TEXTCUBE
Musings on DJZ persistence of retaining mandarin as the primary medium to teach science and mathematics for Chinese school
WTF? Dong Jiao Zong (however u ever learned how to pronounce that) wants Science and Maths to be taught in Chinese in Chinese Primary School? WTF. WTF. WTF.
WHY ON EARTH?! Are you people nuts? It took the government such a hard time making English the medium of instruction for Science and Maths in schools and now you want to revert the policy? And your argument is to protect Chinese culture?
Hello, being in a Chinese environment with Chinese subjects is not good enough to learn Chinese eh? Not all Chinese kids are good in English too ok. I see so many students from Chinese schools graduating with poor speaking and writing skills. Do we want our Chinese kids to be further disadvantaged in this globalised world?
Anyway, this is a note the Education Minister. PLEASE KEEP THE CURRENT POLICY OF TEACHING SCIENCE AND MATHS IN ENGLISH. I was the last batch of students to be taugh in Malay and I despised that fact. I went on to pursue my A-level in Singapore where everything was taught in English. Luckily for me, I use English at home and I did not have to struggle much in Singapore with language. But for many others I bet learning everything in English was tough. So please keep the current policy for our future generation’s benefit.
No personal grudges or offense. Just some thoughts upon reading his remarks.
Language is the roads to understanding one's culture. It is especiall important if the one you are gonna master is one that you are born to. Like say, if you are born a French, you are responsible of knowing your own history, your own culture and of course your own language. The same goes for Japanese, Italians, Korean and it includes Chinese.
I am not stressing on superiority of one over another but it is very important to comprehend and understand your own culture and your own language. What's good of you if you are superb in the command of English language but failed to utter a gramatically correct sentence in your own mother toungue (I am referring it as cultural terms, not literal one) Its like as an engineer, you know how to fix a spacecraft but failed when you are asked to change the pipe at your own home. Language is the base of one's culture.
Throw aside of culture, language and identity, in this fast revolving world, how long you'd think English will last? U.N ranked mandarin as the 2nd most important language in the world (not most widely used, but most important financially and economically), many people, when considering a second language, mandarin is their top choice. If I am not mistaken, 3 years ago, Ecuador (or some South American country) make mandarin subject a compulsory for all students.
While the world is moving towards a globalized one, Malaysia, is stepping back. Yes, I agree that English is important when it come to Science and Mathematics as it is still the world most important language, but for how long?
Moreover, take a look at Japan, Korea, France and Germany, their language of conduct is not English, it is their own language, one they are born with. And aren't they equally great in strength in terms of scientific advances?
Learning Science in language other than English is a bad decision, I would agree on that. But one must also consider, what language is used in replace of English. Although I hate to say, but teaching science and mathematics in Malay is NOT the way of doing it. Its merely a minor language spoken by what? Like 2 countries? (I am excluding Indonesian language cuz its almost an alien language to us to comprehend) Its a far more minor and less competent language than other language.
But replacing it with mandarin, thats another case we have to consider. With growing strength of the rising China, one can predict that in at most 10 years time, China will be the assuming the leader in scientific advance. What language do they used to teach in their own land? English? No, they used the ones our government is trying hard to abolish, Chinese. Of course, I would agree that teaching them in BOTH language will be even better as it gives them edge in the world market.
Take a look at ourself. We are perfect example of policy failures. We (well, excluding me, I am erk..different case as I would explain later), are taught science in Malay throughout our primary school and secondary school and guess what? WHen we come to our tertiary education, its all in English. Its extra burden to us as we had to relearn everything from scratch. For me, I am not saying its any better, us(I mean those gone through Chinese school), learn everything in mandarin, then it translates into Malay and lastly into English.
I am not saying that ours is any better. We had to give in more effort, more work, but still, its do-able. And guess what, being educated in Mandarin first did give me an edge. Let's say if I were to go to a Chinese university, like say Beijing University (which is better than any of Malaysian university), eventhough I have not been taught higher level science in mandarin but knowing the basics in Mandarin will save me a hell lot of works.
Obviously, my traits of thoughts did not exclude the fact that UK, US, Canada and other English based university had better scientific education than China ones but hey, its not like everyone can afford to go UK or US isnt it?
If one were to get a better tertiary education, on a smaller budge, one would end up with two possible destination: Singapore or China(HK, Taiwan and etc). Given the point, having a base in both English and Mandarin did opens up more oppurtunity for a student, isnt it?
We are born in a blessed country with different culture coexisting and yet intertwined. We should take advantage of that. Inclusionism is the way to do it, not assimilationism.
Oh yeah, and on a side note, pardon my horrible grammar mistake, I am from Chinese school and is damned proud of it!
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