Typical Malaysians' Issues of English Mastery

Apparently, 2014 was the last time I posted on my blog. It was incredibly 7 years ago, peeps! Well, the only excuse that I can think of right now is that I have been tied up at work. Nope, I am lying. I am such a lazy bum. Here are a number of controversial issues of the importance of English mastery brought up by typical Malaysians.

Issue 1: I am Malaysian who lives in Malaysia. What is the point of knowing English, then?

Education aims at preparing young Malaysians for a better tomorrow – not for the sake of exams! Pupils at school normally find their future unpredictable or else they will never have a hard time selecting elective subjects for upper secondary curriculum. Meanwhile, only if students at university ever knew what exactly they would do for a living in the next five years will they never grumble for taking the wrong course either.

Some jobs demand employees with a good command of the English language – no question! Thus, learning English at an early age is a must! Enrolling for an English course when they have grown up later is possible yet it is not always a good idea.

Issue 2: English is our colonial language!

Living in the twenty-first century, Malaysians should no longer have such a mentality. Think of English as a great opportunity to help boost the country's economic growth i.e. tourism. We play a 'small ambassador' role in our home country. Our small effort lending a helping hand whenever some holidaymaker asks for directions to some tourist destinations is considered such a big help to the country. Even better, we are able to share useful info regarding the cultural diversity, local cuisine as well as the preaching of Islam!

Issue 3: Most Malaysians speak Malay!

Do we really need a listener every time we speak? Think again. Actually, not necessarily. When having a bad day, we tend to whine, grumble or even curse and it need not have people around, correct? So why don't we do it in English instead? 

For instance, 'Ah, I'm knackered! Need a rest soon'. 

This might sound simple to you but when we keep it in practice, we shall definitely see the change after a while. What about saying several English phrases while conversing with somebody? For example;

Eg 1. 'Aku dah tolong ambil buku kau tadi.' 'Oh, thanks!'

Eg 2: 'Jom pergi shopping, nak?' 'Let's go!'

It is not a sin to do so, is it?

Issue 4: Some people can be so sarcastic sometimes when I speak in English to my children.

Honey, those children are yours. Screw them! Have faith! Your children will not have trouble learning English at school later – but please keep in mind that your children should speak Malay as well. Let them be bilingual, at least. Growing up in Malaysia, we shall not worry pretty much about their Malay mastery since the Malay-speaking environment certainly helps! So, take it easy.

Issue 5: A lot of Malaysians speak Manglish.

In my view, learning British or/and American English is best. The truth is Manglish is not the correct English, so why bother? For the record, British English is taught at Malaysian schools and that Malaysia was a British colony is the reason why. Even so, school seems to have already accepted both Englishes lately. Besides, who cares if we would rather speak American than British English anyway? Don't you think, in the end, to get the message across really counts?

Issue 6: Some Malaysians can be a brutal grammar nazi!

These things happen. Nevertheless, that does not mean we have to stop speaking in English. Grammar mastery helps us convey our message more precisely, be it spoken or written English. But we know it does not take 24 hours to master it. It can be months or even years. So, all we need to do is never ever give up our learning. 

These days, there are numerous learning resources to choose from. Examples are Youtube videos, educational websites, reference books – you name it. Everything is actually at our fingertips! Even better if you can afford an English course and I would say, 'go ahead!' Learning grammar does help us speak better English. Isn't that what we are after?

Issue 7: It is so hard to imitate British accents!

Oh well. Does it matter? For the most part, if Malay is your race, your accent most probably sounds Malayish while speaking. To me, the main focus should be on pronunciation. Learn to pronounce every word as accurately as possible. Use Google for help. Why is that? Because after all, our hope is to get the message across when we talk. Whilst mispronouncing too many words can only cause either misunderstanding or misinterpretation.

Hopefully, I have just left something for you to contemplate. Who knows? My views could be the answers that you have been searching for. Look on the bright side and stop being pessimistic! With that, all the best!

