Lee (centre, left) hands a cheque to SM Sains Miri principal Mohd Dzul Badzli witnessed by participants of the fest.
MIRI: Students are encouraged to take up foreign language lessons as acquiring a foreign language would place them in better position in the job market.
Assistant Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture Datuk Lee Kim Shin said that although Malaysians are well-known as multi-language speakers for being able to converse in Bahasa Malaysia, English and even Mandarin besides their mother tongue, it is never too much to learn other country’s language.
“In fact, if you look around, there are actually a lot of job opportunities for those who can speak foreign language. Japanese, Spanish and even French are very popular languages that have been taken up by Malaysians as their second or third language, in their hope to land a good job when they enter the real job market,” he said when officiating at the Sarawak Bon Fest at a local resort here yesterday.
Lee noted that SM Sains Miri is offering multi-language courses to its students and organising events such as the Sarawak Bon Fest could help a lot in boosting the confidence of their students.
“It is never easy when it comes to learning something new, but I strongly believe that frequent practice would help a lot in acquiring and mastering a foreign language.
“Of course, for those who could successfully master it, it would be great to see them succeed in their future undertaking,” said Lee.
Also present were SM Sains Miri principal Mohd Dzul Badzli Abdullah, Japanese teacher Nozomi Morita and representatives from the Japanese Embassy in Kota Kinabalu.
The two-day event comprises workshops in Aikido, Japanese calligraphy, Yukata-wearing lesson, Shell charm, Furoshiki or Japanese fabric wrapping, Udon making, Hanko or stamp-making lesson, among others.
The event, organised by SM Sains Miri was supported by the Ministry of Education Malaysia and Japan Foundation in Kuala Lumpur.
More than 100 students from nine selected schools in Sarawak, Sabah and Peninsular Malaysia took part in the event.
At the function, Lee presented a government grant of RM5,000 to SM Sains Miri to help finance the school’s activities.