Sunday, March 8, 2009

english malay dilemma?

before i start...i have to admit...there will always be bias in all my comments on this issue...

first of all...my education background...i had never studied in a "National Type School"...
secondly...i was raised and studied in urban Ipoh...a lot of good schools...good tutors...thus good students...(good is a relative description)
thirdly...i was lucky enough to get a good degree and currently working in the public sector...

yesterday there was a "peaceful" march in KL to the King's Palace...to protest against the use of English in teaching Maths and Science...

i was surprised and a little disappointed by two pictures i saw in the New Straits Times...

the first...one of our national laureate was against the use of English in Science and Maths...i really appreciate his hard work for our Sastera Melayu...
but my first reaction...how does teaching of Science and Maths in English going to hurt Sastera Melayu?
one is logic and reasoning...one is creativity and emotion...almost two extremes
is he worried that a few years later a new policy will come out to teach Sastera Melayu in English?
i think he should be more worried about the quality of our Sastera Melayu than which language to use in SCIENCE and MATHS...

the second...university students were holding banners...
KAMI SEMUA
MAHASISWA MEMBANTAH

hello...have you asked all the mahasiswas?
if no...then i think your banner should be
KAMI SEMUA
MAHASISWA YANG LEMAH DALAM BAHASA ENGGERIS
MEMBANTAH

i thought...studying in a university should make them appreciate the importance of English...reference books...online resources...presentation...academic writings...viva voce...interview...most if not all are in English...and yet they are there protesting...
i hope studying in Malay did help them solve a complicated "persamaan kuadratik" or "logaritma" or "pengamiran berganda" or understand better the "mekanisma suap balik negatif hemostasis darah"...

i know we had a lot of problems with teaching in English...the main being teachers who are not properly trained...
this is because they studied in Malay...and they are poor in English...admit this...period...

we are now in the transition period...
what we have now is a generation who studied S&M in Malay (including myself)...
and what we need is a new generation who studied S&M in English...and to have that we definitely cannot stop now...we had gone through 6 years...half way there...

my cousin is now in Form One...she studied S&M in English all her school years...when she graduated and decided to become a teacher...i guess she won't have any problem...

her generation is what we need...can't we wait till they come out?
if we stop now...we can never achieve what we wanted...and we wasted 6 years for nothing...
if i wanted to do a study...and stop halfway after spending so much time and money...my supervisor would kill me for sure...

and language is not the real issue...really...
it is just a tool...
we should be worried more about understanding the content...
what differences does this make?
metabolism = metabolisma
haemostasis = hemostasis
haemoglobin = hemoglobin
leucocyte = leukosit
quadratic = kuadratik
deoxyribonucleic acid = asid deoksiribonukleik
benzoyl peroxide = benzoil peroksida

my friends from Chinese schools...when they study S&M in Malay in secondary school...they got a shock...but they work hard and always carry a Malay dictionary with them...
when they got to university and study in English...they got shock again...still they work hard again and always have an English dictionary with them...

don't tell me you are super genius when studying S&M in Malay...
and suddenly you are a retard when studying with English...
stop the jokes and address the real issue...

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