English is not only important in Science and Mathematics

English is not only important in Science and Mathematics

Some years ago, while I was in Hong Kong, I was invited to visit Zhangjiajie (Hunan, China) on a commercial basis. So I have to call the airline company for an extension of another 5 days. I spoke in Cantonese, thinking that this Hong Kong dialect would make me closer to the person I spoke to. However, my request was futile because the airline staff never try to help me. On the next day, I called the same airline speaking English and this time my request was successful and I save a thousand ringgit for another return ticket to Malaysia. So, next time, you have any problem dealing with airline, immigration or custom procedure, blare them in English, because the shadow of Uncle Sam’s nose will make them shiver and they will render you excellent service.

Thus English is not only important in science and mathematics. However, I do not agree to the Malaysian system of teaching science and mathematics in English. The standard of English can be elevated in many ways, especially by strengthening the teaching of English. For instance, English can be split into several subjects, like English literature, English Grammar, Conversational English, English for Science and Mathematics etc. In Conversational English, the students have to act by speaking English. For example, a student acts as a doctor and another act as a patient. They can also play other roles like tourist and local Malaysian, taxi driver and passenger etc. In the acting, they will also gain the experience of speaking English. If the government think that the present time of learning English is not enough, they can lengthened the school time so that more time can be spent on learning English. They can even make the students studying English for the whole day on Saturday. Then Saturday will not be a rest day for students and teachers.

Hindi is popular not only in India, it is also popular in Pakistan, urban areas of Nepal and parts of Bangladesh. This is because of the Bollywood factor. Hindi is the language of entertainment and young people of the above area are crazy about Hindi film star, singers and entertainment. Similarly in Malaysia most Chinese children speak in Cantonese or Mandarin. Old people laments about the demise of their dialects like Hainanese, Teochew, Hokchew etc. Again this is because of the Hong Kong entertainment factors. Young Malaysian Chinese youth are crazy about Hong Kong movie, TV series and singers. Cantonese is the Hong Kong dialect and most non-Cantonese Chinese in Malaysia can speak or at least understand Cantonese although the Cantonese is not the largest Chinese dialect group in Malaysia. Thus it is high time that English should be made into a language of entertainment in Malaysia. There are less and less English programmes in terrestrial TV channels. A special English TV channel should be set up and broadcast all programmes in English, including educational and entertainment programmes. Let the Malaysian children and youth get crazy on English language. Then their command on English will become superb.

Anyway, don’t believe the myth of commanding excellent English will make Malaysia another Japan or Germany. The Filipinos widely use English in their education system. Yet many Filipinos holding university degrees like Bachelors in English, Science or Mathematics end up becoming maids in Hong Kong and Singapore doing nothing in connection to their university knowledge. They are most welcomed in Hong Kong and Singapore because they can teach English for their employee’s children. Similarly, in the Caribbean, some countries do not have a language of their own and they adopted English as their National Languages. All the citizenry of these countries speak English since their birth and study English from primary to university level. So far not a single Japan or Germany emerge from the Caribbean.. Yet they are so near to the United States and they don’t even make the slightest contribution to the Silicon Valley or NASA of USA.

Every Malaysian supports the elevation of English standard in Malaysia and the myth of whether English language will make Malaysia another Germany or not, should be noted.