NOVEMBER 12 — By now everyone from Alor Setar to Alpha Centauri has read about last week’s SPM English question which created a brain-freeze in a million students:
“If you had the opportunity to move to another part of Malaysia, where would you choose to live? Explain your choice.”
It seems many exam-takers misinterpreted this question and answered Japan, Sweden, Bali, Balitong and so on.
How much clearer should the question have been? Is it possible that Malaysian English has reached the point where we’re confused between “another part of” and “outside of”? Maybe the question should have been rephrased to:
“If you had the opportunity to move to another part of Malaysia, where would you choose to live? Look, it’s another part of Malaysia, okay? That means within this same country! I’m NOT asking if you prefer to live in Melbourne, because there’s only one correct answer to THAT question, obviously! Now, discuss.”
Poor Alwyn Lau has been driven up the wall by the poor 'England' of our SPM students, wakakaka.
But 'char koay teow' is not the correct description for their pathetic command of 'England' wakakaka.
'Char koay teow' in Penang Hokkien colloquialism means 'create trouble, cause confusion, instigate, agitate, etc', not 'piss-poor command of ...', and neither would be 'rojak'.
OK, perhaps they have caused mucho confusion, wakakaka.
Though I know what 'char koay teow' is intended to signify, I am not too sure about 'piss-poor command of ...'.
I suspect the more appropriate colloquialism should be 'chap ch'ai', wakakaka, or 'ch'ai boey'. But I surrender to a far superior colloquialism.
But my dear Alwyn, don't blame those poor kids because today when I read the FMT, its top headlines says DAP reelection kicks of with half of eligible members present.
The article was written by Melissa Darlyne Chow but I am not saying it's her who put that headlines up. Whoever, editor, sub-editor or Melissa, those FMT staff should be more careful.
I won't say what's the error in that FMT headlines, wakakaka, because I'm inviting my blog visitors to tell me, ie. if their 'England' is not like ch'ai boey, wakakaka.
My take: DAP kicks off its re-election with half of its members eligible to vote present.
ReplyDeletewell done, though 'its' is not necessary but not incorrect
DeleteDAP re-election kicks off with half of eligible members not presen.
ReplyDeletethe headline lack ommph, shd oso add in "many wonder why".
The first two sentences read:-
ReplyDelete"SHAH ALAM: The DAP special congress which began this morning saw just over half of its members eligible to vote showing up for the re-election of the party’s central executive committee (CEC) here today."
"The total of 1,356 delegates who were present made up 53.94% of the party’s members who were entitled to cast their ballots, returning officer John Lau from audit firm Grant Thornton said."
An appropriate headline should be:-
"DAP re-election kicks off with half of eligible DELEGATES present"
The key point is that the delegates are those party members who are eligible to vote but not every party member is a delegate.
Or put it another way, whilst KTemoc is a human being, not every human being is KTemoc.
Xinhua does a better job in this respect:-
"China Focus: How are 19th CPC National Congress delegates elected? "
"BEIJING, Oct. 2 (Xinhua) -- In about one year, 2,287 delegates have been elected to attend the upcoming 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), to be held in Beijing from Oct. 18."
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2017-10/02/c_136654961.htm
I don't know how the DAP chooses its delegates but the with the CPC, they are elected by the various local party committees throughout China and delegated to represent the local committee at the national party congress.
Anyway, Malaysian journalists,especially the younger ones, are not immune from the rot in the Malaysian education system.
The answers were out of point, but may actually have been brutally honest.
ReplyDeleteMany people can't really think of where else in Malaysia they may like to live in, all the same dreary life, but would love to be living in some other countries.
wakakaka, Monsterball oh Monsterball, we are talking about students' exam and an exam question, not politicised feelings
DeleteWho says they are politicised feelings ? They may be just students being very honest.
Deletepuhleeeze lah, do you have to spin to such a ridiculous extent? wakakaka, your prejudice is now oozing out of your knickers
Delete