Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Views on PPSMI - Part 1

The following are views and opinions expressed in supporting the teaching of maths and science in English:

View 1

WHY are people still trying to stop the teaching of Maths and Science in English after all these years?

Interestingly, those making noise are not involved in education. These people claim we will lose our Malay language just because we change the medium of instruction in two subjects.

This can never happen. After all, we did not lose the Malay language, even after 100 years of British rule, so how can changing the medium of instruction in two subjects make us lose the Malay language?

I grew up studying most subjects in English. My friends — Indians, Sikhs, Malays, Chinese — never had any problem mixing around with each other, and never bothered about race. There was a strong bond among us because we spoke a common language — English!

I am now teaching in a primary school in a rural area and I see my fellow Maths and Science teachers teaching in English without any problems.

The children enjoy learning and, in fact, speak more English than they did before. They surf the Internet together and cooperate in projects although they are just in primary school.

I really don’t understand why people are against the English language.

Perhaps they want to keep the elite in the city forever elite, and the rubber tappers in the rural areas forever rubber tappers.


View 2

I WAS truly pleased to read the letter “No less a Malay” (StarEducation, March 22). Yes, that is the spirit and a refreshing way of approaching the controversy on the issue of teaching Maths and Science in English.

I, too, must say I am no less a Punjabi although I speak, think and even dream in English. From what I read in the paper, most people in Malaysia support the teaching of Science and Maths in English.

I am happy with this trend. I think we are doing things right because English will stand us in good stead in the coming years.

The whole world is aggressively pursuing progress, and encouraging the study and use of English but some of us in Malaysia, are giving excuses.

This will not do. We do not want to be left out. What is the problem with studying in English anyway?

Some people say it is because teachers aren’t comfortable with teaching in English. Well, they should learn to be.

It should be clear to everyone by now that using more English in our daily lives and in schools and universities will only benefit us. Besides, English is the language of science and technology, and used internationally. We will definitely lose out if we aren’t good at it.

So, stop complaining and master it!

The Teaching of Science and Mathematics in English - Part 1

I found this article written by Sinatra_Z in his blog "http://lipassepi.blogspot.com/2009/02/sinatraz-why-i-support-learning-math.html", and i have to say that i agree with him in his view. I affirm his view and i strongly supports the teaching of maths and science in English. here's the article:

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Recently there is a lot of support calling for the reversal of teaching math and science in English.
Much of these support comes of intellectual who has never studied any form of science or math in their respective college or University.

Take for example the recent PPSMI forum which was supposed to be attended by Anwar Ibrahim but was replaced by Syed Husin ALi.

Syed Husin Ali is a Professor of Anthropology and Sociology from University Malaya. What science or mathematics is there? In fact I had to look at the dictionary to understand the meaning of Anthropology.

The anthropologist Eric Wolf once described anthropology as "the most scientific of the humanities and the most humanistic of the sciences."

Zaidel describes Anthropology as a major you take in Uni if you can't do Math well but want to seem smart by having fancy words on your degree.

And Anwar Ibrahim? Degree in Malay Studies, Oiyoooo the only Math they have in Malay Studies is to calculate the amount of credit you take per semester which isn't much of a problem for Anwar because during his Uni days he spent most of them shouting slogans on the street and getting angry for no apparent reason.

Why I say getting angry for no apparent reason? Because later he Joined UMNO!!

Back to thw reason why I support the damn thing.
I came from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia and trust me when I say this that a few years back this was the most Bahasa Kebangsaan University than any other local universities combined. Let's just say the first 3 years of my Engineering days were filled with Bahasa Malaysia/Melayu jargons. Just to show you what I mean take a look at some of these examples..

Engineering Term
Capacitor - Pemuat
Resistor - Perintang
Impedance - Galangan
Current - Arus

Others include : Momen Lentur, Tegasan, Terikan, Pepejal, Dinamik Haba and etc...

