Forthnights

Mind your language!

Once again it’s festive season here in Malaysia. We Malaysians truly are a laid back lot. How not to be when every other month, there is just something to celebrate, and another excuse for a discount sale all around. There’s always Hary Raya Aidiflitri, Deepavali, Chinese New year, Christmas, Thaipusan, Christmas, Wesak Day, Esther, the new year, independence day, Agung’s birthday, Sultans birthday, Labour day, and that’s not even counting the festivities in east Malaysia. Packing all of that into a year, and you see why we are just such a laid back lot. We celebrate everything, from Hari Raya to Deepavali…Well, we may not actually celebrate it per se, but we do get an off day for it.

We are a lucky lot. We don’t have earth quakes, we don’t have volcanoes, tornadoes or Cyclons. We have water all year round (or at least we are supposed to) and the only flash floods and haze we ever get are all man made. So lucky and relaxed are we that we often take to squabbling about all sorts of petty matters. Well, petty to some at least. So, let’s dive into some petty politics here for the first time.

When our new federal capital Putrajaya was built, all the road names were in English. There was this precinct, that precinct, this avenue, that boulevard. When I visited Putrajaya a few years ago, I thought it was a nice touch. To give it English names sort of made the place feel more international, open to people from all lands. But some time last year, someone (or some committee) decided to change all the names to Malay names. Now they are all called Persiaran perdana this, jalan that… This sparked off a debate within the country about why the roads where renamed. Those doing the renaming said it was to strengthen the use of our national language. I guess they figured if the French could do it, so could they. But I bet the French speak better English than we do anyway! Till now, I’m not even sure if it is an issue worth debating about. Some would say a rose is a rose by any other name. But others beg to differ. To them, a name carries a lot of significance; hence the language used to name it is significant. Just ask any Chinese, and you’ll know just how much though was put into their Chinese name. Every word means something. So they want all our street names in Malay.. fair enough.. it’s a moot point anyway, of little consequence, except to torture foreign tourist visiting our country.

To emphasize our national language is nothing wrong. But the move came at time when our government is trying to encourage and improve our usage of English. Even our SPM examinations have incorporated the use of English. Is this not an obvious move to foster the use of English? To those unacquainted, our state of English literacy was not always this pathetic (yes, pathetic). Back in the 1960’s (though I wasn’t even born then), many people could speak English. My parents both went to English type schools. Government offices used English, all thanks to being colonized by the British for so many years. But there was a drive back then to foster the use of our national language. Slowly but surely, our usage of English lessened, and we used more and more ‘Bahasa Malaysia’. The purpose was to foster unity among the races. To give us some common platform through our national language. To an extent, it worked. Most Malaysians today can read, write and speak Malay, regardless of ethnicity. But it all came at the cost of our English.

The English we use today is so full of ‘lah’ and ‘lor’s which are quite charming and funny at times, especially when just talking among Malaysians. But sadly, our English fails us whenever we are face with the intimidating task of speaking to westerners or ‘ang mor’ as we call them. Realizing that this language problem could hinder our national progress, the government has taken steps to try to reverse this trend. But you cant help but wonder if another change is possible; many Malays not comfortable with English refuse to reply or speak the language. I once saw a cashier continue speaking in Malay even though the poor foreigner couldn’t understand a word she was saying. The lady had to turn to the person behind her to ask for assistance. That person kindly translated what the cashier said and the foreigner paid up, but leaving the place exasperated. It is this kind of stubborn attitude that will be hard to change. Worse of all, they now have a solid reason to not change, that we should be proud of our national language. To be fair, this problem exists regardless of ethnicity. Everyone refuses change, especially from thing they are not familiar with. But there are also more enlightened people who take their own initiatives to improve. I have 2 friends who asked me to speak to them only in English no matter how much they suffer.

In some ways, our society is also divided into those who speak English and those who don’t. Those who speak English think they are a class above the rest. They think because they speak English, they are somehow better than the rest non speakers. Then there are those who don’t speak who feel that the speakers are an arrogant bunch of S.O.Bs.. *ahem.. mind my language, im just quoting a friend.* I know because I was once called an arrogant guy for only speaking in English. The Malays will say we should use or national language, the Chinese would say “You are a Chinese but you cant speak your own language? You should be ashamed.” The Indians… well… actually, many Indians are fluent in English, and can speak their native tongues too. There are also some that just become awed by you the minute they know you speak English. Since when did merely speaking English become something to be awed at? Has our English become THAT bad?

The fact is, we don’t use English enough. The national language of Singapore is also Malay, but everyone uses English or Mandarin. Here, I strongly suspect the only times we use English is during English class. What more, our people don’t read. We read like 2 pages per year on average, and the only English we are exposed to is the one on TV, and we all know just how good that is. But the real tell-tale sign of what a conundrum we face is when our English teachers can’t speak proper English. And trust me, it has happened. How do you expect us to walk the right path when those lighting our way have lost theirs? I strongly believe that our language, manner of speaking and choice of words reflect on what we honestly are. You cant pretend to be something else, because your language will always betray you. Anyone who has watched “My Fair Lady” with Audrey Hepburn will know what I mean. That being said, the choice of language for our signboards is a small matter. But let no one use the seemingly noble gesture of national pride to hide their own self denial, ignorance or worse, arrogance. Or else, next time the issue crops up again, we might use Malay not by choice but because we don’t know any other language well enough.

posted by Compulsive Blogger @ 8:41 pm Comments: 1