TOO often I see depressing evidence that the standard of English being spoken in Malaysia is deteriorating ever further and quicker. It has of course been decades since the august halls of our Parliament switched to Malay (the old Hansards contain beautiful elucidations of policy and principle in perfect English), but all across Malaysian officialdom, English is suffering both as a result of explicit language policies, as well as indirectly because of the impact of policy decisions in other areas. Indeed, perhaps the most important institution in this country that has the ability and responsibility to transmit the speaking of good English to the next generation is failing to do so.
I often have occasion to address Malaysian students across the country: from government secondary schools to private international campuses, public universities and private colleges. And on many occasions when I try to engage with students – for example, about what they think it means to be a citizen, their understanding of the constitution or the role of national institutions, it is not just the content of their knowledge that is of concern, but also the way they express themselves. In some cases, there is an unwillingness to speak at all, let alone in English. The practice and virtues of confident public speaking have not been sufficiently inculcated.
An exception must be made for an active public speaking community in some schools that manifests in competitive tournaments that I’ve had the pleasure of witnessing: and where Malaysians perform well internationally. But it seems far too much like a particular extracurricular activity – like playing pétanque or the oboe – rather than a general skill that everyone should have.
This is a deficiency that can persist throughout the entire educational journey: and often, racial and religious polarisation can make that journey even more fractious and jeopardise economic opportunities. Far too many corporate leaders say they have to intensely train fresh graduates in terms of speaking English and interacting with people from different backgrounds. We also have to contend with competition from different methods of communication that renders proper sentence construction and enunciation irrelevant, as evidenced in chat apps and social media.
Having said that, Malaysian English does have many efficiencies, such as abbreviations including ‘x’ to negate something, and spellings like ‘oredi’ and ‘dun haf’ that convey additional meanings. Asking ‘u free?’, ‘got ah?’, and ‘where he go?’ are far briefer than their proper equivalents. Our patois is fertile for jokes too, like the one about Malaysians studying law because they “study lor”.
But beyond vocabulary and grammar, language is also about behaviour. The origins of words are intrinsically tied to culture and history, and English has the advantage of deriving so many words from both a Germanic and Latin heritage, resulting in a huge number of synonyms. In Malay, too some etymologies are very insightful: clearly in ancient times we didn’t reverse vehicles thus the need to create ‘gostan’ from ‘go astern’, and even place names have unexpected stories: Mantin, near Seremban, was where to ‘mine tin’. However, one wonders about the import of some words like ‘globalisasi’ where logical root words (ie ‘dunia’) already exist.
The link between language and culture has societal implications too: an older generation points out that when we communicated properly (in Malay as well as English), we were also more tolerant, open-minded and optimistic. A political metaphor is provided by comparing the standard of English spoken – and the speaker’s own politics – at the United Nations from Tun Dr Ismail 60 years ago and one of his successors more recently. Our political and social regression is not, of course, caused by speaking worse English: but one of the root causes for both are similar, stemming from the personal agendas of politicians distorting the policymaking process.
Shamefully, in some classrooms in Malaysia today, students make fun of their peers who speak English, precisely because they see it as an attempt to appear superior or elitist. In some parts of the country it will require a new mindset to emerge before English is celebrated as a language to promote understanding and human achievement. The reality is that in this country, the issue of teaching English, and teaching in English, is deeply political.
As much as speaking English is important for economic, scientific and diplomatic reasons, it is even more important that we as Malaysians speak, in whatever language, of culture once again – with the same qualities of sopan and adat that early English-speaking travellers first observed of Malay-speakers – and for such qualities to be expressed throughout our institutions, and to be exhibited consistently by our leaders.
This is an abridgement of the Luncheon Talk for the English-Speaking Union of Malaysia.