19 Oct 2009

Learn A 'Foreign' Culture By Learning Another Language

By Zulkiple Ibrahim

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 16 (Bernama) -- These days, parents have expressed keen interest for their children to master other languages apart from Bahasa Melayu and English. For the non-Malays, this is an addition to their respective mother tongue.

To them there is nothing to lose by mastering more languages, but everything to gain.

"I want my child to be proficient in three languages. I picked Mandarin (as the third language). There are language centres where you can learn Mandarin, but why not opt for formal education in that language," said a parent Hazlinda Hamzah.

Hazlinda's words made the clock turned some 40 years for the writer, the day when his mother said that she wished to enrol his younger brother at a Chinese primary school. The school was SRJK(C) Yok Eng in Pasir Mas, Kelantan.

"I wanted your brother to know more than his mother tongue," she had said then.

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