Haiyor, my goodness!
My good friend once ranted on and on about the above. He insisted I blog about this ‘cos he doesn’t have a blog. Anymore. I told him, “Shaddap lah, I no kualifikayshen to write about this because not like my Ingrund veli gud like that. Later I kena flamed, who wants to save my butt wor?”
I am not like him, go study in Ingrund and speaking purfect Luntun. He can picks up the slightest grammar mistakes. Me? I only go by feel if a sentence is right or wrong. I make a lot of grammatical errors and especially with sentence structures.
But at least I know when to use past tense, future tense, plural and singular. I am not like to bekam grammar polis lah.
My friend is has alerted me to many funny posts with bad Inglish. He bugs me with, “Cilaka, faster go and post. I want to vomit blood. What are they teaching in our universities and colleges? Why working adults with degrees cannot string a simple sentences together, using English that doesn’t make you fidgeting in your chair?”
Today, a lawyer blog buddy pointed out to me a blog which has a dramatic day and night, ying and yang, black and white drastic differences between good English and lousy Inglund.
And I cry for you, Malaysia. What happen lah? My son who is only 15 years old and his English is 10 folds better than those who have graduated from U. And this kid only get a B for his UPSR for English. Someone please tell me, where did we go wrong?
It is ok not to be fluent in English but it is a crime when an adult refuse to improve. There are so many tools and guides out there to help you. Spell check, grammar check, all these come free. Read. Learn! For phuck’s sake.
Aiya, they say the older you are, the slower you learn mah. Some just give the “tak apa” attitude. Feel like choking them, really.
That’s how things are, I guess? Relax lah, alot of bloggers do try, I guess. At least they still blog about current issues and all that š
That’s because some University still force their students to write in BM mah.
When I read their thesis in BM, I don’t understand what they are talking about. All direct translation of terms from English to BM. I don’t understand why not the Uni just allow to write in English and make the student s’ lives easy.
Bryan: Sked the lecturers can’t “adapt” to the change, I reckon. lol.
I can guarantee your sons English is probably better than half of Americas!
it’s also a fault of our exam-oriented system, really. some of the students study the language just to pass exams. they’re not really utilising what they’ve learned in classes.
my ingrish oso not very good mah, but my thesis was in english because i was lazy to translate all the jargon into BM. hehe.
because no one blardy cares if you english is good or not. it’s a damn annoying thing because foreigners always assume that asians have BAD english. i say, fuck ’em.
haiya, i remember when i was in U, I am quite good in English (got 5 for in SPM for English as I only answered 2 question instead of 3 essay – tido during exam) my lecturer gave me B for my exam even I am very good in everything but those friends (really kenot talk and write) who always bodek him got “A”
Amanda: True to that. Most Americans speak okay, but writes awfully. Same goes to Australia.
But what to do? At one point, our nation ask us to adopt Bahasa Melayu as the national language, and then every single text books are published in the Malay language, and then at another point, they try to change all maths and science subjects to English because it’s better understood if some terms are expressed in English.
What der phuck do they want us to learn?
u know how i learn my england back when i was in skool? i watched lots & lots of england tv shows like barnaby jones, six million dollar man, combat & rawhide!
Whilst I won’t proclaim that my English is perfect, I dare say some of the law graduates from local universities can’t even speak English properly.
my yingland kanasai eventhough i was from international skool
kakkakakkakka
haih..wut to do..msia..all pecah yingland wan! our those big big shots oso the same..learn from the leaders!!
Haaaaaiii… What to expect-la.
You see how our politikus tok on TV, you know-la. If they tok lidat, the underlings oso tok lidat-la. Not only tok, but write oso.
On a serious note, when I entered the workforce I had to “downgrade” my English competency as my colleagues felt threatened and didn’t understand what I was saying. ‘Til this day, a lot of my colleagues are frightened by my level of English.
I don’t speak with a phreakin’ accent and it annoys me to hell whenever I hear some of our locals try to dish it out in some American/Aussie/UK accent in BROKEN GRAMMAR.
I’ve got to agree with alexallied, after working with some Americans, they can speak well but some of them make grammar mistakes in their written word.
However, I made Malaysia proud when the Americans I worked with said that I speak/write fantastic English! LOL!!
Raymond, I second that! š
Wuching, oh, you are lucky. My parents always switch to mandarin soap opera channel vs English sitcom, maybe that’s explain my bad English š
I can’t agree more with you, Lilian. I am in the university, and until a year or two ago, I refused to believe that university students can’t string some decent English sentences.
