More air to breathe

Now, with most of the assignments completed, and currently no more assignments coming in (I'm expecting my Engineering Mathematics assignment to arrive soon), I could lead a more relaxing life in UTP. For the past week, my teammates and I had been very busy preparing for three English tutorial presentations, and upon presenting all the three presentations, we felt much relieved that all the waiting is now over.

I have intended to turn this blog into a photo-blog now that I have a digital camera, but I think that will have to wait a while, for I am quite lazy to do all the uploading of pictures and the uploading speed here isn't fast either (connection to the Internet is always a problem in UTP).

Lately, I had the inclination of composing a few Classical pieces. So far, I have almost completed one. It's rather fine, in my opinion, but I have yet to get feedback from other people. Composing pieces is something that can keep me occupied during my leisure time besides just playing computer games or sleeping.

The weather in UTP has been wonderful lately! Every evening is expected to pass with showers from the sky. Sometimes, the thunderstorm is so bad that we could feel the ground shaking beneath our feet. Still, the rain is much welcomed by most, if not all, of the university community. With the rain and strong winds, it is no longer searing hot outside and the climate remains cool. The only drawback is that after the rain, the paths would often become muddy and slippery.

I miss home-cook food! For the past two weeks I have not gone home because of all the assignments that needed much attention. I really intend to go home this week, and God willing, I shall be able to enjoy my weekend.

Although I miss home-cook food, I am rather thankful that a new stall is open in the USM Cafe. Previously, it was a Western food stall, but business was very poor (its management was very poor, too; it was as if they had no business skills!). Therefore, it closed down early this semester and was soon replaced by another Western food stall. Besides serving Western food, they also serve Oriental style dishes (the tenant of the stall is, of course, a Malay) which, to me, is rather good. It compensates for my eating spicy food for almost every day. Their management is much better than the previous tenant, and the chef speaks good English, as well as the cashier. Their standard of English is much better compared to that of the previous tenant.

Speaking of the English language, conversing in English has now become a norm in the university society. It is now natural that English be conversed between friends, especially between friends of different races and nationality. Although Bahasa Melayu is still rather widely spoken among Malaysian students (and also in formal functions, such as the public lecture by Tun Dr. Mahathir), English has been given quite a strong emphasis. Even the stall tenants prefer to use English to Bahasa Melayu. Often, when I request for something in Bahasa Melayu, the response is always in English.

Still, I am rather disappointed to see that generally, the standard of English among students are very poor. This is not to say that there are no students who are fluent and proficient in English, but the number of those who can converse well and fluently without grammatical errors is still miniscule. I often hear people mispronouncing words (which can be forgiven) and using wrong tenses or subject-verb agreements (which cannot be forgiven). It is rather surprising that these students can still secure a 1A for their SPM English. This simply proves one thing, that the grade obtained for our SPM English cannot be considered as a yardstick to gauge the standard of English. When too many students can secure a 1A for SPM English, it makes the 1A valueless because even students with a poor command of English can also secure a 1A! For all you know, the cut-off point to secure a 1A could be well below 70%!

It is not surprising that many foreign companies have criticised our standard of English through the media, for the grade that we obtained for our English does not reflect our real proficiency in English. I wouldn't be surprised if companies require their employees to possess a distinction in GCE-O English, for the grading for GCE-O English seems to be more reliable. It is found that students who score 1A for SPM English can still end up having 6C for GCE-O English (although the same paper is used for two separate assessments). What can I say now? When will it be the time when companies would require their employees to possess a good grade in GCE-O English or TOEFL if they want to have promotion? Truly, getting a 1A for SPM English doesn't reflect our true standard of English at all without the grading given for GCE-O.

The problem of not having a good proficiency in English is that students will not be able to understand lectures or lessons whereby the medium of instruction is English. If students do not buck up and improve their English, how are they going to ask questions properly and how are they going to answer their questions? We have foreign lecturers who know their mother tongue and English, not Bahasa Melayu. Malaysians generally cannot speak any of the mother tongues of our foreign lecturers and therefore the only language that can be understood by both parties is English. However, with a poor command of English, getting your question across to the lecturer would prove to be very difficult and vice versa.

The mentality that English is a white-man's language has build up a barrier between students and the language. The pride of upholding one's mother tongue is stopping them from conversing and improving the profiency of other languages. This is indeed inevitable but in a modern world, a high level of English is demanded and it is much better if one can speak more than three languages. Learning up an extra language doesn't mean that you are neglecting your own mother tongue. It never hurts to take up an extra language and master it.

I can speak in Bahasa Melayu, English and Mandarin quite well, and knowing how to converse in these three languages has indeed proven useful to me. I have no problems to converse with any Malay and Indonesian friends. I had no problems while communicating with the Europeans while I was travelling in Europe and I certainly had no problem conversing with the locals while travelling in China! Plus, with some knowledge of the Cantonese, Hakka, Teochew/Hokkien dialect, I could understand most of my friends' conversation (*laughs*). It is never a liability to be a multi-lingual person.

Many people refuse to improve their English because they think it is a difficult language. No language is easy to master, not even your mother tongue! I faced a lot of difficulties and still face a lot of difficulties trying to master my Mandarin (which I can speak well but couldn't write and read well) and it was just as equally difficult trying to be proficient in Bahasa Melayu and English. But, with frequent use of the language and exercises, nothing is too difficult.

I think that is enough from me. Comments are much welcomed!