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English can be a language of Malaysian unity and teach Sejarah and Agama in English

Posted by admin

Friday, 10 July 2009 11:56

By Azly Rahman

Contrary to many an opinion of Malaysian linguistic nationalists, I do believe that English language can be a powerful force of revolutionary change -- and a language of Malaysian unity primarily.

Bahasa Melayu has its own dignity but do not have the power to become a language of postmodern science and technology. In its current form, Bahasa Melayu is being destroyed by its own internal contradictions and suitable only as a language of literature and Malaysian bureaucracy. Everytime it tries to transform itself into a language of science and technology it become closer to becoming yet another periphery of the Center; it becomes subservient to the English Language. Why English language is a lingua franca can be explained by its ease of transformation. Philologists have written extensively on this phenomena.

Bahasa Melayu is fast evolving into a language of Ketuanan Melayu; abused for political reasons. Language is an expression of culture and helps construct the social reality of that culture. The phrase "kedaulatan Bahasa Melayu" is not a necessary slogan. No language has a dimension of Divine Sanctity unless it is pegged to the concept of "kerajaan" or the maintenance of this or that status quo however oppressive it may be. In this case, no race in Malaysia is challenging the dignity of the Malay language. I believe it is merely a political play.

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written by *********, July 10, 2009 12:07:43

Tell that to the morons from GAPENA and DBP...More http//*********.********.com

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written by ibabonma, July 10, 2009 12:28:03

If you want BM, it's ok but start with .... telephone with telefon, computer with komputer, oxygen with oksigen, ... and you will be ok and if you go anywhere in this world you will not get lost.

Don't coin words for the sake of creating new Bahasa Melayu words, say, jupiter with musytari, mercury with utarid, saturn with zuhal while you can use photosynthesis with fotosintesis instead!

Imagine me telling my youngest daughter, "Bintang itu ialah utarid." You can ask any human beings in this world what is utarid, chances are only our school children will understand (may be).

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written by Wisdom above, July 10, 2009 12:37:45

Let's draw out each student's own potential & promote it positively !
Study in English Medium Schools for those who wish to excel in English .
Study in Malay Medium Schools for those who wish to excel in Malay.

Just revert back to the English Medium school and Malay Medium school of the 1960s ?
We have a win - win situation.

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written by wongnoball, July 10, 2009 12:38:28

Have all State and Parliament Debate session DEBATED in ENGLISH.....so that Our Children can laugh and be Inspired at how LOUSY these Ministers are in English......that will inspire them to improve and say I can be better than that Education Minister!! UMNO Tak Boleh English!!...Malaysia Tak Boleh English!!! Tak Boleh Malaysia!!

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written by Diz, July 10, 2009 12:39:30

Azly, perhaps teaching Agama and Moral in English is a decent first step but the real challenge is to reduce the power of the Ustaz who wields more influence and authority in most schools than the Head. Agama has no real place in a multicultural 'educational' system especially when it takes up so much of the syllabus. Moral, as everyone knows is a complete joke and merely constitutes 'homework time'. Ideally, you'd have two periods of comparative religion for everyone and then two extra-curricular periods for those who need extra mindless drilling to learn their prayers. PS - my own kids have done 7 and 10 years respectively of Agama and can't speak or understand a word of Arabic. What a wasted opportunity.

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written by technoboy, July 10, 2009 13:03:13

UMNO/BN crooks have lost the political clout and will to continue with this largely unpopular policy amongst the rural Malays......part of their political manipulation to keep themselves in power at the expense of the larger interest of the nation....this is what UMNO/BN is good for and they will sacrifice whatever it takes to stay in power. These morons must be eliminated in next GE.

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written by Bosan, July 10, 2009 13:14:25

And I wonder who invented Timur Laut, Barat Laut ,Barat Daya etc? Why don't they call it Timur Laut- Utara Barat (north east)
Barat Laut- Selatan Barat (south east)
Barat Daya- Selatan Timur (south west) etc.which are easier to memorise?

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written by Bosan, July 10, 2009 13:27:53

Correction:

And I wonder who invented Timur Laut, Barat Laut ,Barat Daya etc? Why don't they call it Timur Laut- Utara Barat (north west)
Barat Laut- Selatan Timur (south east)
Barat Daya- Selatan Barat (south west) etc.which are easier to memorise?

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written by denkoh, July 10, 2009 13:37:13

don't forget, sodium jadi natrium...apa benda tu natrium? planet superman ka??

