Comments on: Speaking English in workplace is weird, says Malaysian minister

By: Brian Barker

Brian Barker — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 09:55:29 +0000

I think that the whole world needs a modern international language, as well :)

My vote goes to the planned language, Esperanto. I say this as a native English speaker!

Your readers may be interested in the following video which can be seen at http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=_YHALnLV9XU Professor Piron was a translator for the United Nations in Geneva

A glimpse of the Esperanto language can be seen at http://www.lernu.net

By: Jack

Jack — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 01:28:42 +0000

Malaysia is endowed with wealth of resources,
be it natural or manpower talent which is made up from different
races. Its because the nation is led by self serving inward
looking, nationalistic leaders like him that prevented the
them from progressing to the status they should be.
Language is but a tool of communication.
If people can be understood by any language the use,
why restrict it ?
Besides, Malay is not an international language. Perhaps they
can communcate among themselves with Brunei and Indonesia, which
actually use a different form of Malay, and nowhere else.
The next international language could be Mandarin, after English’
and Spanish

By: DM

DM — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:44:46 +0000

Malay is just a language, albeit a national language of Malaysia. But it cannot be the identity nor the culture of Malaysia.

The identity of Malaysia is not that of a Malay, even though the Malays form the majority. The identity of Malaysia is that of a multi-racial society.

Therefore, the culture of Malaysia is also multi-racial, as well as multi-religious, and multi-lingual.

Over and above culture and identity, and the National Language which is Bahasa Malaysia (Malay), there has been and still is a need for English to be used for commercial, technological and scientific purposes. These are all the things to be proud of also.

Why restrict oneself to only the pride of using a National Language which has a very limited vocabulary and narrow usage in the world. Therefore, it is quite obvious that either the Deputy Education Minister of Malaysia failed to think through the whole issue of pride or he has some ulterior motives behind his utterances. (I think he is trying to draw attention to himself, by playing the race card, for some reasons only he alone knows.)

(In Singapore, he would have to be charged for sedition?)

By: chakupmelayukepalabhutto

chakupmelayukepalabhutto — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:29:10 +0000

what is wron with this minister?
mathatail want you all melayu farmers to go international inc…you all chakup mat sini matsalleh matsalah as well?
api ini lu chakap salh siapa billy lu protong saga?
lu bodoh or kayu…
puki korek soil lark………………

By: What's wrong with English?

What's wrong with English? — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:37:25 +0000

Malaysia’s deputy education minister has said that speaking English in the workplace is “weird” and harmful to the nation’s culture and identity, a report said Wednesday.

Mohd Puad Zarkashi said employees in the private sector used English 99 percent of the time and should switch to Bahasa Malaysia in order to show pride in the national language, the New Straits Times reported.

http://malaysia-today.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=28592:malaysian-minister-says-english-at-work-weird&catid=19:newscommentaries&Itemid=100131

By: Mr. E

Mr. E — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:18:55 +0000

Whats wrong with speaking in english in the workplace? Not withstanding random chit-chat with colleagues, i can easily communicate with everyone in the office whatever their background and also with the team in hong kong or in japan. Its just the language of our business. You don’t see documents in chinese characters or tamil right? All this will do is isolate yourselves and put up walls around yourself.

By: Pollutants

Pollutants — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:21:26 +0000

If speaking English in the office means polluting our own culture and identity, then all Singaporeans who speak English, especially all our Ministries and Statutory Boards, (including myself who is typing this post in English), but refused to speak our National Language (which is Bahasa Kebangsaan, which is Malay), are guilty of polluting our culture and identity.

By: see Many Zeroes so happy

see Many Zeroes so happy — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:29:56 +0000

If you have Money and well connected, never mind that you wear slippers and singlets to orchard road. You are Elite. You are 1st class. You are creme dela creme. Pretty girls will smile and make friends with you. Everyone will be nicer to you.

You don’t need English to be High Class.
This is a childish thinking meant for those who are not worldly.
Meant for the naive or less educated if not low IQ.

By: You sure or NOT

You sure or NOT — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 12:55:44 +0000

Happens in Sg also. Worst is the guy speaking English is bad…. They think speaking English means higher class. Come on man…. I speak Mandarin to Chinese if I can.