I was in a "kopitiam" one day, across the table, there was this lady I guess she was in her mid 30s, she was berating her son in this manner," Why your English so bad one ? send you to English tuition,also no improve one"
She was incensed because her son son could not pronounce correctly the word "Carlsberg" from a beer ad poster plastered on the wall, instead the son pronounced it as "Kar,bird" something like that. Period.
The recent survey by a so called "federation of employers",it claims that 80 % of the local Uni graduate could not master English well during interviews and I can testify that it is true,yet alarming, I'd come in contact with some teachers, sad to say their English command is just bad.
What is actually and exactly wrong with the deteriorating standard of our English? Could it be that our Edu policies are always controlled by political pressure or patronage,thus our Education policies are always flip-flopping,I don't know?
Come next year when the policy of "Upholding Bahasa Malaysia and strengthening Bahasa English" or MBMMBI is fully implemented, I just wonder what would be the measures in place to Strengthen English language?
You know I love talking to those teachers who had their education in the 60s into the 70s just love their command of English,sadly when it came to the 80s and when English was done with being the main medium, it has been nosediving all the way already.
So when our DPM commented that he could not understand why after 13 years of early education (primary to secondary), many of our students still could not master English well, I think he should be asking himself instead, for being the Education Minister?
P/S : So, when they flip-flop,our goal and vision stops
I know rite, my sis was telling me how bad her student's english that some of them can't even commute and that she had to use 3 language sometimes to explain to a group of students.
ReplyDeleteI can't say my english is all that good but I'm grateful that at least I can commute in 3 different language hehe.
It all boils down to the home and the environment. Did the mother send him to Chinese school? Does he speak (proper) English at home? Does he speak (proper, not Manglish)English with his friends and in school? I am quite sure the answer to all the guestions is NO!
ReplyDeleteDon't blame the system and the schools for everything! You can lead a horse to water and you cannot make it drink.
I have seen the English bloggers use...and I canNOT say that their English is THAT good other even though some went through the English medium in school. Some are, of course, excellent. Why the difference? Didn't they go to the same school, study the same books, sit for the same exams? Why? Just ask yourself this!
I'm so sick of people pushing the blame to everybody BUT themselves. It is easy to fingerpoint and blame everybody left, right and centre. Blame the parents who push their smart students to become doctors, engineers, accountants, lawyers...anything EXCEPT teachers. What kind of students do we have now teaching your children? WHY????
* commute v. com·mut·ed, com·mut·ing, com·mutes. v.intr. 1. To travel as a commuter.
ReplyDeleteyes, our English has gone down the drain. Just a couple months back I was at the bank to open a saving account and the officer attending to me asked where I worked and I told her xxx refinery. She could not even spelt refinery.Can't blame her, when our minister can't even speak England.LOL.
ReplyDeleteI wonder which minister that would be. I would think that the PM's (spoken) English is VERY good, anytime better than the previous two.
ReplyDelete*modal + verb in the base form. Do not use singular, present/past participle or past tense forms after a modal.
ReplyDeleteI can't say my English is that good, but when we made mistake! We learnt from mistake! So don't let our children learn the same mistake again! The point is: English is very important!
ReplyDeleteAgrees with you... those days.. our english teachers were fantastic! i remember we as students have to stand up one by one to spell out the difficult words, those who didn't know how to spell have to stand up for the whole period! We also had to make sentences with the words given.. nowadays, do they have this? maybe outdated liow..
ReplyDeleteThose days, teachers were honoured and respected. Many wanted to become teachers. The La Salle Brothers whipped the students like sheep...and to this day, they would kiss their feet.
ReplyDeleteFast forward to the present day and time. A teacher here tried to discipline a student and was sued for RM12 million...and other parents who would hang around the school outside the classroom every day (something unheard of in the past)said that they had seen the mother herself abusing the child in ways a whole lot worse.
In the past, if we went home and told our parents that we were caned or anything, we would end up getting a second round...
Which this kind of parents around, I certainly would think many many times before becoming a teacher.
*With this kind...
ReplyDeleteI agree with must also start at home,,, that's why i am very particular when my sons use 'internet" lingo.......
ReplyDeleteYes, MANY student will write "u" instead of "you" and all those. Cambridge will penalise all those as errors. Make sure you children do not pick up this bad habit.
ReplyDeleteThere was a report/article once about how a student (in the UK) wrote the whole essay using internet language and they failed the fella.
Cambridge (They oversee the marking and grading of our English paper in the SPM Examination) is very conservative - they do not tolerate such nonsense...and modern-day young people's slang/colloquial like " Hey, grab that cute chick over there!" To them, a chick is and always will be...a bird!
*your children
ReplyDeleteWe speak Chinese to the kids at home, but when I tell them bedtime story, I will only use English story books. So far, my kids are pretty good in their command of English, and way to go.
ReplyDeleteit's not easy being an English teacher. I had been one n tried all kinds of methods yet some students refused to speak the language..
ReplyDeleteMy kids are in Chinese school. Unfortunately, the level of English is so low. My boy who is in std 1 was drawing lines through the first term to practice his handwriting. In his recent term exam, his syllabus included colours and shapes whereas in BM and Chinese they have moved on way ahead of these making complete sentences with just a given word. All I can say is the level of English is pathetic. As parents, we can balance it off at home but we only have that number of hours in a day and the day is filled up with homework, lots and lots of Chinese homework.