Love,

Mohd Khairul Anuar

B.Ed TESL (Hons), UIAM

The Colonial Language

None of the Malaysian citizens at present can deny the fact that English is a colonial language. Just ask the elderly who used to live over the era of British occupation for instance, of course they’ve long instilled the attitude of hating the colonizers. After Portuguese and Japanese, historically, British was also one of Malaya’s colonisers. Therefore, I guess it makes sense if the English language is categorised in the column of ‘Colonial Language’. 

In spite of the fact that it’s a colonial language, Malaysia is one of the countries in the world that puts high belief that English is significant. The ‘faith’ has led to a big consequence towards the country after independence in 1957 whereby English has been officially declared as the second language. It is evident that English has been long taught and is a compulsory subject to study at schools, be it primary or secondary schools.

Recently, the Ministry of Education has suggested that it be passed in the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) exam or else students won’t be qualified to acquire a piece of the SPM exam certificate later. Is it the government’s urge in order to ensure students primarily the Malays will be concentrating on the colonial language in earnest? Or this action will only cause the Malay students fail to procure the SPM exam certificate and finally fail to get a job neither at the government nor private sector. Have a think!

A lot of educated parents have been aware of the importance of English nowadays. In addition, there are some parents who make English as their daily communication language at home. Consequently, their children whose nationality is Malay aren’t fluent and proficient in their mother tongue. This shouldn’t be happening! In the book ‘An Introduction to Sociolinguistics’ written by Janet Holmes, it is believed that the demand of a worker to use English much more is among the biggest contributor to language shift. Yet, speaking in a foreign language 100% and ignoring our own native language constitutes a foolish step which may lead to language loss.

Speaking about language loss, the habit of speaking in a foreign language is a main factor that contributes language death. Would you be happy when your own mother tongue dies? Of course, not!

Do you know that the group of immigrants often face this kind of problem? This includes immigrants to the United States, Japan, Australia and so forth. Mostly their children are bilingual for being able to speak more than one language. However, should the mother tongue be never spoken at all, the coming generations will turn to be monolingual and more disappointingly, these future generations only know English. Even worse, they’ll get confused with their own identity. What a shame!

Were I a parent, making Bahasa Melayu and English as the main languages in my family institution is really awesome. At least, my children wouldn’t undergo any difficulty in mastering both languages. Recalling a friend of mine who was born in the United Kingdom, her mother usually speaks Malay at home while his father speaks English. That has made him bilingual. Living in a foreign country like the United Kingdom, of course at school, he has no choice and has to study fully in English. This is because English is the language used when speaking to his classmates and teachers.

I feel amazed and impressed because their parents have strong identity as a Malay. They too speak Malay although their children study in English at school.

What makes me astonished and surprised is when some Malaysian parents who are too obsessive about the coloniser’s language by prioritizing the language at home. This sounds really risky for the children as they tend to lose their identity as a Malay and will probably be facing the problem of identity later. What’s the point of being a Malay if being unable to speak Malay fluently?

It isn’t wrong to converse with children in English. Plus, they should foster it. Anyhow, don’t forget the national language which is supposed to be proud of. Also, make sure that the mastery of both languages lies on a very satisfactory level.

Thus, parents are encouraged to speak English to their children but mother tongue can never be left behind. By using both languages, this will help children master both languages fluently and the problem of English mastery among Malaysians will no longer happen. So disadvantageous if there’re people who’re too fanatic toward Bahasa Melayu who totally ignore the significance of English in today’s world.

Bilingualism

Relating your reading ‘input’ to the real world is a great output. Just like a student always tries to relate what they’ve learnt at school to something more realistic. Your world is certainly getting much better. Even your profound understanding makes the educational process more enjoyable and pleasing. Aha, this is such a key point because I’m gonna share with you shortly my previous reading that’s closely connected to the world I live in.

Before that, I’ve got a question here: Have you ever heard the adjective ‘bilingual’? If never, please go look up the word in dictionary. Oxford dictionary is an excellent choice. By the way, you would’ve less time and hope me for help. Alright, then. I’d looked it up FYI. The definition given in my Oxford Advanced Learner’s dictionary (International Student’s Edition) is ‘being able to speak two languages equally well because you’ve used them since you’re young’. Aha, you’ve got it? I hope so.  

