Our third child Ayra (pictured with her elder sister above), will be turning three later this month. This means next year would be her first year of school. So it’s that time of the year where the wife and I starts discussing which school to send her to.
The first thing that came up to my mind was, we need the school to get her her to talk more in English. I find that Ayra at three years old can’t speak English as well as I’d like her to. Probably because the current nursery she’s in now primarily are Malay language centric. Wife on the other hand thinks that Ayra can communicate well enough in Malay and that she wants Ayra to continue to converse in Malay.
She added that both Alia and Danial, Ayra’s elder siblings, often have to ask us what this Malay word or that Malay word means and often, we have to translate these words from Malay to English for them to understand. I find that this is good as they are leaning to have English as the first Language and Malay being second. They usually speak in English between the two of them and with me. While with their mother, they would speak in Malay since that how the wife wants it.
Just like many of us who wants PPSMI, I believe English to be the current language of business, the language of the world, and the language of knowledge. Most of the big businesses today communicate in English, travelling around the world is made easier when one can speak English and there are millions of book in English that we can read and learn from.
Now, let’s not get into this conversation where people in Japan with millions in business dollars doesn’t speak much English. Or English doesn’t do shit when travelling to Korea and lastly, there are also millions of books in other language and the mother of all books that is the Quran is not in English.
It’s obvious that other languages have their place place as well and I’m not challenging that. So let’s not go there. The point on my part is, would I rather have my kids be better and more comfortable in English than in Malay or do I want them to be better and comfortable in Malay more instead. Why not both?
Why am I having this thought now? Why didn’t I have this thought back then when Alia or Danial was turning three years old? Thinking about it, it’s probably due to the recent trend in social media I saw. Folks were questioning the “Malay-ness” of those who express their thoughts on social media in English. It basically revolves around how these people didn’t uphold the standard of Malay Language as the official language, how much they didn’t appreciate the nuances or the beauty of the Malay Language, There are also those folks who shame these English speaking Malays. Example, these folks are Mat Saleh wannabe or Mat Saleh celup, acah-acah foreigner. The list goes on and on.
Lot’s of people out there shaming folks who speak or write or even listen to songs in English. An adult can handle these, but for small kids, it’s probably a little harder. By a little I mean a lot. And it’s getting ridiculous. Really really ridiculous. Heck, I saw someone cursing on social media, and in the replies, I saw folks shaming the lady for cursing in English. Just how screwed up is that. And here I thought I’ll see people replying to her to denounce the cursing but instead cursing is okay, just curse in Malay lah, not English please. “Kena hormati bahasa ibunda”. It’s not our “Budaya” to curse in English. “Mana kemelayuan kau mat salleh celup?” It’s getting really ridiculous.
Staring in the the future, I can’t wait till China become the superpower in both economy, culture and probably military. By that time, the language of the world will be Mandarin. and I can’t wait to see the face of the same folks when they see lots of Malay folks starts tweeting, talking and cursing in Mandarin. If you think these folks are allergic to English, think again, they are far more allergic to the Chinese, not just the language but everything Chinese.
Be it mother tongue or foreign tongue, “pi mai, pi mai, tongue tu jugak”.
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