English Is Vital

Hi Everyone,

We have come to the point of time where English is a global language used in most countries in the world today. All walks of life are embracing English as the medium of communication and some have already done it way back. It is the global language used for job interviews as well. Most of the jobs require us to have a good command of English.

The debate of teaching Maths and Science in English got heated up in Malaysia. Some of us may not realise the importance of it until our child(ren) go(es) to college and university. The medium of instruction for these subjects are taught in English especially true for most private colleges such as Taylor's College, Sunway College and Inti College.

Pre-university courses such as South Australian Matriculation (SAM), Australian Matriculation (AUSMAT), A-Levels, American Degree Program (ADP), Canadian Pre-U (CPU), use syllabuses from Australia, UK and the US respectively. Therefore, all the scientific and mathematical terms are in English instead of Malay. There are no issues  for us who has a good command of English. However, it may be tougher for those who have a weaker command of English.

These are some differences in the terms:

Displacement (sesaran)

Mass (jisim)

Weight (berat)

Force (daya)

Fraction (pecahan)

Differentiation (pembezaaan)

Function (literally translated to Fungsi)

Progression (janjang)

Sistem Percernaan (Digestion system)

Squared (kuasa dua)

To the power of (kuasa)

Binary (asas dua)

Hexadecimal (asas enam belas)

The terms may have been originated from other languages and yet most are already translated to English.

I am in the IT industry and I have also studied Bachelor of Computing. All the materials that I used during my studies are in English. Resources of books are simply better with this language. Here are some differences in terms:

Software (perisian)

Mouse (tetikus)

Keyboard (tetikus)

The net (jaringan)

Hacking (penghadaman)

Virus (virus)

Click (klik)

Password (kata laluan)

Information Technology (teknologi maklumat)

Hard disk (pemacu keras)

Compact disc CD: cakera padat

Download (muat turun)

Reformat (memformat)

IT resources such as programming (coding) examples, web design and others are widely available in our second language (English as Second Language). Wikipedia does have it in Bahasa Malaysia and other languages but it started off with English.

Banking and accounting industries also uses English most of the time. Resources are all in English. Meetings are conducted using it too. We can understand better if we have a good command in it.

Knowing English does not mean we are less Malaysians. In fact, Chinese in China including senior citizens took the opportunity to learn English when they hosted the Beijing Olympics 4 years ago. It means that we are adaptable and able to converse well in the language. It would be easier for us to communicate with tourists. It is used commercially, bricks and mortar world (physical shops) and online. Having a good command of English lets us communicate with people locally and globally. It is an advantage to us to know multiple languages. We are able to communicate with people anywhere and anytime. It does not make us less Malaysians. A lot of us can communicate with each other using Malay, English, Chinese dialects and Tamil. People from all walks of life are learning different languages now. More and more people are taking up Mandarin including people from US and UK. China is booming now.

Therefore, it is good to know English and other languages as well. It does not make us anything less. There should be no debate at all regarding this. We need to do something to improve our command of English, especially for those who do not have a strong background in the language.

Teaching in Science and Maths is one of the ways. It would be easier to transition to college and university in the future. More English lessons (grammar and others) are another way too. Reading English newspapers such as The Star, New Straits Times and The Sun and books is good as well.

In a nutshell, having a good command of English doesn't make us less of anything. It is essential for us to have a good command of English because it is one of the most widely used language in the world. It is also good for us to know more than 1 language as well. We may need to use it to communicate with other people while travelling or work if given the opportunities.

Cheers,

Rogerkoo