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

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