My primary school English teachers, although nowhere near my tuition teacher, have definitely play important roles as well. I remember the ‘arrange the words to make a sentence’ exercise too Jolene! There are always three pictures accompanying the words too, right!?

Then I went up to secondary school and the horror began! Some of the teachers, like the ones who taught the best classes were quite good but a few of them, couldn’t speak proper English themselves and they were teaching the lower classes! How can the students ever improve?

I didn’t do EST but I wish I did! When I did my A levels, i instantly forgot all the Malay words used in the Science subjects and Mathematics. Say hello, to words like sodium and differentiation and integration weee!

My stand is that while Bahasa Malaysia should still be taught in schools, a pass in English should definitely be a pre-requisite to pass SPM too. When I was doing my degree in Manchester, I came across quite many Malaysians who, while there is no doubt that they are bright and brilliant students, cannot form a simple English sentence. I couldn’t help but to blame the education system because no one should have to rely on their tuition teachers entirely and plus, not everyone is lucky enough to afford paying tuition fees. School teachers should be able to produce students who can speak and write decent English.

english exams to show off essay writing skills: check. I ALWAYS look forward to getting back my english paper. xD

mortifying if you don’t get A in english: check.

“…and then woke up” : check. CLASSIC ending for an A essay. xD

getting culture shock by not knowing chinese: check. T_T but it was good in a way cause then my english was “good”. wtf.

good entry.

im chindian, speak english at home, tamil/mandrin FAIL. cant speak to save my life. but trying to learn, though the progress macam kura-kura.

but i also have seen as you said, we are the ones who ace (promotes self) the subs… i think english IS the way to go…

AND SOMETHING VERY IMPORTANT. pls read carefully. i quote:

“Like what was diameter in BM?!”

sengaja ke? coz tats already in BM, english is diametRe unless of coz im wrong

I was in government school for my first six years of school life and teaching consisted of shoving our English textbooks at us (which had very little substance) and making us copy out the exercises in it.

HOW did that constitute a lesson? I could have done that at home!

Then I left the government side and leapt over to the private side & even our lousy school had the sense NOT to use the PMR english textbook but instead made us use the Singaporean one It was also then that I realised that, like you, I was part of a minority statistic! Almost every single chinese person in my new school had gone to a vernacular chinese school & I was the only person in my class who couldn’t speak Chinese (including the indians..wtf). They regarded me as the one with ‘good english’ and by ‘good’ i mean great compared to their standards. They were great people but they had broken English with absurd grammar.

Then.. PMR results came out and these people, who I assure you, write out essays worse than they speak (eg. with sentences like ‘I had loving my mother’.. I kid you not!!) .. ALL came out with an A in PMR English. Every single one of them. Even the ones who managed to get Bs, Cs and Ds in every other subject scored As in English. I was mortified – and I kept on wondering just how low the standard really was. An A will always be an A to a university even if one A is like 40% higher than the other, which I found so unfair!

THEN I entered the international side and BAM. My level of English, high as it was regarded in Malaysian school, was just about adequate (in other words, not really good laaah) and I realised that our standard of ‘English’ (if you can call it that) really is not going to help anybody. I know so many people who were one of the ‘top’ English scorers in their schools who suffered big time when it came to college.

So maybe I’m not qualified to debate on this matter because I’ve only done PMR and I’m not going to be doing SPM (wish I was though, since colleges here regard an A in SPM English equal to an A in O level english which is so UNFAIR) – but I am all for making a pass in English a prerequisite for SPM! I mean, why not? They can do it for BM so why not for English?

& coming back to the subject of grammar not being taught in schools, I think it’s spot on. I sure as heck wasn’t taught grammar and I don’t owe anything to any one of my English teachers. Everything I can do with the English Language today is due to my passion for reading and other things that have nothing to do with school. LET’S LOBBY FOR BETTER TEACHERS FOR OUR KIDS!!

Sorry this was so long! Very sensitive topic for me, hahah.

My parents converse with each other in Chinese but they speak to me in English. They were from Chinese schools but I was sent to a national school since primary. Haha. I learn Chinese from them and TV dramas! But still ain’t that fluent. :/ I am still very comfortable conversing in English.

That’s why I like your blog very much, lots of word.. =D
Coz I can copy paste whole post, read slow slow during my office hour

u know.. Trying to minimize internet usage during working hour.. T.T

hahahha..
I learn my English by *trying* to blog in English and read English blog, books.
I totally understand how difficult for a Malaysian to learn correct powerful and bombastic English.. T.T

That’s why I like your blog very much, lots of words and less picture.. =D
Coz I can copy paste whole post, read slow slow during my office hour

u know.. Trying to minimize internet usage during working hour.. T.T