i want to paint rainbows

I have a biomedical engineering degree. Currently Im a manager at IBM. Previously I won gold medal for some Australian chemistry quiz. I also went to a University in the US.

No I’m not here to brag. Most of you reading this would know this by heart since you know me personally so there is no use of that. I’m writing this because of the whole hoopla surrounding the learning of science and maths in English subject. My point is I did the whole shebang of learning maths and science in Malay and then went to relearn it again in English, got a degree and have a career. No big deal.

Honestly I’m whole heartedly against it. Teaching and learning it in English that is. The way I see it I think it’s good for students to learn science and math in the Malay language. I did it, and a few other bunch of my friends did it. My sisters did it, my boyfriend did it. Alhamdulillah we all fared well. We went to english medium universities and had no trouble adapting to the english terms so i honestly don’t see the problem. Are we saying that learning in Malay is actually giving our students a disadvantage because the Malay language (dare I say it?) is of a language of a lesser value?

Maybe we put too much emphasize on the language rather than the content of what a person is saying. The Chinese (from China) learn science and math in Chinese and proudly speak English with that endearing Chinese accent of theirs and yet they account for most of my teaching assistant in university and half of my project team now. The Indians and the Thais and even the French all speak with their origin accent proudly displaying for all to see(or listen) not even caring if people can understand. On the other hand we Malaysians strive to perfect our English with an English accent, or American accent or Australian accent while some of us can’t even converse in our mother tongue.

The thing is I think currently it’s not the English language that is at threat, but actually the Malay language. I’ve worked with Malaysians (Malays included)that can not converse in Malay at all and yet have been in Malaysia for the majority of their life. And we are ok with that? I honestly see something wrong with this picture.

At the end of the day I don’t think it’s about the language someone learns it in. If a student has the right attitude, throw him or her those science terms in any language and they will learn it up and relearn it in any language they need to just like their predecessors and excel at it. After all 1+1 equals 2 in any language.