Let children learn English from young

RECENTLY, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim revealed an ambitious plan to improve our students’ mastery of the English language while upholding the position of Bahasa Malaysia (BM) as the national language with effect from next year.

Our local graduates have suffered enough due to their poor command of English. Since only a small fraction of these graduates can be absorbed into the civil service, majority of them will have to compete with other graduates, who possess a better command of English, in the job market.

Malaysia is a small country that relies heavily on foreign direct investments to foster and maintain economic growth.

The multinational corporations (MNC) involved in foreign investments offer attractive career opportunities, and it is every local graduate’s wish to land a job with one of them. Unfortunately, very few local graduates are able to fulfil this wish because they are incapable of communicating fluently in English.

Our PM’s desire to improve our students’ proficiency in English is commendable. I am so grateful to my mother who decided to send me to an English medium school in the 1960s. I would not have accomplished what I set out to achieve in my career if I wasn’t fluent in English.

After a decade of building up my career, I managed to clinch a senior position in a foreign firm and held it for two decades before I retired in 2011 at the age of 55.

Although my children are proficient in BM and Mandarin, it is their mastery of English that has helped them to climb the corporate ladder steadily over the past decade. They are senior executives in multinational firms and travel far and wide in the course of their duties.

While waiting for the government to draw up the strategy for achieving the PM’s ambitious plan, parents should start to provide English lessons to their children as soon as possible.

Those between the ages of six and nine years old are usually very eager to learn and experiment with languages.

PATRICK TEH

Ipoh