Language Education Part I

I believe education don't make you rich, it just makes you a better person. What you do with that education can make you rich. Thus, quality education makes quality residents.

With the current Malaysian education system, I don't think having other races studying Malay, if that's what we're doing (note: studying and learning Malay are two different things altogether, but hopefully they both come hand in hand), is a good thing altogether for the Malays in the first place. It is good for the nation, probably for the language itself but I think it gives the Malays a disadvantage compared to other races, mainly the Chinese and Indian.

The initiation of other races to pick up the Malay language in history was probably a good idea, or might even be stated noble. Malaysians at that time needed a language to unify themselves and Malay, I'd probably guess, was the simplest one to learn. Imagine a whole cauldron of the local Malays and immigrants from China, India and others in Malaysia trying to communicate with each other. Furthermore, it was the land of the Malays. It was also only logical for the other races to pick up the language of the locals. As they say, in Rome, do as the Romans do. (Whose they?) Or as the Malay idiom states, When in a chicken coop; cluck, when in a goat's den; bleat.

Fast forward 5o odd years later, the Indians and Chinese knows their Mother Tounge, Malay and some of them, English. The Malays knows only Malay and some of us, English. What gives? I'm speaking in general here. Of course there's kind souls out there who just knows every language possible that they could learn. (i.e People who knows other languages that they need not know of, more impressive if they also know some dialects.) I'm referring to the general mass here. And of course there are just some individuals who refuse to learn anything else outside their Mother Tounge. Those who grew up learning English alone have another problem in hand.

Firstly, marketibility. The Indians and Chinese who knows Malay, English and Mother Tounge are able to do business in the Malay Archipelago, Western World and countries that have English as their communcation language, and of course the two most populated countries in the world, India and China respectively. The Malays on the hand, plans to mainly survive in the Malay Archipelago and the English-speaking nation. I understand that we're just missing out on the two countries only at this time, which if I may add, their economy and growth are just predicted to be mercurial over the next few years. However, take note, half of the Malays right now are just reluctant enough to learn English, backed up by certain NGOs that is trying to hold on to the old ideas that knowing Malay alone is enough to live through. On the hand, they're right, we can live through life knowing Malay alone but our scope of life would then be limited. As I state above, the more education we know, the better person we are.

As much as a lot of education can be translated in other language, how else can you learn about a culture than in its own language. Language IS culture. Personally, I just think it's sexy for a person to know a few languages and the culture behind them.

On the other end of the spectrum, we still have the tribal mentality, whereby we're proud and happy when people would like to learn our language and culture, and at the same time telling our children how negative other people's cultures are.

The Malays would agree in order to fully appreaciate the Al-Quran, one would need to master the Arabic language first. Then isn't it logical in order to understand most of the subjects and ongoings of the world, to learn English at least? English is not the natural derivation of most of the education today. Most of the philosophies, ideas and sciences today came in the form of Greeks, Latin, Arabic, etc when they were first introduced. English just happen to be the language of, for a reason or another, the mass to translate these subjects and ideas into. Then people would bring up; what about the French? The French safeguard their language, are very proud of their language and would consider anyone talking to them in any other language than French in their country as being rude and insensitive. Can we ever achieve that? Can be raise the Malay standards up to a level the French regards theirs?