What’s wrong with our English?

Actually I’m quite satisfied with Malaysian’s English proficiency. We have many elderly that could speak well English because of colonial education system. We may say that nowadays the youth could not speak English well, but we are evaluating them using native speakers’ scale.

We are not native speaker of English, but why can’t the Malaysian tolerate with our less-perfect English? It may because half of Malaysian using English as their education medium. So, they treat themselves and other half of Malaysian as English native speaker. So, they grade those who could not speak and write well as low proficient in English.

Yeah, maybe indeed we don’t speak and write good English, (indeed good is not enough, because I once had a teacher saying that the language used in local press were dull) but we are progressing, in our small way. As we look at most of the Japanese, they do not speak well in English (maybe they write well, but who knows?), but they do not feel ashamed of themselves. They employ, trust and rely on interpreters. They do not grade themselves as low proficiency in speaking English. They also take pride in their own national language, unlike us.

But you know how Malaysians treat fellow Malaysians if they found out that the Malaysian could not speak well in English? They look down on him (immediately!). They think him is uneducated. He is lazy, not dedicate to his work (if they met this person in business meeting). This is all negative thinking most of our Malaysians will have if they met a Malaysian that could not speak well in English.

How pathetic we are!