Powerbook Blues

Okay, I had enough. My Apple Powerbook G4 gave a lot of craps to me today. So I decided to send it to Willard building, hoping people over there can figure out what the hell is wrong with my laptop. Ah well, now I am laptopless/computerless for more or less 7 to 10 days. Pity me!

So I walked back to my room after I spent a couple of good hours in Fenske Lab doing my CH E 414 homeworks. Geeezz..I don't know that using Mathematica is so much 'fun'! Yeah riteeee, I spent almost 30 minutes on how to figure out a syntax command for doing simple integration. So much fun, so to speak!

Hmmm...while I was walking back to my room, I thought about the advantage of using English as communication medium. See, nowadays many people in Malaysia especially the Malays speak English more than what I used to encounter a few years ago. Maybe the globalization wave takes place so vastly in Malaysia and people tend to join the wave. In fact many families in Malaysia now are encouraging their children to speak English at home which comes to me as no surprise.

My family is never be able to provide me with such environment - English spoken environment. Papa originally comes from kampung and so does mummy. All they know is layman language. A colloquial language. Both never had a chance to further their studies to college. Papa quit studying after he finished his high school (at that time his high school was a technical school which later became the basis of vocational curricular in Malaysia). He joined the Royal Police Force soon after that (well, he did take a few jobs before he joined the police force, including picked up vegetables from Sekinchan for people who stranded in Kg Baru in Kuala Lumpur during the 1969 racial riot). Unlike Pak Long, he didn't get much of chance to travel. He stayed in Malaysia for most of the time.

Well...Pak Long was in Royal Navy before this. Therefore, by being in the Navy he was exposed to the outside world and most importantly, exposed to English. Moreover, papa told us that our late grandpa sent Pak Long to Goon Institute in Kuala Lumpur to study English. At that time, according to papa, Goon Institute is considered as good private school. Papa admitted to us that Pak Long is the best English speaker in our family. Wow...(okay, not so woww..). But it doesn't deter papa in any way to learn language. Now his enthusiasm is depleting but he certainly realizes the importance of English for his children.

And now is my turn. I recall my passion about Bahasa way back in high school. Being in Sekolah Alam Shah which is known for its reputation as the pioneer in vernacular education in Malaysia, backed me up in my spirit of Bahasa Jiwa Bangsa. I once had a dispute with my friend, Napie, when we discussed the importance of language. I guess it happened when we were in lower form. Each of us came with our own arguments. I, as usual, defended Bahasa as the most important language due to its historical value as lingua franca in South East Asia about 500 years ago. Napie was more realistic as I recall his argument was about the global tide in communication which mainly involves English. After enough of throwing arguments, we stopped there and continued our life as usual, as in nothing were happened before.

My English was so weak at that time. I was placed in Set D for English class when I was in form one, right after the english profiency test result was announced to the class. My first english teacher was Puan Hamidah, an Indian looking lady (I think she has an Indian root in her family line). She is a good teacher though. Slowly I rose higher to Set C. Puan Sharifah or fondly known as Puan Sherry was the teacher for that class. English became a fun subject to learn simply because Puan Sherry didn't teach us much except sharing her stories when she was in New Zealand for her tertiary education.

We were exposed to X-rated jokes, story of weird encounter with mat saleh, 'mat blur' from Kelantan and many more from Puan Sherry. She definitely our best English teacher at that time. Hahahahaha..It was a good time for everyone in the class. But only one thing that I clearly remember from that class is the word Manglish - Malaysian English. I realize that many of us in Malaysia is currently using Manglish instead of real English. I can't blame people for doing that. We are what we are. No one can change that, for better or for worst.

I began to develop a habit to read magazine like Times, Newsweek, Asiaweek, Discover and English newspaper like New Straits Time etc when I was in Form 4. Perhaps we didn't have much things to do except for hazing the juniors. Heehehehehe...These reading materials opened my eyes to many wonders of the world. It seemed to me that the world is so much bigger with English. The more I read these literatures, the more exposed I became to the global world. I am not tryng to belittle Bahasa as national language but it seems to me that Bahasa needs more time to develop compare to English. English has stood tall and solid through out the centuries and many good literatures came out from it and yet, Bahasa is just known to mankind since roughly 500 years ago.

And then I was invited to Sekolah Seri Puteri for a band practice. Two schools were invited to this band practice at Sekolah Seri Puteri, namely SAS and St. Mary High Schol. During the introduction of each band member to the audience, everyone was speaking in English except for me. For that, I felt quite embarrased and ashamed with my poor ability to speak English. I vowed to myself to improve my English as I moved on to Form 5.

Finally now I am in the States...huhuhuhu and I dare to say that my English is well improved compared to when I was in high school. Of course as Mak Long Kesuma would put it, "there is always a room for improvement", I totally agree with her. Time flies really fast and by the time I realize it, I already went so much things in order to hone my English ability, both in writing and in oral.

However it doesn't mean that I forget about my own language. Bahasa Jiwa Bangsa still is my spirit except that it is given a new definition and philosophy. It's nothing wrong to learn new language, especially English because the world is becoming more and more global than ever and the only language recognized everywhere is English. Speak the way you speak English, doesn't matter if it's Malaysian style or Singaporean style or Hong Kong style, it is still English. Most of American find it okay to speak with accent as long as they can understand whatever you spit out from your mouth. When I went to Scotland for a vacation not so long ago, quite a few local there acknowledged me as American simply because of my English accent (5 years of US college life teaches me this slang). I repeatedly identify myself as Malaysian but they insist on recognizing me as American. Well, what to do..apa apa ajer lah kan.

In a few months from now (possibly 10 months hehehehe) I will end my tertiary education here. Insya Allah my English will not stop here. In fact it will embark me to another level of communication, in a different world, especially in work force or work-related field. And certainly I will teach English myself to my children one day....hehehehe...