Dari Indonesia, laporan menggemberikan adalah para
remaja yang memenangkan berbagai hadiah di Olimpiade
Fisika di Beijing bahasa Inggrisnya joss. Demikian
dilaporkan Anton John Hartomo. Bukan itu saja, juga
sekolah-sekolah swasta Indonesia-plus ada yang
menggunakan Inggris sebagai bahasa pengantar di kelas.
Dan .. ehm, SBY kalau jadi presiden bakalan tidak ada
hambatan bahasa di pertemuan-pertemuan ASEAN utamanya.
Malaysia juga menyadari bahwa daya saingnya
terkorbankan setelah menggalakkan Bahasa Kebangsaan.
Tahun lalu, negara jiran ini mulai lagi menggunakan
bahasa Inggris sebagai bahasa pengantar untuk mata
pelajaran sains dan matematika di kelas. Vietnam,
Laos dan Kamboja juga sejak beberapa tahun yang lalu
menggalakkan penguasaan bahasa Inggris, dan hasilnya
mulai kelihatan sekarang.
Salam,
RM
(The Straits Times Asia interactive)
AUG 16, 2004
Asia goes back to school to learn English
By John Newland
>From students to civil servants, English has become
the language of choice among many Asians. The Straits
Times correspondents look at how the trend of learning
> the language of global commerce is hotting up in the
region.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SOUTH Korean high school student Ko Seo Yong rarely
goes home right after classes.
Instead, the 18-year-old, who will sit for the
year-end university entrance examination, heads for a
private institute, known as hakwon, for extra lessons
in English. And she does that five times a week.
'I must excel in English as a good grade is needed to
get into a university, especially a prestigious one,'
she said.
Such determination is not unique to students in South
Korea. Children and adults throughout Asia are putting
their heads down in class and paying big money to
acquire and hone English-language skills.
In a globalised world, governments and individuals in
the region realise the key to prosperity - in fact,
survival - depends in large part on communicating in
English.
A lead player in this drive is Malaysia, where
language is a political powder keg. Any push for
English is seen as a bid to sweep aside the importance
of Malay as the national language and, consequently,
an affront to the Malay community.
Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed, a Member of Parliament from
Johor, typifies the trend towards English. 'I speak to
all my children in English at home. I also emphasise
to them that not only must they master the language,
they must speak it well,' he tells The Straits Times.
But, unlike Datuk Nur Jazlan's children, many
Malaysians still cannot speak English correctly - this
despite the fact that all school examinations and
lessons were in English 20 years ago and the language
is still taught in primary and secondary schools.
The government realised a few years ago that the
drastic slide in English standards would affect the
country's business competitiveness. It also noticed
that many people with poor command of the language
were Malays, and that that prevented them from getting
rewarding jobs.
But last week, Datuk Seri Rafidah Aziz, Umno's women's
wing chief and long-serving Cabinet minister,
underscored the obstacles faced by the government when
she said that mastering English 'does not make one
less Malay or less Malaysian'.
Education Minister Datuk Hishammuddin Hussein also
pushed the case. 'I don't want to hear excuses. As a
trading nation, our children's competence in English
is a survival skill,' he said recently.
English tuition is now a major money spinner in
Malaysia and is estimated to be a
multi-million-ringgit industry, especially in the
Malay heartland states, where English language centres
are mushrooming.
The renewed emphasis on English began last year, when
schools started using it for science and mathematics
lessons despite criticisms from many Malay
nationalists.
The government in Taiwan, where English proficiency of
adults still trails most Asia-Pacific nations, is
encouraging its 260,000 civil servants to get in the
game.
'Civil servants aged under 40 will be given extra
credits helpful to their job promotions if they pass a
special English proficiency test,' said Mr Lee
Yi-yang, chief of the Central Personnel Administration
(CPA).
Under the CPA's plan, especially targeting some
130,000 civil servants under the age of 40, employees
will be given three years to improve their English.
Those passing the elementary level of the General
English Proficiency Test will be awarded two extra
points in annual performance appraisals.
The move is in line with the government project of
'cultivating e-generation talents' under the Cabinet's
Challenge 2008 National Development Programme.
Those passing the intermediate level test will earn
four extra points, said Mr Lee, but anyone who fails
will not be demoted.
But in the world's second-largest economy,
English-language education has been a flop.
Japan's Education Ministry basically conceded this two
years ago, after millions of Japanese had passed
through half a century of elective English learning in
secondary schools.
In a paper released last year, the ministry lamented
that because of poor English, 'many Japanese are
restricted in their exchanges with foreigners'.
Neither are ideas and opinions 'evaluated
appropriately'.
Among the measures to boost proficiency, it is
considering making English lessons compulsory in
elementary schools. It will announce a decision next
March.
While many Japanese welcome the news that the younger
generation might speak better English, mandating it in
elementary schools has stirred a hot debate.
Housewife Akiko Suzuki, 36, who believes foreign
languages are best learnt before age eight or nine, is
all for it. Her daughter will be entering elementary
school in two years.
But a linguistics expert who has written passionately
about the issue in newspapers, Professor Heizo
Nakajima, said in an interview: 'I am more negative
than positive about introducing compulsory English
education to elementary schools.'
His chief reason: The extra workload. Many Japanese
students are already cracking under intense pressure
as they face rigorous college and high school entrance
exams.
Yet, with 88 per cent of the nation's 22,526 public
elementary schools already teaching English in some
form in the 2003 fiscal year, many believe compulsory
lessons are a done deal.
In South Korea, where English has been the foreign
language of choice for the past decade, universities
set the language bar high, with one even withholding
graduation certificates if students do not reach a set
standard.
A recent survey of 2,000 parents and their children by
the Korean Educational Development Institute (Kedi)
shows that seven out of 10 students from kindergarten
to high school get private English lessons, costing
their families an average of 277,000 won (S$411) a
month.
The richer ones are willing to pay a native speaker up
to US$50 (S$85) for an hour of conversation practice.
On average, a student spends about 10 hours a week at
a hakwon to sharpen their speaking, listening and
writing skills, according to the Kedi report.
With more than eight million elementary, middle and
high school students at any one time, the
English-learning market in South Korea is a
multi-billion-dollar industry. Some 4,700 hakwon in
Seoul alone offer a variety of English courses.
Many parents also prefer that their children study in
an English-speaking environment.
The Chosun Ilbo reported this month that the number of
overseas Korean students had exploded from 1,562 in
1998 to 10,149 last year.
They pay as much as 50 million won a year to study in
elementary, middle or high schools in countries such
as the United States, Australia and Canada.
For those who cannot afford the overseas experience,
one alternative could be an English village opening in
Seoul in October.
Occupying an area the size of three soccer fields, it
has schools and imitation banks run by native English
speakers.
Students use English on site, paying 250,000 won a
week for the privilege.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
With reports by Leslie Lau in Kuala Lumpur, Krist Boo
in Tokyo, Lee Tee Jong in Seoul,
Lawrence Chung in Taipei, Nirmal Ghosh in Bangkok and
Melissa Sim in Singapore
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright @ 2004 Singapore Press Holdings. All rights
reserved.
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