A writing for Dr. Tengku Sepora on her research about the influence of family and education background on proficiency in English language.
By Liew Zhe Rong (96844)
By Liew Zhe Rong (96844)
I do hope that this short piece of my writing can aid in your research, Dr. It’s an interesting piece of research and I do believe that family and education background had profound influence on one’s English proficiency as what I will discussed later on in this writing.
My name is Liew Zhe Rong and I am from Kuching, Sarawak. Currently I am pursuing Bachelor of Arts Translation & Intepretation in Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang. I am 20 years old (Birthday 31st of August 1988) and I am the 2nd child out of siblings of four. My father, who’s was born in Taiping, Perak was a retired airforce technician stationed in Kuching AFB before he met my mom (and got married and settled down J) and now working as a technician in a private power plant. My mom, a down to earth fishing village girl currently working as pembantu farmasi in government hospital around Kuching for more than 20 years. My elder brother which is 2 years older currently works in KL after graduated from private college while my two younger brothers are in form 4 and primary 5, respectively. In other words, it’s a typical middle class, suburban, public servant family that I have.
As both of parent are of Chinese primary school educated, mandarin (but not much of dialect though) had always been the medium of communication within the household despite occasional chatter in English. Me as well as my elder and younger brother sent into a Chinese medium kindergarten near to my house for early childhood education but my youngest brother was sent to an English medium daycare/kindergarten. By comparison, my youngest brother had a kick start in English language earlier than myself and my other siblings and his English is considered as very good compared to his peer of similar age group. Nevertheless, all four us was sent into a Chinese primary school as well. For my secondary education I was sent to my mom’s alma mater, SMK Kuching High located in the heart of Kuching city until form 5. Most of the student (almost 90%) in Kuching High are from Chinese medium primary school and hence the medium of commucation are most mandarin and other chinese dialect (Hokkien and Teochew mainly), which prevalent around the Kuching city proper. Most of them are of typical Chinese family background but a small but visible number of them are of English educated urbanites family hence proficiency of English among student ranges quite diversely as well. Despite the fact that I had always read magazine in English most of the time (Time, National Geographic etc.), my proficiency of English in terms of speech only starts picking up around the end of form 4 and throughout form 5, when I start to hang around with friends who are of English-educated family background and fluent in English. I had made a point of speaking English to them whenever I am around them (I am not too sure the exact reason I did that but I think its because form 5 is a very important junction of life to decide on path of education and acknowledging the possibility of entering college and overseas, despite how minute the chance is) and luckily with my mutual knack of picking up language and manner of speech, my proficiency in English rises steadily. And as a matter of trivia, Kuching High’s anthem is in English since the founding of the school, a rare among government school.
The breakthrough arrived after I entered form six to SMB St. Thomas, an Anglican missionary school (and very much of it still is) situated in the middle of the city with a very strong background of English influence. (Proudly the oldest school in whole of Borneo island with history of 160 years and an Anglican bishop as the chair of school board of directors.) Most student over there are of English educated family and most of the day to day operation and announcement and assembly and notice board and school magazine etc etc are done in English and of course, the school anthem are in English as well, in line with the origin. Besides having classmates that speaks English, taking science stream and having almost all subjects (science and math subject as well as MUET) done in English does help a lot in getting used to communicate in english English in a day to day basis. A very good indicator of my improvement in proficiency of English are my MUET grade, a high Band 5 of 252/300 mark. I would proudly say that my form six had left the most profound influence in my English proficiency.
And after that enters uni life in USM…one thing that I can’t help to notice though is that I felt that my proficiency of English actually slipped throughout my time in university. This is mainly because the decline in usage of English compared to of Bahasa Malaysia (official matter and studies as well as communicating with coursemate) and Mandarin (communicating among coursemate). Most of my coursemate and students in USM treat English only as their second or even third language when compared with mother tongue. As a matter of fact, even the existence of English in public space (signboard and labels and such) over West Malaysia are very much subdued compared to what I can see in Kuching. (Difference in local government’s rules as well as remnant of pre-Malaysia day…and for me it’s actually good for us.) Personally, I do hope that the environment around us can be much more conducive for usage of English and one way or the other, I am looking forward for the day if we ever enforce official bilingualism in Malaysia. Learning and mastering another language is never wrong…especially English.