ReplyDeleteLet's put it this way, our DPM is not a very bright fellow himself!
ReplyDeletelol on your last statement ! How true was that.
ReplyDeleteu know why? Because we have ppl like ME teaching Engrish to those poor kids out there... that's why!
ReplyDeleteEnglish isn't our primary language, BM is. That's why. Nobody put this international language as a priority.
ReplyDeleteIf you failed BM, you're screwed. No university will accept you. If you failed English but passed BM with A1, you can retake the test for English and still be able to enter the finest tertiery school.
Just my 2 cents.
not just the youngs, try speaking English to a fresh graduates nowadays... you vomit blood.. and yes, I agree with STP, the computer language is killing the younger generation now...
ReplyDeleteWhen my son was in standard one, he told me he corrected his English mathematic teacher who mistook 'squid' for 'octopus'.
ReplyDeleteHe's in form 2 this year. I wonder when he goes to form 4, will the science and math be taught in English?
i mentioned you in my blog
ReplyDeleteLast time, when I was in MGS, English teachers are the strictest of them all.
ReplyDeleteAnd of course, own initiative to learn the language properly is important too.
If people around us all speak broken English, how do you expect our children to speak it properly?
I think my English deteroriated once I enter the working world. xD
I could not stop laughing after that first paragraph. *laugh*
ReplyDeleteNow we know why her son's command of English is bad, its INHERITED!!! *Huge Laugh*
Some parents just doesn't seem to realise that the problem lies with themselves....
My thinking is, a language (if it's not one's mother tongue or language) is learned in school, English, for instance. Students master or at least try to master the language being taught in school so I feel the teacher's knowledge or lack of it together with his/her teaching methods have a bearing on how well or how backward the students will become discounting the students study habits.
ReplyDeleteThe home is just an extension of academic education, tuition included. If the student learns his language well in school, all that crappy language used at home will have no influence over the student, I believe, because he would have learned the fundamentals of the language taught in school.
Malaysia seriously need to take the necessary action to improve our students standard of English if the govt indeed is serious about it, the latter. My two cents.
Why you like that one you have touched our cikgu's hot button he bay tahan already. True blame game is a dumb game. Bananaz is a classic example though from English school right from Standard One till Standard Eleven can count the number of English words spoken at home, no read English newspaper *no English papers at home*, so how to improve English. What would you think is you hear someone says "how is you?" I did. So my English never reach Form 5 only at Standard level.
ReplyDeleteQuote STP's ~ "*modal + verb in the base form. Do not use singular, present/past participle or past tense forms after a modal." This never enter my green Bananaz skin at all and they sort of never ever existed. That's bad. *paiseh*
ReplyDeleteI believe bad languages are just due to laziness to learn and do thing in a proper manner. We can find bad Chinese in Beijing, bad English in London and bad Malay in KL.
ReplyDeletebcos tey all spik n spel like not light lor...miz wz chinese n Engish n BM oso lor. :P
ReplyDeletewow, interesting post Eugene, I find it very informative too to read Arthur's comments. Going through all your comments now.
ReplyDeleteThere are a lot of reasons... but one reason I think is because of the mentality of some who are ashamed or afraid to talk English. When I was a kid, speaking English will sometimes makes you get teased... like "uiyo, speaking o dia...", "uina, cakap urang putih oo". All that.
ReplyDeleteLuckily for me, I ignored them. And I'm not excellent but let's just say, I do well in interviews.
And believe it or not, I think my English improved because I played a lot of PC games in the past. Hehee.
no more flung? fling flung flong flang
ReplyDeletewhy is our english so bad? are you referring to the recent riots in uk, old chap? to the brits?
ReplyDeleteenglish bad? shouldn't that be grammar?
Thanks to my parents i'm in English educated.. but banana in Chinese. When my parents sent me to SK but not SK (C) both in-laws against coz they will tell u "chinese people dunno read / write Chinese ar.. cannot la.. China is a big market eh.."
ReplyDeleteI speak English with my parents at home.. after I graduated and started to work, only know English is very important, if u can't speak during interview that's it... I been through these... only knew my parents doing the best for children. I didn't blame them for not letting me to be Mandarin schools but taking heart out , learning through google and online website =)
My cousin elder than me 1 year old, she is fully Chinese educated, can't even speak English, so hard for her to get job in KL.. Taking 1 year going through English.. She gave up easily despite thinking of going to China/Taiwan/HK to work. The solution is only there.. have to back to Chinese which is not much choices. When i was younger, she use to tease me that I cannot speak mandarin properly. I proof her wrong... I speak mandarin better than her.. just writing is not very good.
ReplyDeleteEasily I get job after my graduation 1 month.. I being so thankful that i speak proper English, no doubt my English it's not excellent but I can easily pick up without any problem. U see the different.. I won't Chinese it's a bad thing to learn.. but remember we're going international English is very important.
Sometimes should not blame to the school, I would say everything must start from home first. Not just sending children to tuition and left the job to teachers. Parent's playing big main role on this part. Teacher/tutors just guidance only.
I was from SXI and my female English teacher used a fat cane to whack us in Std 5. Now all her grammars are permanently etched into my brains and vibes. The cane should be brought back!
ReplyDeleteIn my blog list, 2 bloggers graduated from US and Canada but their Ingggerris is still horrendous! How did they graduate harr??? Adoi! Faintz!