But fact is, a lot of them dare not speak in English, making it very difficult for people to teach/help them.
And don’t be surprised that a lot of us graduate with our Master’s or Ph.D. degrees despite not being able to speak or write proper English.
And imagine what happens 10 or 20 years down the road when our kids go to university and are taught by lecturers who can’t tell the difference between present and past tenses *gulps*
Hehehe! Auntie, I blogged about this some time back as well…You know what my uni-mate told me after they read the post?
A particular guy told me “Yaya, what you said is true but you cannot blame us who are Chinese-educated compare to you who are English-educated bla bla bla yadda yadda yadda”
I replied “Fuck you lah! Who told you I am English-educated I don’t even study in England. Blaming your education background for your weakness in English is just so LAME”
Not only that. some idiot from this uni so happen to read that post also and gave me hate comments everyday after that. Happily, I clicked ‘delete’ button, so easy! š Hahahahah!!!
hmm. some people maybe weak in speaking but good in writing leh? i’ve seen people writing bombastic words. i see liao also pening.
but somehow you are right. standard of english declining…
what can i say?..its damn bloody sad lor..write until as if their england very good like that..i beh tahan liao
exactly. we write our assignments in malay in university!!!! but the reference book in english. so we end up translating them! heck! i told myself if i cant find a job after i graduate, i can be a good translator.. wonder why they like to use malay language so much. like any other countries do use them..
Haiyor, faint! So many comments. I today veli, veli busy so tenkiu for the komen, ya all! I gotta run!!!!
and a colleague was just asking me last night, “so did you learn English in Malaysia?”
Tiu, dunno if that’s an insult or compliment.
Hoi Lilian cabut and run already. lol. Give our well wishes to your son ya š
yatie, i angkat-kaki agree with you. I studied English Linguistics in U and those ^%&%&*&* kaki bodek whom can’t write, read and speak in inggeris can A.
Those who are good get B-.
I gave up!!!
Personally I think that has to do with the graduate’s family and educational background.
For people who are of typical Malaysian-Chinese Mandarin/dialect-speaking family, they need more effort than those who speak English at home.
But should we blame the education system?
Should we blame the universities?
Should you blame yourself for you’re chinese-educated?
Or should you blame our leaders for they’re not speaking/writing as good as we expect them to be?
I don’t know.
But for me, I think I’m the one playing the biggest part of this
It’s like… I myself choose to learn it or not to learn it. i’m responsible for myself [and of course, my English]
Some people really put in effort to learn when they know they are not good, but some people just don’t.
I’m one of those who put in effort and still putting in effort to improve. I’m Chinese-educated and i know it’s not easy but i don’t think blaming others solves anything.
Bahasa is our national language and what the government did was to preserve it, so it’s understandable. Maybe the plan was not working very well hehe but who’s going to improve the plan? Our very own professionals? No, they’re flying out off malaysia to somewhere else I think. What can we do~
…
Hmm… just my point of view š
i’m a science undergrad and because i’m from a biracial background, i was brought up speaking in english as both my parents were english educated (they don’t speak each other’s native language) and were really bad in malay (now my mom’s malay is super because she’s a teacher in a national school, but my dad’s malay is still horrible because he’s a biologist who goes to the hutan belantara with ang mohs who speak english only hahaha), so that is why i have a relatively better command of the language compared to most of my friends. š
anyway, i just like give my opinion about this matter. the problem my generation (lol) is facing when it comes to mastering english is that the government made the wrong approach when trying to improve the students’ command of the language. science and math are technical subjects, and you learn scientific and technical jargons that you do not use in your daily life. (who would use a sentence like “he ran with a velocity of approximately 10m/sec and used up nearly 1500 kilojoules of energy throughout the chase” in their day-to-day talk??)
so, i would suggest that ‘light’ subjects such as arts, pjk/pe, moral etc be taught in english instead, especially in primary school level. these subjects are not very heavy duty, so it will be more relaxed for the students to try to communicate without being insecure of using the wrong terms. (even talking about science or technology in a language that you are comfortable with is not a simple task because you need to use the correct terms, or else you’ll be embarrassing yourself!)
Aiyah, all speaking the Hokkien langrage…No right nor wrong.
umm…….when an adult refuses [not refuse] to improve. lol
your friend ah… who he is… tell me tell me.. i wanna… agree with him… kakakakakakakakak….
ok ok… kidding only…