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written by JHope, July 10, 2009 13:44:10

Right on, Wisdom above...give M'sians an alternative to study in English medium school like the 60's. The present sekolah kebangsaan, which took over the english medium school, has evolved into a malay school, so in all fairness, bring back the english medium school.

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written by Trueandfair, July 10, 2009 14:08:14

Denkoh,

FYI - chemical names and terms are mostly in Latin/Greek not English. In this context, English terms do not follow international scientifc terms hence source of confusion is English - Natrium, kalium, etc etc ... are used officially in science/chemistry.

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written by budakindia, July 10, 2009 14:34:01

The best phrase in Malay to describe it, "seperti katak di bawah tempurung". Maybe another 500 years will they realize their mistake made today! Hahahaha! smilies/grin.gif

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written by Nick Chong, July 10, 2009 14:46:28

DO you realise some of the ENGLISH word are use in BM ??? This will tell you why the importance of english.

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written by jaz, July 10, 2009 14:49:25

So true, BM is just not evolving fast enought to accomodate the advances of Science and Technology. New discoveries are made every day in the world, there are still so many scientific terms without proper translations yet. How will we ever going to catch up. In the end, we would just adopt the English terms for our uses. What's the point of twisting up somebody elses terms? Fotosintesis, Musytari, firuan... What will you do when you study overseas? You can't possibly relate to their methods of teaching!

That's why I never bother to go to class during high school, cause I know I won't be able to use these knowledges outside Malaysia, I buy my own set of Text books to study myself, during PMR and SPM, I answered in English. Of course, as an athlete, I get special priviledges of staying out of class to go training everyday...until I can't possibly take it.

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written by HJ Angus, July 10, 2009 14:57:11

Simply taking an English/scientific term and then changing the spelling to "translate" imposes such a heavy burden on the student- as if the subject is not difficult enough.
I agree with the content of the article but spotted at least 3 grammatical errors - maybe the writer needs a third party to proof-read. Sometimes using "spell check" etc does not reveal such mistakes.
http://malaysiawatch4.********...guage.html

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written by clarity, July 10, 2009 14:58:28

The U-turn obviously has political implications s originally it was the govt's idea to even make English a must pass. Suddenly they see some rural objections to their idea and they can ill afford to lose any more votes, thus the flip flop, never mind if the country goes backward further. It is strange that the rural people will play a big part in the global economy. I mean to relax the rgulations in order to attract foreign investors. It was a step in the right direction. But in the same breath, that prospect is dead as you don't expect investors to come when you can't even carry out policies. They keep changing as usual. One cannot expect foreign investors to learn Bahasa.

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written by quietguy, July 10, 2009 15:09:15

Obviously even smart people can make stupid arguments. I've said it before and I'll say it again - the purpose of teaching science and mathematics is so that the students will learn science and mathematics! You don't teach science and mathematics with the hope that they will improve their English! That's why PPSMI is a bad idea! When you implement PPSMI and hope the students' English will improve, but at the end of the day, their knowledge of Science and Mathematics suffer, that defeats the purpose!

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written by densemy, July 10, 2009 15:30:20

Quietguy... I couldnt agree more. All along this PPSMI thing has been a red herring to avoid facing up to the real issue.. Which is: What should be the language of education in Malaysia??

Answer: English ( for everyone)

Any other answer is once again avoiding the real issue

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written by asguard, July 10, 2009 16:28:47

The bahasa will take you no where only valid in Indonesia and Malaysia...beyond that... English is main language like or not... as you left the shores of malaysia and you enter a foreign country ...you don't expect the locals to understand the bahasa! Instead you must speak english to them... let be somewhere in africa or latin america or even in america itself!

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written by JJFoo, July 10, 2009 17:12:19

Any situation can be use as an unifying factor but it is our politicians that choose to do otherwise, just to maintain their bread and butter.

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written by mawi, July 10, 2009 17:36:57

Dr.Azly, I only has this to say. Can you say the same when it comes to the Japanese language? or Korean or Deutch. Get my drift

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written by Bigdawg, July 10, 2009 21:01:27

What is there so much to argue about ?
Government should just simply de-regulate the setting up of
private schools, private colleges and universities.

Let anyone learn whatever they choose and in anyway they choose.

There's nothing to divide nor add ? Just hands-off private, commercial
schools!

