English Information

Thanks to the Malaysian education system, I went through primary and secondary schools learning all the subjects in Malay—or more precisely, Bahasa Malaysia. I have become so well versed in that language that it is as good as my first language. We did learn English as a single subject, but even that too was designed to suit the "local requirements".

A few years after I left school, I took up a distant-learning course from a university in the United Kingdom, leading to a degree in Estate Management. It was such a struggle because everything was in English. I had to refer to a dictionary all the time; I had to learn grammar all over again. It was a painful endeavour. And having to do it all on my own was not amusing! But it was worth it.

Today, most Government offices are communicating in Bahasa Malaysia. Therefore it helps if one has a good command of that language.

However the private sector is still overwhelmingly English. Most professionals ranging from engineers, architects, lawyers, property consultants etc. still use English to communicate with one another; and most documents are also written in English. Moreover, as we are expanding our dealings globally, the need for the English language is almost compulsory.

It took several decades for the many great thinkers in the Government, whom decide on policies in our education system, to realise that neglecting English was a big mistake. Now they have finally accepted that English is still very important. Hence a few years ago, English has been reintroduced as the medium of instruction in some subjects, notably Mathematics and Science. It is unclear if it will eventually be expanded to other subjects too.

Our local universities churn out thousands of graduates in wide-ranging disciplines annually. But many of them find it difficult to perform at work—unless of course if they work in one of those Government offices.

Several local Estate Management graduates have ended up in my company. Some of them are bright chaps. But no matter how brilliant they are, there is hardly any use if they don't know how to express themselves to the clients. They almost always fail to perform satisfactorily in their written work. Whenever there is a need to produce a complicated valuation report or feasibility study, they would have to struggle with the task.

And the problem is not restricted to fresh university graduates only. Even those holding high positions in the Government could use some improvements in their English proficiency. A friend sent me a video clip of an interesting interview involving the Malaysian Information Minister, Zainuddin Maidin. Check it out here.

I think it is obvious that some of us still have a lot of room to improve on our English command.