As both of parent are of Chinese primary school educated, mandarin (but not much of dialect though) had always been the medium of communication within the household despite occasional chatter in English. Me as well as my elder and younger brother sent into a Chinese medium kindergarten near to my house for early childhood education but my youngest brother was sent to an English medium daycare/kindergarten. By comparison, my youngest brother had a kick start in English language earlier than myself and my other siblings and his English is considered as very good compared to his peer of similar age group. Nevertheless, all four us was sent into a Chinese primary school as well. For my secondary education I was sent to my mom’s alma mater, SMK Kuching High located in the heart of Kuching city until form 5. Most of the student (almost 90%) in Kuching High are from Chinese medium primary school and hence the medium of commucation are most mandarin and other chinese dialect (Hokkien and Teochew mainly), which prevalent around the Kuching city proper. Most of them are of typical Chinese family background but a small but visible number of them are of English educated urbanites family hence proficiency of English among student ranges quite diversely as well. Despite the fact that I had always read magazine in English most of the time (Time, National Geographic etc.), my proficiency of English in terms of speech only starts picking up around the end of form 4 and throughout form 5, when I start to hang around with friends who are of English-educated family background and fluent in English. I had made a point of speaking English to them whenever I am around them (I am not too sure the exact reason I did that but I think its because form 5 is a very important junction of life to decide on path of education and acknowledging the possibility of entering college and overseas, despite how minute the chance is) and luckily with my mutual knack of picking up language and manner of speech, my proficiency in English rises steadily. And as a matter of trivia, Kuching High’s anthem is in English since the founding of the school, a rare among government school.
The breakthrough arrived after I entered form six to SMB St. Thomas, an Anglican missionary school (and very much of it still is) situated in the middle of the city with a very strong background of English influence. (Proudly the oldest school in whole of Borneo island with history of 160 years and an Anglican bishop as the chair of school board of directors.) Most student over there are of English educated family and most of the day to day operation and announcement and assembly and notice board and school magazine etc etc are done in English and of course, the school anthem are in English as well, in line with the origin. Besides having classmates that speaks English, taking science stream and having almost all subjects (science and math subject as well as MUET) done in English does help a lot in getting used to communicate in english English in a day to day basis. A very good indicator of my improvement in proficiency of English are my MUET grade, a high Band 5 of 252/300 mark. I would proudly say that my form six had left the most profound influence in my English proficiency.
And after that enters uni life in USM…one thing that I can’t help to notice though is that I felt that my proficiency of English actually slipped throughout my time in university. This is mainly because the decline in usage of English compared to of Bahasa Malaysia (official matter and studies as well as communicating with coursemate) and Mandarin (communicating among coursemate). Most of my coursemate and students in USM treat English only as their second or even third language when compared with mother tongue. As a matter of fact, even the existence of English in public space (signboard and labels and such) over West Malaysia are very much subdued compared to what I can see in Kuching. (Difference in local government’s rules as well as remnant of pre-Malaysia day…and for me it’s actually good for us.) Personally, I do hope that the environment around us can be much more conducive for usage of English and one way or the other, I am looking forward for the day if we ever enforce official bilingualism in Malaysia. Learning and mastering another language is never wrong…especially English.
If there is any further inquiries though, feel free to ask back, Dr.!
Epilogue: FASTER LAR DOWNLOAD!!! AND MY BUTT HURT. ...well at least I finish up my assignment and this piece while waiting for the download to finish...
4 comments:
ok...u dun look like u r from chinese school...I am impressed. T.T I heard from seniors that you got like the best English wor...U r like Peter lar...he also Chinese school but with damn good English.
We all from English-Malay edu also no place stand. T.T
...except that he is athletic while I am a...pure geek.
LOL My english is the best? I am flattered. From which senior u heard about me anyway lol?
I think Teepa or someone. They say your English very good and that helps ur studies in Translation. It was my first few weeks in USM back then. Lol, I was like WOW.
Oh, Theepha.
LOL at WOW. And actually its does help a lot as you are able to understand a multitude of expression more in a text...the only thing right now is of course, finding the suitable equivalent in BM...
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