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written by bambolero, July 10, 2009 21:52:26

As long as the malays still makan Belachan English will still be considerd not an important subject

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written by rams609, July 10, 2009 23:32:38

Language is an expression of culture and helps construct the social reality of that culture. The phrase "kedaulatan Bahasa Melayu" is not a necessary slogan.

I AGREE.

I have been in the communication business for about 30 years and I find our BM static because it chose to fall into its own trap. It remains in the fate of a handful of people and did not grow with the times. Even the so-called masters of the language in this business will prefer to go back to the old 8-5 'I am ready to go home, let's continue tomorrow 'Dewan Bahasa Pustaka for enlightenment on terms and all. The society moves on, but the language is still running on the spot. It's high time to run parallel with times.

Since Independence, we assembled linguists and intellects from Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei and Singapor; almost annually. We led the conventions by saying Bahasa Melayu will be one on par with French, Dutch, even English and will be one of the world's main trading languages. But yes we are in 2009, and we have forgotten. To lead.

Of course we should and are proud of our own,but I think we must and can do better.

Indonesia for example was not afraid of changes. Roll back their language in the 60's and check out theirs today, you'll see how progressive Bahasa Indonesia is.

Indonesians who are proud of their Bahasa Indonesia are now also gunning for English to move and spring ahead in this small world of ours. They know they want to be a global player , and they will.

See Singapore and Hongkong, who need not have to argue which one language is better and see where they are in the world's standing.

It's gonna be a long discussion, and will take a real focused effort; but the choice is ours.

Until such time, the world will stay united by the universally accepted English like it or not. Force it like the French and Japanese did , and yet English is where you come back to.

You don't need a master's degree to acknowledge that Science and Mathematics are just but a few important units for progress in life. And shouldn't we all talk the same language to stay abreast with the rest of the world?

It will only benefit us, our future generation, and our beloved country if we did.

I rest my case.

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written by 1351, July 10, 2009 23:35:24

The emphasis on English is important BUT Ministry of Edu realises its own shortcomings ie. the teachers themselves can't pull it off.

Min of Edu just don't have the correct people to do the job, so that opens a can of worms by itself looking into the heart of the problem. Rightly, we should now inquire how Min of Edu overcome this lack of talent. Now is the time for a total revamp on criteria/selection process on who is suited to enter the teaching profession.

There is no other way to say this but the simple policy of teaching Math/Science in English was doom to fail all because 'Ketuanan Melayu' came back to haunt.

G'weekend all
Casper

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written by shiokguy, July 11, 2009 11:23:06

Let people has a choice

Let us have a choice, if I choose to send my kids to English Medium School from Form 1 to Upper 6. Let it be! Recognized it! Let the market force decide which school will be demanded! Simple! Why want to dictate?

After Upper 6, Allow English Medium teaching University based on Merit! Just allow 3 for the time being and I belief a lot of Big company will want to invest!

Let the marketing force decide! Not by a few MORON!

Only then you the PM talk about World Class Education in Malaysia

http://shiokguy.********.com/2...ation.html

For the time being, we are world class education institute based on RANKING equal to world class MORON and STUPID system, based on EGO and Stupidity

Shiok Guy

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written by shiokguy, July 11, 2009 12:06:36

Let have a freedom of choice in Education..http://shiokguy.********.com/2...ation.html

Shiok Guy

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written by Nirmala, July 11, 2009 17:28:35

What is becoming of our beloved Malaysia? Surely the edu min should realize tht as it is v r globally totally uncompetitive. What is the use of BM when all reference books in tertiary edu is all in English? Can BM be used out of Msia? Perhaps in Indonesia n Brunei only. Why is our government so stupid? When I went through my daughter"s Science n Math books, I was quite shocked to see bombastic words like constant variables, meniscus, geometrical construction, pythagoras theorem etc.She herself said she felt so smart.Surely secondary students who go into med or engineering courses will find familiar terms when they study. For these reasons alone, I believe it was reverted to English. Its such a shame tht despite protests from the teachers, parents n others, out edu min still saw it fit to revert to BM. Our kids r going to lose out against the outside world.

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written by Beng, July 11, 2009 23:44:38

BM is used only in this part of the world and it is a langauge that is among the very least used. Those morons who wants Ketuanan Melayu do not realise this. Publish the names of those morons who adviced this stupid gomen and we will see that the next day Maths & Science will revert back to English.

The only way to get rid of the corrupt and stupid gomen is to have a change of government. Let Najib be the last PM of stupid BN gomen. VOTE THEM OUT IN THE NEXT ELECTION.

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