Malays and their English (language)

Schoolchildren in Dili, Timor-Leste - cannot speak a word of English but I like the fancy footwear :)

11 years of studying English and cannot speak the language. That's my comment on the level of most Malaysians' grasp on the English language. And that does not include the ones who graduated from universities and still cannot speak the language confidently. OMG, so embarrassing...

It saddens me to think of my own people who wasted spent so much time studying something and gets nothing out of it. So whose fault is it? Inevitably, the big fat finger will point to the students and/or the teachers. Students for being lazy of course, and the teachers for teaching for teaching's sake. Once when I was in Form 5 at secondary school, our beloved English teacher was baffled when she found out no one in our class knew when to use an apostrophe after an s (our class was made up of students with the best marks in English, and our school was one of the top in the country). At that moment I realised that my grammar really sucked, and I had a sneaking suspicion that apostrophes were not part of our English syllabus (not sure if it's true, though). My teacher dutifully taught us about it there and then, and I remember it until now :)

I still believe a lot of the nooks and crannies of the language need to be explored by English teachers and taught to their ignorant students. Raising the standard in English doesn't necessarily means extending teaching hours and setting up more difficult exam questions, which the government is doing. It's about bettering the quality of the teaching - better syllabi, better teaching methods to make the students understand easier, et cetera. Of course I am no teacher myself, but I tutored my younger brother for his SPM (equivalent to the British O-Levels) many years ago using my unconventional technique and his English improved by 3 grades in under 2 months!

I'm not saying my English is perfect, because I don't speak it on an everyday basis or even at home. Plus, I personally know several Malaysians whose English is notably superior to mine ;) But I guess if you're a university graduate, conversing in English shouldn't be an agonizing torture you would rather avoid. Not to mention the 14 year-old relative of a Chinese patient in Penang who cannot speak Malay in spite of all the schooling... Well, that's another (sad) story.

The case of three thank yous and a please

Scenario No. 1. A Malay boy slipped into a bookstore unnoticed. After a hurried rummage through the endless rows of reading material, he returned to the counter with a couple of revision books where a middle aged man greeted him with a smile and a thank you. The cashier quoted the price as the foreigner took out his Nike wallet and gave the man a few quids. "Thank you," said the cashier again. Several beeps from the cash machine later, he handed the boy some loose change and a third thank you was uttered as he beamed a wider smile instead of the usual good-bye.

Scenario No. 2. The Malay boy walked into a delicatessen one fine Saturday morning. "How can I help you, love?" the elderly lady behind the counter greeted her hungry teenage customer. The thought of calling someone you hardly ever met Love was still quite a strange concept to the boy even after a couple of months residing in this country. He asked for some jam doughnuts he knew would taste better than the ones sold elsewhere in packets of tens for 99p. "How many would you like, love?" she asked back, and the boy answered with a quick "Six". "Six, please," said the lady. Her reaction was met with a confused look on the boy's face, which was followed by a sheepish repetition of her exact words a split second later.

Lesson No. 1: Never underestimate thank yous - one is good enough but three is definitely memorable.
Lesson No. 2: Always end a request (in English) with a please, even if they don't teach you at (a Malaysian) school.

Unshockingly true, I had a bit of a culture shock when I first went to study in Wales and it's not all about 'sexual freedom'. We Malaysians always pride ourselves on being big on manners. Apparently my encounter of the Welsh kind made me think twice!

Jam doughnut - drool, drool, slurp..