At least we are exposed to English. And understanding comes straight after that.

I was educated in a daily school in a place where urbanisation transcends the village-look of the district. Worth to mention, that my place is located in a state in which education is a very serious thing. Another thing worth to mention, the parents of most of the students are not educated in the sense that majority of them only pass primary school level. As in the case of my father. 

More importantly, it is a stupid thing to mention again and again that when we want to apply for high-income jobs (which could eradicate poverty of the parents),  they interview and ask for your level of proficiency in English. Well, I was born a Trengganu, with minimal-educated parents, never speak English at home, exposed to Sesame Street as a kid (but failed to understand most of the words, except for One, Two, Three and A, B, C, D, E ...). Then, in what sense will I get exposed to English so that my Trengganu tongue is flexible enough to say 'the' the correct way? Or flexible enough to say 'What is your name?' instead of 'Wak is yor neng?'. 

Some quarter of people say you cannot master the English even you are exposed to the language through Science and Mathematics. Boo ya! 

I made efforts to understand the language so that I will not be left behind in those subjects. Only Allah SWT knows how many Goosebumps I read when I was in Form 1 just to build up my confidence in the language. When others read the books when they were in Primary school, I crawled when reading them. 

My parents made efforts to make sure that I really focused on my studies. And surprisingly they are very very supportive. And so was other parents. Because they know the importance of English. To them, this is their access for their children to be 'on-par' with the children of the West Coast. To them, most parents in West Coast speak English to their children, and so the language is really their Second Language. To us, there was only One Language.

Teachers made tremendous efforts to master their teaching in the language, although some failed but their efforts were shown, and the students felt the urge to study and even become better than their teachers in English. Most importantly, we did not learn English. We learn sciences and mathematics, but our mind was set in English and hence, words of 'increase, decrease, set instead of sex' came out of our mouths. Even to those who were 'considered' back-class students (students kelas belakang). Oh, maybe because of your school, it's located in an urban area where most of the people can speak English. Boo ya! This is Chukai where most parents don't speak English, and do not allow their children to be exposed to excessive entertainment (hence less English language exposure!), no English ads whatsoever but they are made in Jawi!

So, yeah we can learn from the environment! Boo boo ya!- bullshit that comes never end from politicians.

* My father's word- It does not matter what language they are teaching you, it depends on you to succeed or not. If others can do it, why not you? 


He was right, hence the issue of students dropping performance because of English, is stupid because they are not on numerical basis. Numbers cannot deceive. In common sense, if students cannot even motivate themselves to study in English, how much better they are motivated to study in Malay? For Trengganu, the so-called bahasa baku is sometimes different than our Mother Tongue. So, whatcha say?

Thus, it should be Dr. Mahathir that I should thank.

*Read the cat's line. You can find the message there. The Truth is always the best!

To those who said English dropped the student's performance, what can you say to the reports during my examination result that says 'student's performance increase' which implies 'PPSMI worked for students, even for the rural ones'. 

Where is the numbers? I thought previously you said
students are performing even the teaching
is in English.

There was no studies conducted and then BANG, you switched again. 

What's the fuss with English? Well, to the most uneducated parents of Trengganu, it matters.

They want their kids to get exposed to the language, because they cannot provide the environment, and they want them to get used to the language, and so they can get jobs which are high-income from Shell, Schlumberger, Petronas, Exxon Mobil (from what they see in Kerteh probably) which requires you to SPEAK, WRITE, LEARN ENGLISH. 

Barbers, farmers, fishermen, pembuat keropok lekor, satar, otok-otok, pembuat lemang Kijal will ask their sons and daughters to do this "Gi wat keje mu, gi belajo" (go do your work, go study) because in their minds that is the only way for their sons and daughters to succeed and help them later on. Hence, if you educate them the wrong way, don't you think that you deny their rights of access to good education? 

If you want to switch back, ask not international companies, but your local companies such as Petronas, Bank Negara, Khazanah or TNB to speak in Malay during their functionaries because so far as I can remember, they always say 'I will proceed in English because we are a multinational company and we have employees from many different countries' and not just that, even the companies which are confirmed to have most Malaysians working for them like the Bank, still English is the medium language.

How can you answer that Mister TPM M? I know, the same old crap we are strengthening the English teaching bla bla bla. 

Wait wait, where are the politicians' sons and daughters educated? I think PM's son was sent to an English school in UK and then sent to America. Why my Trengganu people cannot get that?-The Chukai Insider