Make learning English a joy

I refer to the letter Make learning English a joy, by Joshua Tan, Layang layang Johor, and congratulate the writer for his suggestions to make Malaysians improve on their command of the English language.

However, I think, in the final analysis, it will be up to the individual himself, as no amount of Government coddling and motivational events will help the student if he makes up his mind that English is not in his mind. I would like to use myself as an example of how a serious commitment, in spite of having to face the most adverse conditions, will triumph over all obstacle to master the language.

I was born in a small town in Johor and attended secondary school in the late 1950's. My parents were dirt poor, and I had 9 siblings, all school going. When I was in Form 2, I decided that I wanted to improve my English. I begged money from my mum, and went to buy the best dictionary the town could offer then, and it was the 20th Century Chamber's Dictionary. I treasured the book, and even hid it from my brothers and sisters. I asked my father to buy us the Straits Times, and I made sure I read the EDITORIAL, every day. Believe me, it was no fun doing that, but I stuck to it. I even subscribed to the Listener, from London, and tried to read it from page to page, when a copy arrived. In the lighter vein, I saved my pocket money (then at 10sen a day) to buy my weekly Beano and Dandy comics, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I also got addicted to PG Wodehouse books, and twisted my mum's hands to get me the money to buy the latest offerings{i have a collection of not less than 65 of his books}. To their credit, my parents would sacrifice everything else, but I had my story books.

We as parents must change our attitudes first; we must get rid of our distrust of a foreign language, we must not keep holding on to our pride of our own national and/or vernacular languages and think that learning English is making our culture and language second best. Our children must start young, and we as parents must show them that mastering languages and acquiring knowledge is a noble thing to do.

And finally the politicians must agree not to use the study of languages as a means to their political ends. Malaysia have suffered too much already. Don't let our future generation bear the pain of our selfish addiction!

The mind must be willing
English: have the right attitude