I don't see the big idea of having Science and Maths in Bahasa Malaysia - not that I'm against Bahasa Malaysia as a language of unity, but then again - do you want us to move ahead, or move backward ?
A language of ten provinces alone or the language of the whole world ?
Easier communication among scientists and the international workforce, or inefficiency and increased costs for hiring people and obtaining software to translate ?
Terms that make sense, or terms that don't sound right ?
Survival in the A-Levels, or failure in career interviews ?
When it came to studying Science and Maths in English, I seemed like a native. I had no qualms about it. And everyone in KL agreed with me. The papers have shown that English is the language of choice when it comes to studying Science and Maths, even among primary school students who have just obtained their UPSR results. The figures have shown it : there's a higher rate of passes because people understand the terms much, much better, even if they don't speak English at home like I do. Which is much better than a higher rate of A's and a lower rate of passes, because at the end of the day life isn't about A's. It's about going through every hurdle. Our predecessors did their subject matter in English anyway !
But more importantly, I'm hitting out at the people who say "kita akan kehilangan jati diri sebagai orang Malaysia" (we'll be losing our self-respect as Malaysians). Let me tell you in the face, now, that self-respect and respect for other people is not determined by the language we speak - we've got so many languages in Malaysia. Self-respect is determined by who we are, as well as our self worth. I'm not gonna let us Malaysians just learn a language for the sake of learning it, and at the same time, we don't retain any knowledge.
What's the point of learning in Bahasa Malaysia just to facilitate many people, get them some A's in the SPM, and let them sail through in the university learning in Bahasa Malaysia... and let them fail miserably where the interviews and career building stuff are all conducted in English ?
You say that we are losing our self-pride by following the West in learning our subject matter in English. Truth be told, globalism promotes a sort of monoculture in the sense that there are a few universal languages, and everyone's meant to keep up or die with the changing times. Many nations - even developed economies - have kept up with globalism in spite of retaining their own traditions. Take France for example (they've never been too happy with American influences but they're still the developed economy that we know) ! Take Japan. That's one nation heavily steeped in tradition despite actually keeping up with the economic and linguistic trend.
We will have to do the same, or just be left behind. All it requires is balance. However, I don't see that balance coming into our schools, cluster or not. Heck, I'm not surprised when I see people scoring like, a whopping 17 A's for SPM, but getting an F in the interview. We have to start somewhere.
If Dr Mahathir created the Look East Policy, he meant it in the economical aspect : they created the Kaizen and Just-In-Time production methods to increase efficiency, and this is hardly being practised here. Dr Mahathir meant this to be for the country. Not for anything else. He didn't intend us to turn ourselves into a proud, conceited lot who wouldn't wanna speak in any other language. It was also his idea to introduce Maths and Science in English. He had no regrets. Despite his flaws, it is evident that he wanted the country to move forward instead of just stagnating there.
The use of a language doesn't diminish my patriotism. I don't define patriotism as using the Malay language while studying. I define patriotism as using whatever language while studying, and ultimately giving my input to the country because I'm doing it pretty well. What matters most is how the people contribute to the country, and nothing else. I'm studying my subject matter in English. But when I become an accomplished lawyer-singer-songwriter, I'll be contributing to the country, I'll be doing Malaysia proud, and that's all that matters for me.
Why do some people never understand ?
4 comments:
Tell u what...their minds are rigid.
I learned those stuffs in English since Matriculation and of course in the university as well...
Gonna be a teacher, I done my teaching practice in English as well. I delivered my contents in English.
There's nothing wrong with the languages. They'll just make them surprised with the real world, how's everything been conducted in English, the references as well.
Heck!
They said want to change everything to BM back! Gee! What's the point of it?
Yeah, wtf right !?
Forget Science and Math in BM. Or else we'll be as backwater as we were before.
I think that minority languages require protection. The promulgation of English as the world's "lingua franca" is unethical and linguistically undemocratic. I add that I am a native English speaker!
Unethical because communication should be for all and not only for an educational or political elite. English is used, at an international level, in this way, now.
Undemocratic because minority languages are under attack worldwide due to the encroachment of majority ethnic languages. Even Mandarin Chinese is attempting to dominate as well, although not yet in Europe! The long-term solution must be found and a non-national language, which would place all ethnic languages on an equal footing is long overdue.
An interesting video can be seen at http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=_YHALnLV9XU Professor Piron was a translator with the United Nations in Geneva.
The argument for Esperanto can be seen at http://www.lernu.net
Minority languages require protection, indeed, but remember one thing : the main purpose of Sciences is to be able to communicate findings. Notice why despite our diversity, there are several calls for the use of the universally-spoken languages - English and French, among others.
I'm not against BM because after all, it's my national language. But I'm against the SHIFTING from BM to English and back to BM, as though we're guinea pigs of a sort !
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