Now, let’s take your mind off the definition for a while. If not, this could possibly be irrelevant to the main focus of my writing (in fact, typing). Speaking about the issue bilingualism, it does occur in most countries all over the globe either in the continents of Asia, Africa, the US etc. Guess what? MALAYSIA is inclusive. Ah, excuse me? Yeah, you can be thinking about the Malays who occupy 65% of Malaysia’s entire population. Do accept my apology in that I’m not the least bit thinking so.

Frankly speaking, I’m talking about other nationalities that exist in Malaysia besides the Malays. Some of these nations initially came as immigrants on this land and the rest are Bumiputras such as the Melanaus, the Orang Aslis, the Ibans, the Kadazans and many others. As Bahasa Melayu has become the national language in this region, in other words, the non-Malays are required to study the subject Bahasa Melayu at school and compulsorily pass it. The need to pass the language subject is vital for a job seeker within the country whether they aspire to work in the government sector particularly.

Of my observation, what’s so unique is that the non-Malays seem just lucky for being bilingual indirectly. Not only can they speak in their mother tongue so well, but are also fluent in Bahasa Melayu. At present, there’s no big deal when a Chinese Malaysian is able to speak both Mandarin (or other Chinese dialects) and Bahasa Melayu properly. Seeing that the English language is officially the second language here, the non-Malay citizens have one more specialty with their proficiency in speaking English. That makes them multilingual. How amazing! It’s undeniable that such a circumstance is mostly undergone by immigrants.

Hang on a second! Are there any bilingual Malays too? What about a multilingual Malay? Absolutely, there surely are. Taking Malaysians living in a foreign country like the United Kindgom, Australia and whatnot for instance, they’re among the bilingual and multilingual – but nevertheless on one condition, namely they must be able to speak two diverse languages to be a bilingual and more than two languages to belong to the multilingual.

Well…what if we can speak Bahasa Melayu and English pretty well? Do we belong to the bilingual as well? Hmm… sounds good, doesn’t it? I guess why not? We definitely are!

Language Loss

The higher your educational background is, the bigger possibility your hometown dialect is getting lost on you. You may disagree but can do nothing cos I myself have been experiencing all this!

 

In Malaysia, like many other countries in the world, has a variety of dialects spoken by Malaysians regardless of which state they come from. 

Diverse dialects notwithstanding, Malaysians still find less difficulty understanding any communication they’re involved in. The most preferable language amongst these varieties is standard Bahasa (or standard Malay). It functions just like a lingua franca and is widely spoken in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor. It's also a language which is well understood and accepted by the whole Malaysians, be it in Peninsular Malaysia or even Borneo Island (Sabah and Sarawak)

You know what? This phenomenon is typically undergone by local university students. Seeing that a varsity comprises thousands of students coming from the entire country, like it or not, they’ve no choice to make themselves understood unless to try hard speak standard Bahasa. 

Based on my personal experience, my hometown dialect is dying. Don’t carry out a Terengganuvian dialect test or else I mightn’t pass with flying colours. The purpose of claiming such things doesn’t mean to underestimate the dialect, but just realise that my dialect is now fading away. 

I’m quite positive that I’m still able to interpret certain terms most typically spoken although I’m not used to. Instead, I’d much rather speak standard Malay words. It’s still stuck in my head when a friend of mine corrected me for mentioning a standard Malay word [rosak] for ‘punoh’. 

Presumably I’d see eye to eye about this scenario too. I firmly dare to say that the way one speaks is also affected by their educational background. You can distinguish between the educated and the uneducated, can’t you? Have a think, then. 

I assertively believe that Malay dialects are very unique that much research has been done. I used to find a few books investigating thoroughly about Kelantanese and Terengganuvian dialects. Isn’t this interesting? 

The teaching of Malay literature component at school has engaged me more in gaining new Malay vocabulary I was never familiar to before. Reading Malay short stories [ Cerpen ] for instance, has exposed me with bombastic Malay words and, of course, rarely are they used in spoken Malay. Some words are too classic spoken in the bygone era. At first, I thought the words were wrongly pronounced such as ‘drebar’, ‘payah’ and ‘dan’ as in ‘Tak dan aku nak cuci muka tadi!’. The word ‘dan’ here isn’t a conjunction. 