I mean those Engineering Lecturer took the extra mile to translate every single damn thing into Malay and I greatly respect this. As oppose to my sociology lecturers who like to screw up the Malay Language by prostituting English words into BM.

Take for example this term "Dekadensi Moral" When I first saw that term I was thinking what the hell is dekadensi moral, a type of resistor or something? Turns out Dekadensi comes from the English word Decadence. Dekadensi Moral means Moral Decadence direct translation where as you can simply translate it into "Kemerosotan Akhlak/Moral" which is much more clear. But NOOOO he had to use dekadensi so that he would seem smart and people won't question his Associate Professorship. Then you would have other words like kompak, visi, misi, infotainment, naratif kecil, naratif besar and penkek.

At first the Lecturers (Engineering) seemed to get it all good, they managed to translate the English term to BM very well and with very clear meaning. Then Things started to change as the subject get's more complex and you get newer terms. Take for example this Subject..

"Motorolla 68000 Microprocessor"

Which translates to Mikro Pemproses Motorolla 68000"
Sounds fine....

But then as you go deeper into the subject you will find more interesting terms. For instance

Timer - The clock cycle chip you use to send timing signals to the processors. It acts like a stopwatch to the processor.

BM Translation - Pemasa. Which is fine.

Then we have things like this -
Bistable Multivibrator - Dwimantap Penggetar Pelbagai. Apo Kobondo tu Jang?

Then in microprocessor you have this term call "Interrupt" and like it's name it means to interrupt the normal cycle of the processor and tell it to focus to doing something else. Kinda like the phone rings when you are cooking, you stop cooking and answer the phone.

The Malay Jargon Interrupt would be Sampukan. Interrupt Pin - Pin Sampukan.

Sampukan? Sampuk ke? Sejak bila Mikropemproses ada pocong atau Jembalang dalam dia? Ini Electrical Engineering ka Bomoh Engineering?

Masked Interrupt - Sampukan Bertopeng.
Handshake Interrupt - Sampukan Jabat Tangan. Ko salam dengan dia lepas tu ko kena sampuk, kira dia ni macam santau laa.

Then you have this thing called "Latch" which is an output chip.
Latch in Malay is Selak.
Selak as in Selak pintu, Selak Pagar or Selak pintu Jamban.

Mula-mula baca dulu saya ingat Selak dalam erti kata Selak Kain.
Contoh - Angin bertiup kencang lalu baju kurung Fasha Sanda pun selak sikit lalu Zaidel pun telah menerima ganguan emosi akibat dari kejadian itu.

Naah see,
And it gets interesting when it comes to "Electrical Power" Subject. In there there is this chapter where they talk about CoEnergy in power transmission. Coenergy in malay is translated to Kotenaga.

Which is why when he gave the lecture my lecturer would loudly proclaim KOtenaga compare to the students who prefer to pronounce it as KOTEnaga.

3 phase Coenergy in power transmission would then become
KoteNaga 3 fasa dalam penghantaran kuasa. OIYOOOOOO, kalah Anakonda!

Just for fun here are some other Technical Jargons you can play with...

Transformer - Pengubah
Decoder - Penyahkod (Mak Nyah kot)
Multiplexer - Pemultiplex
Polarity - Kutub
Instruction Set - Set Suruhan
Components - Peranti (I bet you didn't know that)
Universal Asynchronous Receiver Transmitter (UART) - Penghantar Penerima Pemasa Serentak Am

Now try translating this
Connect Your Joy Stick into the server Port, you should find little problem with the Joystick as the server has Plug and Play mode.

Masukkan Kayu Ria anda ke dalam lubang pelayan, anda sepatutnya tidak mempunyai banyak masaalah dalam memasukkan kayu ria anda kerana pelayan ini mempunyai fungsi masuk dan main.

Hambik kau!
Tu belum dia kena sampuk ke selak ke nak nak pulak ada kotenaga.

By the time I was in my 4th year,
Everything was taught in English.... SENANG!