English, Balancing Between Linguistic Needs and Heritage Preservation

"Do you speak english?" That is the must question when you go somewhere outside your country. Elsewhere than your own homeland, if you want to survive, you need English.

English is undeniably the most important language nowadays. However, personally, i do not see it as a pride. I see it just as a language that i manipulate to survive in my career and my oversea travels. My pride is Malay culture and heritage. Somehow, for some peoples, they take English more than just a language, they can be proud of it to the extent of the unability to speak English is seen by them as a shame. The bad news is that many of them are still speaking broken English and it sounds just not too English unluckily. 

In Malaysia, English is still an issue. The teachings of science and mathematic in English is strongly opposed by a group of radical Malay savants. The idea of language shifting in science and mathematic teachings at school was born from the brainchild of former Malaysian PM, Dr Mahathir Mohammad. His reason behind this shifting is to ensure that Malaysians can perform better in scientific domain as we are heading to our goal Wawasan 2020. I, eventhough, being proud of my malay culture, don't see this new approach as a threat to my Malay language. It is so pragmatic for producing more competitve malaysian in science and technology field. 

Do you see what i'm trying to tell. In Malaysia, there are 2 groups concerning this linguistic problem. The first one is English fan club, the killer of national language, national identity. The second group is Extreme Malay, the destroyer of national dream. For me, for those Malaysians who still can think relevantly and logically, let's place us in the middle. 

IN THIS ERA, IT IS IMPORTANT FOR US TO BE CONSERVATIVE AND ENGLISH PROFICIENT AT THE SAME TIME.THIS IS THE ONLY WAY TO KEEP OURSELF IN LINE WITH GLOBAL COMPETITIVITY WHILE PRESERVING OUR OLD HERITAGE.

If linguistic shifting in science and mathematic is a big issue, why not we change the approach?One of the  suggestions that i can give is THROUGH TOURISM. Why not if our government provides a subsidy for our students to benefit cheaper flight tickets to English spoken countries such as UK, Australia or why not Hong Kong. From my experience, the best way to master a language is to be in the country of the language itself.   

And you, what's your idea?

Thanks for your time and i hope you enjoy reading my writing.

Originally, Honestly and Respectfully written by PIDIN

Picking Hanging Fruits, My Personal Opinion on Malaysian R&D Strategy

Imagine we have two boys under a fruitful mango tree, towering so high. that even the lowest mangoes are untouchable for them.

The first boy is thinking of an instant solution. He tries to pick the lowest ripe mangoes by jumping and grabbing them with his hand. It doesn't work and he gives up. Then he calls his brother who is high enough for help and finally he does it and pass the mangoes to his little brother.

The second boy thinks deeper.After an hour, he finds the idea. He sees a bamboo bush not far from the tree and makes a pole and ladder from bamboo. The pole is for picking the low hanging mangoes and  he uses the ladder to climb up the tree for picking higher ones.By using his own-made instruments, he picks more ripe mangoes than the first boy.

Few days later, both boys come back to pick ripe mangoes again. The first boy's brother is at home. So,the first boy is helpless. While the second boy uses his instruments to pick the ripe mangoes. He picks unripe mangoes as well because he find a new way to ripe them fastly.Finally, to satisfy himself, the first boy has no choice, and borrows the second boy's instruments.

Well,this situation is comparable to today's R&D strategy and roadmapping. There are countries, known for their honorable reputation in R&D activity since centuries while some are progressing and some others are still searching the right direction.

Personnally, i see Malaysia as the first boy,IN GENERAL SENSE.We are clear about our needs and ambition but our strategy to arrive to the wished innovation is needing a lot of improvement If i can list down the flaws in our R&D strategy, i would say : First, instant solution oriented, we need to look farther and abe ble to provide a longer time span if want to create advanced technologies. Second,misconception of our methodology in structuring and levelling our action research plan. Third, lack of experts in critical domains, well problem of human ressource quality.

Some of our research projects are eye-openers for researchers from countries, advanced in technology, but unluckily many were driven to failure by the factors mentioned earlier, costing billions ringgit of lost to our nation. When it happens, we will turn back to European,Russian, Japenese and American to buy their technologies.

Being on the right track, the next thing that we need is the right STRATEGY.

Originally, Honestly and Respectfully written by MFJ