I’ve no idea whether or not we really should perpetuate our hometown dialect. I’ll leave it to you to evaluate it yourselves. 

Should we ‘Martabatkan Loghat, Mantapkan Bahasa Melayu’ ?

In fact, the government urge us to…

‘Martabatkan Bahasa Melayu, Mantapkan Bahasa Inggeris’

Grammar Vs. Spoken English

Suppose you’ve already read one of my recent posts, I’m pretty sure you may have believed that grammar is my number 1 basis to learn a language like English. You may be right. We’ll see. 

Click here if you haven't: http://keyrolnua.blogspot.com/2011/07/my-secret-recipe-how-to-score-english.html

How d’ you feel about the statement ‘Malaysians speak very formal English’?

I see this is the truth as Malaysians most commonly go to a national school or a national type school where standard British English is generally taught at. The Malaysians are therefore constantly facing a little mess primarily in understanding what the English speak. 

Idioms, proverbs, slang and other literary devices including personification, metaphor and simile – these are merely a quarter of the key elements in the English language that help beautify the art of the language and so do many other languages.

In spite of the fact that these elements are essential in a language acquisition, only will Malaysian school children be exposed in detail when they begin knowing literature components (Bahasa & English) in their secondary school education. In contrast, the emphasis of literature in Advanced Arabic is too little. How come? 

The Malay proverb ‘Melentur buluh biarlah dari rebungnya’ stresses the significance of education at the early age, ever since a baby can see the world. Let’s scratch that for a sec., shall we?

There’s a couple of most popular ‘patterns’ of communication in our daily routine: writing and speaking. I think I’d better put it this way: Writing is formal and speaking is informal. Recalling what I studied in the subject ‘Discourse Analysis’ at Uni, writing is classified ‘formal’ because it’s something well planned and speaking isn’t. I guess if speaking were a well planned thing, a speaker would take time to utter a word and that’s flipping nonsense!  

Thus, grammar doesn’t always come first. It really does especially in essay writing but when it comes to speaking, the English have to take grammar for granted sometimes. Take note whether you determine to speak English so good as the English native speaker.

It seems as though a trend nowadays that informal English is more frequently applied either on TV, radio, daily papers or whatnot. This big exposure of informal English is also seen in English movies. Watching English movies is a means of improving one’s English communication skills. This is very good for a second language speaker like us so we aren’t too much orientated towards formal English which makes us nerdy, hello!

Slang such as ‘guys’, ‘dude’, ‘wanna’, ‘gotta’ is regularly used in spoken English. Go find out yourselves what these slangs stand for or you won’t learn anything. 

Click here to learn more on British Slang:

 http://www.effingpot.com/slang.shtml

When interacting, the way you converse with a bosom friend and a lecturer is totally unlike. The way you communicate with your dearest parents and with little children are never the same either. A teenage boy would probably wish ‘peace out’ to his buddies which simply means ‘goodbye’ or ‘see you around’.

Think of abbreviations in modal verbs like shall [ I’ll do it ] and would [ He’d be back soon ]. Now, think of ‘Be’ verbs like am, is, are, was, were as in [ I’m playing computer games ] and ‘Have’ verbs in the subsequent sentences [ She’s gone to work ] and [ I’ve got to go! ].

The English normally seem to leave out such verbs and just pronounce them in abbreviation form that have the second language learners bewildered and blur. And that’s the distinction we can obviously see on Malaysians today who tend to mention word by word. The native speakers won’t get trouble to see what we’re trying to say, conversely we shall.

I’d like to insist on the utmost necessity of learning informal English rather than concentrating too much upon formal English. I’m not telling you that learning formal English isn’t the least bit crucial, yet informal English can never be taken for granted just like that.

My lecturer loved stressing the obligation of an English teacher to speak as much formal British English as possible in class. At the same time, clarify to them any slang terms in our lessons, if any. This kind of step will avoid students’ misunderstanding.

