Imposing English in Malaysia
Apparently there's growing resentment in Malaysia over language policy in the country's schools. For the past six years, science and math courses have been taught in English instead of Malay, even in districts where neither the students nor instructors are fluent.
As a school spokesperson says: “We know that the world is becoming smaller and smaller as we move to a globalized environment. We need to speak in some common language, and why not English?”
It's easy to see why educators want to push English: it's where the international jobs are, and the anglosphere can't be expected to learn Malay. This “law of the jungle” approach to solving the language problem may be the only realistic option in Malaysia, but students there face enormous and disproportionate obstacles as a result. Not only are they forced to leap unnecessary hurdles to get even a basic education, but for most, the years spent struggling with English will result in—at best—a poor command of someone else's irregular and idiomatic native tongue. (For example, note how at least one of the English speakers in the video requires subtitles to be understood…)
We don't hear much about the language problem here in the U.S., but then, it's easy to forget a problem when one doesn't have to pay the price. How would most Americans react, for example, if tomorrow it were decreed that all of our Math and Science classes be taught in Spanish?
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Comments
Unbelievable!
Well, now my stomach is turning!
This is a hideous idea. I would be furious if I were a student here in America and was suddenly forced to learn math and science in Indonesian or Russian or or Chinese or any other foreign language. Those poor kids are going to have a terrible time.
I also did not understand one word that the lady teacher was speaking in what was supposed to be English. This is not the way to learn English. That means all the kids would talk just like she does and would, therefore, not be understood anyway.
English is not the answer to the question of speaking some "common language." Maybe English could be taught as a subject by itself, but not for trying to teach the kids basic school subjects! I think it makes more sense to teach children basic school subjects in their native language, and then perhaps add English or another language as a subject by itself. I am all for those folks demonstrating in Malaysia against this stupid idea.
Of course, Esperanto would be a great choice as a "common language," but not enough people in the world are aware of how great and magical this language can be, and it seems to me that the human race has a long history of making things harder than they need to be.
September 16, 2009 by pauswa, 2 years 20 weeks ago
Update: Malaysian government rescinds English-only rule!
Thanks for the comment, pauswa. Due to the backlash, it turns out that the Malaysian government finally rescinded the English-only requirement in July after they found that grades in science and math suffered as a result.
Malaysian policymakers—like many others around the world—are in a difficult spot. Until the privileged nations adopt a simple international auxiliary language, everyone else will have to cater to them. Malaysian scientists and mathematicians who don't speak English are necessarily going to be at a disadvantage if they want to participate in international circles.
Given this unfortunate reality, the desire to teach English is certainly understandable. Nevertheless, it seems clear that forcing students to learn English as a prerequisite to understanding their science and math classes isn't a very good way to make them internationally competitive!
Here are a few English-language articles about the switch back to Bahasa Malay, Tamil, and Chinese in Malaysian schools:
September 16, 2009 by hoss, 2 years 20 weeks ago
Angla Privilegio
Dankon por la atentigo. Por angla-parolantoj, estas la sama fenomeno kiel "White Privilege". Legu, ekzemple, la konata eseo White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack de Peggy McIntosh kaj pripensu la liston de lingva starpunkto. Ne ĉiuj taŭgas, sed ja multaj. La 16a fakte parolas rekte pri lingvo: "Mi povas resti tute senscia pri la lingvoj kaj kutimoj de la ceteraj homoj sen suferi ajna sekvo pro tio".
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Steven BREWER
March 28, 2009 by limako, 2 years 44 weeks ago
A clarification
Thanks for the link, Steven. I hadn't seen McIntosh's essay before, and there are indeed lots of parallels between racial inequality and language inequality. As the author writes, privilege is typically invisible to those who enjoy it, often resulting in widely conflicting attitudes between privileged and non-privileged groups.
When discussing English privilege, however (or Mandarin privilege, Spanish privilege, etc.) there's always the danger of making members of a privileged group feel blamed for something they haven't done, and that's a message I fear one might take away from McIntosh's otherwise wonderful essay—especially given the implication that members of privileged groups should be expected to “give up” something.
Just to be clear, the point of my post was not to argue that native English speakers are obligated to give up anything. I feel that blame not only drives otherwise well-intentioned people away from the discussion, but in this case it's also unnecessary. After all, this isn't a zero-sum game. Yes, it does take effort to learn an auxlang, but that effort yields tremendous benefits for speakers of both minority and majority languages. Instead of thinking about learning a language as “giving up” something, perhaps we should think of it as an investment that has both personal and collective benefits.
March 31, 2009 by hoss, 2 years 44 weeks ago
Agree
I agree entirely. I wasn't trying to make anyone feel blamed. I was mainly reacting to your last sentence, about how people might feel if their children's classes were taught in an imposed foreign language. I think that, for speakers of English, the unreality of that hypothetical situation makes it difficult to appreciate the reality of it happening to others. Anytime that you're a member of the majority or dominant group, it becomes difficult to identify with the issues of the minority. I just wanted to highlight that and provide the general case.
I worry sometimes about promoting Esperanto for similar reasons. As privileged English-speaker, I have the freedom to devote my time and energy to learning Esperanto, a language that contributes little to my economic circumstances, career, or prestige. (Except in the rarified air of Esperantujo, of course.) But for people who speak minority languages -- for whom learning one of the dominant languages is an economic and social priority -- learning Esperanto may be a more difficult choice.
Maybe that should be our new slogan: "You already know English, so why not learn Esperanto?" Or maybe "Esperanto: the other international language". Or "Esperanto: the original International Language."
Thanks for bringing up an interesting topic.
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Steven BREWER
March 31, 2009 by limako, 2 years 44 weeks ago