Tuesday August 22, 2006
Better to jaw-jaw than war-war
PETALING JAYA: Learning and knowing other languages can help reduce and solve problems and conflicts in the world today as it will create better understanding between people, according to Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
The former premier said, with better communication, people could reduce conflicts that lead to wanton killings.
“The most civilised way is to learn the language of others. Imagine US President George W. Bush speaking in Arabic to Osama bin Laden (the al-Qaeda leader), explaining the problems of America, and Osama explaining the problems that he faces,” Dr Mahathir said in his speech at the International Seminar on Multimedia Adventures in Language Learning here yesterday.
“Then both would be able to perhaps settle their problems, and chat with each other.”
The two-day seminar was organised by the Institute of Modern Languages and Communication (IMLC) of the Multimedia University.
Also present was Dr Mahathir’s wife and MMU Chancellor Tun Dr Siti Hasmah Mohd Ali.
Dr Mahathir stressed that it was very important in today’s world to learn other languages, besides one’s mother tongue, saying it was much easier to learn new languages today with the advancement of technology.
He also said that the problems related to learning a language like English were different from one country to another.
He shared his experience while onboard a flight to Japan many years ago.
“The steward made an announcement ... 'have a good fright' (flight),” Dr Mahathir said, adding that Japanese had problems pronouncing the letter 'L'. – Bernama
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