I agree. The Filipino people have a good command of English, yet the country remains poor and backward. Japan, Taiwan, South Korea and now China have all advanced economically and technologically in the past 50 years without using English as a tool for learning science and mathematics.
The Japanese are very good at translating English and other foreign language books and publications into Japanese. They can do it very fast and efficiently too. This is because the persons doing the translation are actually themselves the top-notch experts in the field of knowledge. You would be amazed at how many foreign technical and scientific journals they have translated into their language every year.

TO all LKS readers…please speak BM when dealing with government department..they will treat u better…There is one incident when a friend of mine losing his I.C..he spoke to the officer in English..Guess what..he told my friend.. INI MALAYSIA la..kenapa lu cakap Bahasa inggeris..u pikir ini US ka??…lmao..and the friend of mine was referred to many guys before getting the I.C done….and honestly i do realize whenever i deal with malay in govt department, i speak BM and everything goes smoothy…

in the 60′ & 70′s , we learn how to speak Mat Salleh.

since 80′s till now, UMNO teaches Mat Rempit.

try speaking english to a Mat Salleh and a Mat Rempit!!!

you’ll see the difference that’s for sure.

If there is any problem, it is this: Malaysia as a whole is fast emerging as a nation without mastering a single language good enough for our intellectual and thinking pursuit.

The above statement certainly applies to many here who criticise with their incoherent and horrendous English.

These people move in different circles from the rural Malays, and it is in their interests to keep the standards low. If the rural Malays start reading the Wall Street Journal or the Herald Tribune, then UMNO would really be in trouble !

Mostly we believe taking the easy way – to get rich from tolls and rent from others who toiled.

It brings to sharp focus the national problem : it is not good to be in the grip of a collective fantasy — fuelled by hubris – that sending someone to space as a cosmic tourist/visitor, euphemistically touted as “astronaut” is a symbol of the nation having advanced. It has not even by an iota.

This is exactly what TDM then wanted to do – riveting the collective attention to the tallest twin towers, grandest airport so that third world mentality could admire, take vicarious pride in these ‘achievements’ and be distracted and detracted from pursuing a first world mentality, the very prerequisite for the elite and the privileged to continue maintaining power and engaging in self aggrandizement at the expense of the nation’s abundant wealth.

To advance, one has to be in grip with reality.

Reality is not having the easiest course; it is not bull shitting; it is not depending on hand out or affirmative policies because no one owes you a living and you have to fend for yourself.

Reality is the pursuit of excellence in whatever the person, the group or the nation does : not just in English to keep up with the de facto global language so important for trade, learning and technology for advancement and self betterment but in every field of human endeavour one or the nation is engaged upon, whether education, development of IT and other technologies, commerce and trade.

And excellence is to Meritocracy like horse to cart, glove to hand, going hand in hand. What we witness is an abandonment of Meritocracy – and with it, the Culture of excellence – in embrace of Mediocrity, or even worse.

Reality is that which appeals to higher elements of human nature – the willingness to engage in strenuous exertion to attain excellence for a good personal or collective cause.

It is not collecting rent or toll from the toils of others under hegemony.

Hubris and false pride can neither compensate the lack of achievement not substitute deserved pride based on achievement and the good that comes from it. It never will.

The nation will not progress, nay it will regress, if we persist in rejecting meritocracy for mediocrity and compensating the resultant lack of achievement by maintaining an illusion of false hubris and pride to reassure all is well.

The Japanese people in general has a poor command of English. But this did not stop them from become a world power.

So it’s really not the language.

What can be done to our education system to arrest these shortcomings .

Very simple . Change the sword wielding Education Minister to a pen wielding Education Minister.

Remember the saying : the pen is mightier than the sword.

Secondly, the present BN government need to be reminded , if they cannot do the job, please give way to others who can do it and better. When they can’t do the job doesn’t meant that others also cannot do the job. There are many Malaysians out there who are more capable then those Ministers.

Many Chinese schools use Chinese option teachers to teach Malay and English. They resort to the direct translation method which they think is easier and more effective. This method of teaching actually restricts the progress of the children making them incompetent during their working life. They cannot express themselves well orally as well as in writing.

I have been teaching English for 28 years. I can’t change what I see as a weak and outdated method. Everything is so politicised.

MOE needs better advisers in the planning and not give in to politics. Everytime they want to make a change for the better, they meet with opposition from the left and right.

Imagine a foreigner with interest in Malaysia as their second home goes through this material, poof there goes our investors and tourist too.

Please do something to correct the situation in the august house, but looking at the manner English is used in the parliment, I think it is going to be a tough job for anyone.

The shameful lacking in English is water off a duck’s back to UMNO and the ultra Tuans. To them, English is still referred to as “cakap orang putih”.

Malay is a beautiful language, but it is a million light years when it comes to being a universal language. As long as these mono-lingual UMNOputras feed the fears of a certain race that their beautiful language will be obsolete if we embrace English, we will continue to travel backward in time.

But there is hope. We have an MP from Pasir Salak who prides himself in his English ability by using choice phrases like “bl**dy b*****d”. Surely hearing these word from this amoeba’s neanderthal mouth, we see some semblance of hope for the English language in Melayu-sia.

It is really thick skinned of them, and when they will ever learn?

Even graduates from malaysian universities attending interviews for jobs in international companies can even speak very elementary English what more writing in correct English?

But these ‘products’ do not feel the shame at all.

That is the typical culture of products of malaysian education system.