*Sigh* ….. the worst has happened. Against the will of Tun Dr Mahathir, and legions of parents around Malaysia, the stupid Muyiddin has announced that Science and Math be taught back in Malay. This is a 180 degree turn back towards the prehistoric era. The Malaysian education system is going the way of the dodo.

As mang0 has already summed it up, I have either the option of teaching my girls in English myself, or sending them to an international school. I think I am more inclined towards the latter. Malaysian Educational system just don’t have the edge anymore to remain competitive.

This harks back to my early schooling days when I remembered a very important event in life. It was the early nineties. I applied, went for interviews, and was finally offered a scholarship, the Asian Scholarship to go study in Singapore. Naively me and my parents turned down the offer. I can understand their reasoning. My dad was afraid to let me go that far. I was only a teenager about to go into the wild puberty stage. Letting me go there alone would have exposed me to all kinds of vice. (Hey, isn’t that great?! HAHAHAHA!!! ) Thinking back, I felt kinda regretful. I would have enjoyed a better life there in Singapore. I mean, come on, I hate the life in Singapore, but I don’t mind the 5 times more purchasing power the Singapore Dollar gives me! My life would have turned out differently. I could have married another girl, or maybe even still be single. But I would have missed having Kit Yan and Hui Yan

I got lucky in my years of schooling. I have been schooled in a Malay / English medium all my life. Nevertheless, my grasp of the English language was not very strong. Blame it on the education system, only academically strong but no real world exposure. I got my break when I became close with Vinod Nair, of mixed Indian and Chinese parentage. I owe my English to him. I later found out that he had wanted to learn Cantonese from me, but turned out he landed on the losing end of the deal!

I also had a lucky break in St Michael’s Ipoh, where I did my Form Six. There, EVERYBODY speaks English as the main medium, even the Malays. Our physics teacher, Mr Ng, encouraged us to learn physics in English, although STPM was conducted in Malay. He told us that in order to prepare ourselves for the university and subsequently to the world, a full grasp of the scientific term in English is compulsory. Come on, the “hardware = barang keras” joke is an exemplarily example of the silliness impracticality of using Malay as a technical language.

All hail the Dark Ages of education in Malaysia!

Edit 13 Jul 2009: It seems that certain factions of the chinese and indian community also wants to abandon the English as a technical language too! I am deeply aghast!

I am sure you have read this already through some forwarded mails before. This is really classic! Just a case in point for how absurd a direct translation from a decent terms in English can go haywire in Malay:

Hardware: barang keras
Software: barang lembut
Joystick: batang ria
Plug and Play: cucuk dan main
Port: lubang
Server: pelayan
Client: pelanggan

That server gives a plug and play service to the clients using either hardware or software joystick. The joystick goes into the port of the client.

“Translated”
Pelayan itu memberi pelanggannya layanan cucuk dan main dengan mempergunakan batang bahagia jenis keras atau lembut. Batang ria itu dimasukkan ke dalam lubang pelanggan.

Have you also seen how silly the translation in cinemas can be? They are better off not translating at all! Tell me a few examples if you have any.

Lots has been said about the language and its uses in Malaysia. The latest development saw our former Prime Minister to urge the government not to forsake the future of our children by denouncing the importance of English. I am totally aghast at the action of some parties who chose to childishly ignore the use of English to increase the competitiveness of Malaysians as a world-class citizen. English is, after all, the 3rd most spoken language in the world after Chinese and Spanish. Note that Malay, or its nearest variation Bahasa Indonesia is nowhere near the top 10.  And this decision came from no other than the seniors in our very own Menteri Pendidikan! And today the news says that majority of the people do not want English to pass in SPM! What the fuck are they thinking?

Let us just step back for a while and look at the Malaysians now as a whole. Throw a stone anywhere, chances are the person you hit knows a smattering of English, at least to be able to communicate properly with any English-native speakers. Last Sunday I went to the zoo, and I stopped at a bus-stop to take a rest. There was an old Malay grandma there, probably in her 70′s, looking after her young toddler grandchild. To my surprise, she speaks in English with us, refusing to converse in Malay even when we sprinkled some Malay into our conversation. She even spoke in English with her young grandchild, who is no more than 14 months old! There was a bit of typical Malaysian slang, but the point is that everywhere, people have no problem talking in English. So why the decision to lower English to second-class status?

Have you ever been to Thailand? Indonesia? Vietnam? Japan? Korea? How do you communicate with the most common of all people that you see; the taxi drivers? Do you have problems communicating with them in those countries? If you only speak Malay, then the answer is most probably a big YES. Do you think tourists to Malaysia will have problem communicating in English with our taxi drivers? Other than the quarrel about the use of meters, chances are that most if not all taxi drivers in Malaysia can speak good English.

We have been so long into allowing our SPM test papers to be answered in both Malay and English. Just as when we are almost seeing the result out of this, they have to revoke the importance of English. Wouldn’t it be a waste of effort? Come on, get real. For those who still insist on the purity of the Malay language, let me ask you this question. Can you speak purely in Malay without ANY influence of foreign language, especially English? What is the word “komunikasi“, “satelit“, “implikasi“, “dansa“, “televisyen“, “radio“, “komputer” doing in the Malay language? How do you pronounce chlorofluorocarbon in Malay? Or the mezzanine level? How about phobia? Tell that in Bahasa Baku to my face, you hypocrites!

I am not saying that Bahasa Melayu is of lower status. I cannot ignore its importance in Malaysia. I speak fluent Malay, and it’s the second language that I picked up after my native Cantonese. I had a very close Malay friend in primary school. But it just annoys me that some people choose to ignore the importance of the English language, and that they can live with just Malay in their daily lives. For those people, go live in an island and good riddance with you!

*Sigh*, what has our education system come to now? My poor girls……