To English Or Not TO English Part 1

Salam,

Of course if you ask my daughters,, they will definitely say ENGLISH...coz they have learnt M&S in English all through their schooling life. Fiqa ( born 1996) was the pioneer batch in this new system.

I did have some discussions with my staff who are PR Indonesians - who have kids in this current system....their parents speak no English at all.
(though we have some really hysterical Mind Your LAnguage English classes in case they need to help in the shop)

Anyways, their kids go to SRK Damansara Utama or SRK Damansara Jaya or the likes coz most of them are in Kayu Ara....and surprisingly, with Chinese classmates some of them can still emerge in the top 10 students in the class. I suppose they are the ones who can grasp the knowledge and the language skill...even though i hardly hear them speaking English.

Same goes to when we were studying abroad - some students could not even speak English but their academic English were par excellence and they get first class honours. And do you notice how the Post Grad's kids who go to indy and school there all talk like MAt Salleh.....even though when they started school they knew tad of English. Kids learn faster if the environment is encouraging.

Then again..those PR kids are in urban schools and yes - probably the teachers are more fluent in English or are not even Malay for that matter.....and the fact that they mix with the non-Malays does make them have a boost to speak and comprehend the language.

MAybe one solution is to have two streams - Malay medium and English medium - as in the old days (masa my mom & dad) - some schools are Malay medium and some schools are English medium. Or if it is a big school, they can have Englsih medium classes and Malay medium classes ( as in schools with 10 classes). It would be another headache to class the kids..but at least you have the choice of what you want to learn.The question papers come in 2 languages anyway.....

But for me - Malay or English is not the problem - if there is consistency then we would achieve a focused generation - not a whole lot of guinea pigs or laboratory white mice. If you are lucky the experiments may result in super beings..but if not you get confused freaks who lean towards world domination (i have been watching too much Kim Possible and Totally Spies).

To sum up - yes we can keep the English teaching ( English does not make you un-nationalistic or lupa daratan or lupa agama dan bangsa...) IF we can sort out the Education system to accommodate the urban/rural divide, brush up the teachers ( kena tukar mind set....) OR we can give the students and their parents a choice.

BTW I think my non-English speaking staff would want their kids to continue the English system coz it gives the kids exposure they would not have otherwise...cakap Boyan & JAwa jelah......

But demonstrating in the streets on this matter? what is Malaysia coming to??? That is another heated topic again........ha!ha!ha!

Wallahualam...may Allah guide us in this matter......