Youths’ lack of proficiency in English a setback

I AM an ardent listener of the No. 1 English radio station in Malaysia and an ardent reader of the local leading English newspaper as well. The crazy duo of JJ and Ean accompany me in my daily commute to office and one of my favourite segments is the GOTCHA! call.

Yesterday was no exception as I enjoyed the duo’s trickery which tickled the listeners’ fancy. But at the same time I was appalled.

It was really sad to note that the ‘victim’ of GOTCHA! could not even string a grammatically correct sentence throughout her five minutes of fame.

I am sure most of the listeners that morning cringed. I did and I switched off the radio as I just could not stand the torture anymore.

Having said that, unfortunately for us, that was not an isolated event.

Day in, day out when we look around us, we hear the deteriorating standard of English here.

The young of today, no matter what race, suffers because of it and their lack of proficiency in the English language hinders their employability.

Who have we got to blame for that! I studied in an environment where, though Bahasa Malaysia was the main language, English was not lagging far behind.

I claim to be no expert of the English language but you have got to be brain dead not to realise the poor state of the language here nowadays. We have trainees in our office from various local institutions of higher learning doing their internship and speaking to them makes me feel sorry for them.

Firstly they lack the proficiency in a normal conversation and when you are lacking in that area, your confidence suffers.

And that is the malaise that is affecting the young of today, the lack of confidence. How are we to compete globally when the internationally acknowledged language of choice is English?

It is baffling that we the rakyat realise this but the people in power do not.

Instead of moving forward to recapture what was once the “heyday” of English, we have regressed.

It is little wonder that many parents work their noses off to send their kids to international schools or even overseas to escape this quagmire.