The stumbling block for English language

The decision by Beijing to remove English as the medium of instruction in most public schools there, has led to the deterioration of the standard of the said language among their young workers. Foreign businesses in China fear that this situation would jeopardize Hong Kong’s status as the financial capital of Asia.

In Japan, teaching English is becoming a billion dollar industry. Similar awakening is happening in other Asian countries. Nobody can stop the sweeping tidal wave of the changing needs of the society. But some quarters can be a stumbling block.

In Malaysia we decided to revert to Bahasa Malaysia in math and science. With all due respect to Bahasa Malaysia, English is the de facto language of choice and plays a very important role in today’s seamless world. English is neither the first language nor mother tongue for most countries in the world today, however most of these countries have successfully incorporated the language in its superstructure. In my profession, I work with young graduates mostly by products of public schools and local universities. I am forced to lament about how poor they are in holding a conversation in simple English. Who do we blame for this? Parents, teachers, friends, communities or government? It seems that we are weaving new patterns of families, communities and politicians into a new brand better suited to the current needs of the legislatures and this pattern will eventually have devastating effect on the social ecology.

Our government needs to be more careful in taking into consideration of the needs of our future generations unless of cause they consider non political fraternity children have any future what so ever (needless to say their children go to private schools). Please consider the holistic effect before deciding on any syllabus.

I would like to plead to PM and his astute line up, not to mess with our children’s minds and do not try to undermine each other’s administration.

suyanair@gmail.com