Language Museum Blog

I’ve previously posted about Rwanda’s education language switch from French to English, and now interestingly it appears that Malaysia is phasing out teaching of English in certain classes.

Despite the headline of this article, reading the full text reveals that Malaysian authorities are not fully getting rid of English language teaching, only in maths and science classes. There is a school of thought that says that foreign languages can be learned in conjunction with another subject, but this experiment seems to suggest otherwise, as this professor argues.

Education minister Muhyiddin Yassin announced last Wednesday that the English-medium education policy introduced across the country in 2003, known as PPSMI, would be phased out from 2012. He said that evidence gathered during a year-long assessment and public consultation had convinced the government that PPSMI wasn’t working, and that the dominance of English in the curriculum risked undermining students’ grasp of their first language.

“I wouldn’t say it’s a complete failure but it has not achieved the desired objectives that it was supposed to achieve,” Muhyiddin told a press conference.

“The government is convinced that science and maths need to be taught in a language that will be easily understood by students, which is Bahasa Malay in national schools, Mandarin in Chinese schools and Tamil in Tamil schools.”

Interestingly, this change has become a political issue, which highlights the importance of languages to all.

Recently I was lucky enough to visit the city-state of Singapore for a few days and soak up the culture and language (in amongst all the shopping).

A multicultural country made up of ethnic Malays, Indians and Chinese, along with quite a few ex-pats, Singapore has four official languages: Malay, Tamil, Mandarin and English. In addition to these, a number of dialects are spoken, including Hokkien, Hakka and Teochew.

What you’ll hear on the streets, however (and despite the government’s efforts with their Speak Good English Movement), is Singlish, a form of English mashed up with words borrowed from Tamil, Malay, Hokkien and other languages and dialects spoken by Singaporeans.

Primary based on British English, with some American English influence, Singlish is a creole that is the first language for many Singaporeans. Evolved gradually after the withdrawal of the British from this former colony, Singlish has its own grammatical forms and is spoken on a continuum ranging from an almost-pidgin to something very similar to British or American English. It even has its own dictionary!

The term you’ll probably hear most often though, is lah. Tacked on to the end of many sentences, lah is used like a full stop. Examples from the Coxford Dictionary:

1. “It was just like that, lah.”
2. “He was running, lah.”
3. “Donno, lah.”

Whilst this may not be “good English”, Singlish is definitely a great example of language helping form and shape culture and identity.