Grammar is to be learnt to make us proficient in the international language. Nevertheless, the essentiality of informal English knowledge oughtn’t to be forgotten. Both of them are equally vital!

In a video I watched via YouTube the other year, this English tutor suggested that learn phrases! Strictly speaking, I’ve no favourite links yet which assist me in phrases. I benefit English movies a lot and learn English phrases from. On top of that, our current film industry has been flooded with American movies. Whether we like it or not, we’ll be served with American English much often. Sooner or later, our English will turn to be so American, to my mind. 


Now, I am gonna leave you with this how-to-speak-English-fluently video. Enjoy watching!


Click here:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qs5vBuvsYU4&feature=related

Why bother typing in ENGLISH?

WHY DO I BOTHER TYPING IN ENGLISH?

It’ll be a lot easier if I typed in Bahasa, won’t it? Hmm… if that’s what I was thinking, I’d better have killed myself. That’s not even a good reason for doing this. So, if you’re really thinking that way right now, I suggest that you go KICK THE BUCKET!

Typing in English won’t make me behave like the White. As evidence, neither do I drink alcohol nor go to church on Sundays. Have you ever seen me do these all this while? If never, SHUT UP!

WHY DO I BOTHER TYPING IN ENGLISH?

If I said because of my interest in English, I think it’s been an old-fashioned answer. I know it’s not stated so in any English dictionary like Oxford Dic., NOT YET – unfortunately I’ve marked it that way. How come? Over my job interview the other week, the interviewer told me that everyone applied any job always responds:

“I applied this job due to my deep interest in this profession.”

What the heck when even a 3-year-old kid can answer this way. Since I’m not a kid anymore, it’s such a brilliant idea whether I answer it differently. 

WHY DO I BOTHER TYPING IN ENGLISH?

Openly, I type in English because I’m not good at it. Yeah, I'm not good at English! If I typed in Bahasa, nothing much I could improve. And, that’s not my aim signing up a blog. Despite I’m able to speak Malay very fluently, I can’t even say that my Malay grammar is completely tremendous! 


A native speaker of a language most typically doesn’t care about his language grammar. Some might think that they’re already good enough and what’s the point of learning the grammar? It makes sense too, doesn’t it? Language proficiency still entails someone to really be proficient in the language, nonetheless.

For my part, I’m pretty sure that typing in English is the best choice. I find difficulty to speak English daily because there’s no reason why I’ve to speak other languages besides the Malay Language using my hometown dialect. The majority of people around me are Malays. 


Owing to this kinda predicament, I have chosen to write in English. At least, English will always be at my heart. Additionally, I’ll keep learning English and shan’t leave it just like what I’ve done toward Arabic.

I realise that learning a language without practicing to speak the language won’t help that much. It’s ever so useless and ineffective! I’d obtain a good grade in essay writing but impossibly in speaking or communication. It’s a reality that many students regardless primary and secondary school levels or even university students who fail to speak English fluently. 


The lack of speaking practice isn’t really the major problem. The negative attitude toward the English Language and the lack of motivation are amongst the main contributing factors that have led to this state of affairs. Steps must be taken or these people will regret later.

I can still remember from my reading via a book, what many Malaysian English teachers only know is to teach students. In reality, the awareness of the significance of learning the language is none! Maybe, some English teachers think that their teaching skills are sufficiently marvellous as long as they get good student feedbacks on how much they enjoyed the lesson in class. The question is what type of enjoyment they’ve got? Either entertainment or learning? 


Teachers mustn’t take this for granted! Students feel entertained in a lesson occasionally but they’ve no idea what they’re learning. Thus, there’s no point of teaching without awareness. If students are aware of the necessity of learning a second language, in this case, the English Language, I bet that they will learn the foreign language much better.

WHY DO I BOTHER TYPING IN ENGLISH?

Briefly, I write (actually type) in English for the betterment of my writing skill. I write and meantime, I learn. I’ll keep writing on and on. Writing is a skill that can be acquired through ‘drills’. That’s why it’s too curical to keep writing.

Typing or writing? Never mind. I choose typing because my handwriting isn’t that neat and legible... LOL