UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE


Sunday, April 13, 2008

BM

My post about the lady who wore Baju Kurung to work was criticised thru the short messaging system by Koay Teow Th'ng. Well, from now on KKT will be my eyes and ears in Penang. Love you KKT.

Lets talk about language. When we talk about Bangsa Malaysia, what is the language that we should be using to communicate? Since we are in Malaysia and Bahasa Malaysia is the national language, we should be using BM right? We are not going to refrain anybody from using their mother tounge but in order to have a common mode of communicado, BM is the key. Everyone who goes to school learns BM.

There are lots of Penangites who could not converse in BM. Why aa? Maybe they don't need to. Maybe they don't want to. Maybe they just couldn't be bothered. Well time to change...

I am not being pushy about this, these are things which I feel will make me realise a dream of having Bangsa Malaysia in Penang....

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Doesn't look like your dream of Bangsa Malaysia will come true in our lifetime. Look at our Thai & Indonesian neighbours who so proudly speak ONE LANGUAGE (their names don't reflect their ancestry)! In Penang, you get many Chinese who are die-hards when it comes to speaking BM - what is there to be so proud about not being able to understand or
speak BM? Does learning the language make you any less Chinese? Hey, the Malays are sending their children to Chinese schools!! It is such a shame when we are part of this MELTING POT but we are not harvesting the benefits. On the other hand, we are guilty of saying
(at one time or another)"orang kita" not like that one lah. My friend, many Malaysians are living are the proverbial tempurung although they claim to be new-age, in-the-know & ultra-modern. What happened to the simple values enforced by our fathers & their fathers when it comes to respecting
other races & always taking their sensitivities into consideration. Only a shadow remains!
**I have dreams in "English" only....wonder when I will dream in Bahasa Malaysia!!**