jathropha seeds. He was restricted because an American had already patented something similar beforehand with soya beans.


We need to adopt the English language. Not that I hate the Malay language, if I am truly racist, I would have uphold Mandarin instead of English. We have to admit that English is a more versatile language and is able to express more accurately than Malay which is at best a lingua franca. A simple language to help communications in ancient tradings. It amuses me when I see poets like A.Samad Said, going around and shout that the goverment is killing the Malay language. We are not interested in killing the Malay language. Neither the goverment nor the Chinese. You can blame the goverment all you want, I enjoy seeing them die, but Chinese people do not, will not, and will never do things that does not directly or indirectly benefit ourselves. The death of your culture does not benefit us a bit.


I think we should preserve the Malay language and we are doing it well. Like we are making passing Bahasa Malaysia as a compulsory to pass SPM. We also teaches history and moral in the Malay language. Which is good. But when it comes to scienctific subjects, we have to learn how to compromise in order to improve, the uses of English is far better. Obviously the Malay literature association who shouted loud against the usage of English in Science and Mathematics do not understand such things because they engulfed themselves in too much literature the only person who seems right are themselves. What can I say....


I am very much of a poet too.

别人叫你吃大便,
你叫他人吃大便,
大家一起吃大便,
敢问究竟谁是贤.

多少风雨几回路,
纠纷斗争不为苦,
五世文明寻觅长,
真理自私难变善.


Saya suka pakai Blackberry
Awak suka pakai Nokia
Asyik ingat orang nak awak mati
Perjuangan akhirnya tetap disia-sia

Terbit siang terbit malam
kolek-kolek sampan mengayuh
Jangan sebab bahasa awak terbeban
Janganlah sesekali mencabar Kerajaan



Whatever it is, just don't use Mandarin to teach science & maths. Chemistry in Chinese is horrible. Mandarin, cantonese, hokkien at best should only be a communicative language used to tell dirty jokes . Poets, scientist, a life is not complete unless you've tasted a little bit of both worlds, karp pui!

4 comments:

ching said...

Hahahahaha, this is one fine post. You should email this to Muhiyiddin.

Joseph Ho said...

I was a bit disturbed when I found out that people actually object to making English a must-pass subject in SPM. I have lived through Mandarin, Malay, and English and have scored all three well, but still when it comes to communicating professional knowledge, English will be my one and only choice, unless we are in the midst of a jungle where no one understands English. Count for yourself how many of the G7 members are English speaking!

nazry said...

Kind of late to comment but a very nice post you got here. Although, i don't wanna concentrate on race issues but you seem to lean towards saying that malays are against it. you didn't really point out that the push for non-english was a combined force of mostly malay and chinese educationist (that's a first for them to work tgthr)and not just the malays who objected them.

Andrew Ho said...

TQ!

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