Remember back when we were learning History for the PMR? Those long and boring textbooks would tell us that a long long time ago Malacca was a centre of trade and that the Malay language was the Lingua Franca of the region, used by thousands of different people from various parts of the world. It made me think that Malay wasn’t a language to look down upon.
That’s cool and all, but guess what...a few centuries have passed since then. Wars have been waged, technologies have advanced, and globalization has occured. And right now? Malay is not the lingua franca of the world. The international language of the world right now is English. What? Don’t blame me, okay? They won a lot of wars, that’s why English gets that honour. Unless you can start a revolution and kick the living snot out of their armies, English will still be the king of languages.
So basically, that means that you will need to learn English. Whether you like it or not, you will be using English throughout your whole career (unless you somehow fail the medicine course, and end up as a rubber tapper in Kelantan. But you don’t want that, right?). For one thing, being able to converse and express yourself well in the language will almost certainly give you a distinct advantage during the clinical years. (I’ve heard of Doctors complaining about students who cannot present patient histories very well, so make sure you don’t become one of those students!). Even after you graduate, if you want to further your career and specialize in a specific branch of medicine, you WILL have to write thesis & research papers in English.
Have I made my point yet? No? Okay, remember what Dr. Azarisman said in class the other day? How after more than a century, we still haven’t been able to attract the Chinese and Indian population in our country to Islam? Maybe we should rethink our strategies and start preaching to them in English. No matter how charismatic and articulate you are, it will be very difficult to impress or engage them using Malay (especially the more educated people).
So maybe I’ve made you think “Oh man, I need to further improve my English, pronto! But how can I do that? We no longer have any English classes!”. Aha, that’s where we English peers come in.
The English Peers of 14th Zenith are a small group of brothers and sisters who are willing to help. Quite honestly, we’re not really that awesome in English ourselves. But we were picked to share whatever “extra English knowledge” we have with the rest of you guys (and gals), and so here we are.
Unlike the other lujnahs in our batch, we have a lot of freedom in the type of programs we can do. That’s why we would really appreciate suggestions and ideas from every single one of you. We already have a few (hopefully) fun + awesome programs we plan to have in the future to help every single one of us improve our English. But getting more ideas from the rest of the batch wouldn’t hurt. If you have any idea at all about a program/event you’d like to see happen (no matter how “out-of-the-box” it might sound), then feel free to approach any of us and present your idea. Even if it’s a totally crazy idea, we will listen and if it’s any good, we’ll definitely consider it, InsyaAllah.
So that’s all from me right now. If you have the time, read this article on how to improve your vocabulary, written by yours truly. (Yes, I know I just shamelessly promoted myself and my blog. Shut up). Remember to study for the upcoming minitest, and do use your time during Ramadhan wisely, ok?
Adios.
Luqman Al-Bashir
(Self-appointed) Captain of Zen14 English Peers
and children’s role model.
That’s cool and all, but guess what...a few centuries have passed since then. Wars have been waged, technologies have advanced, and globalization has occured. And right now? Malay is not the lingua franca of the world. The international language of the world right now is English. What? Don’t blame me, okay? They won a lot of wars, that’s why English gets that honour. Unless you can start a revolution and kick the living snot out of their armies, English will still be the king of languages.
So basically, that means that you will need to learn English. Whether you like it or not, you will be using English throughout your whole career (unless you somehow fail the medicine course, and end up as a rubber tapper in Kelantan. But you don’t want that, right?). For one thing, being able to converse and express yourself well in the language will almost certainly give you a distinct advantage during the clinical years. (I’ve heard of Doctors complaining about students who cannot present patient histories very well, so make sure you don’t become one of those students!). Even after you graduate, if you want to further your career and specialize in a specific branch of medicine, you WILL have to write thesis & research papers in English.
Have I made my point yet? No? Okay, remember what Dr. Azarisman said in class the other day? How after more than a century, we still haven’t been able to attract the Chinese and Indian population in our country to Islam? Maybe we should rethink our strategies and start preaching to them in English. No matter how charismatic and articulate you are, it will be very difficult to impress or engage them using Malay (especially the more educated people).
So maybe I’ve made you think “Oh man, I need to further improve my English, pronto! But how can I do that? We no longer have any English classes!”. Aha, that’s where we English peers come in.
The English Peers of 14th Zenith are a small group of brothers and sisters who are willing to help. Quite honestly, we’re not really that awesome in English ourselves. But we were picked to share whatever “extra English knowledge” we have with the rest of you guys (and gals), and so here we are.
Unlike the other lujnahs in our batch, we have a lot of freedom in the type of programs we can do. That’s why we would really appreciate suggestions and ideas from every single one of you. We already have a few (hopefully) fun + awesome programs we plan to have in the future to help every single one of us improve our English. But getting more ideas from the rest of the batch wouldn’t hurt. If you have any idea at all about a program/event you’d like to see happen (no matter how “out-of-the-box” it might sound), then feel free to approach any of us and present your idea. Even if it’s a totally crazy idea, we will listen and if it’s any good, we’ll definitely consider it, InsyaAllah.
So that’s all from me right now. If you have the time, read this article on how to improve your vocabulary, written by yours truly. (Yes, I know I just shamelessly promoted myself and my blog. Shut up). Remember to study for the upcoming minitest, and do use your time during Ramadhan wisely, ok?
Adios.
Luqman Al-Bashir
(Self-appointed) Captain of Zen14 English Peers
and children’s role model.
yeah~~~!!!
ReplyDeletefinally~~~~a blogger's touch...
please carry out d good work~~~:)