Monday, September 14, 2020

Issue likely to give "someone" high blood pressure

Malaysiakini:

More Malay youths picking up Mandarin as third language

Malaysiakini

The popularity of Mandarin classes is rising among Malaysians, including those without Chinese heritage, who are starting to recognise its significance, especially living in a multicultural country.

This trend is apparent especially through the mushrooming of such classes, which use Bahasa Malaysia as a medium of instruction, catering mostly to the adult Malay students who are eager to pick up the language for a variety of reasons.

One of them is Khizanat Mandarin, a class offered in Ipoh, founded by 21-year-old Deena Erissa Delaila Mohd Zawawi (above, centre), who herself does not have Chinese heritage, but studied the language as a student of a Chinese vernacular school.

Deena said she never really thought about the demand for such classes when she started providing ad hoc lessons in 2018.

“I was merely doing it for fun and I wanted to share my skills with everybody,” she added.

Soon enough, she started getting requests from people from various backgrounds, and it made her start formal classes at Khizanat in Ipoh, Perak.

Today she has 40 students, many of whom said they joined her classes because they found it easier to follow classes conducted in Bahasa Malaysia.

“My class consists of students ranging from 19-45 years old and from a range of professions, from salesman, lawyer and barista to dentist and businesswoman.

“These people are willing to learn from me (because) I am Malay, so it is easier for me to explain to them.”

Ahmad Hunain, 27, who works as a marketing director, said he decided to join Mandarin class from Deena to elevate his business skills.

“As a business owner, other than English, learning Mandarin makes it easier for me to communicate directly with clients in and out of the country," he added.



Proof of Mandarin’s popularity among Malay young adults can be seen at Universiti Teknologi Mara, where most students are Malay.

According to Universiti Malaya language and linguistics lecturer Yap Teng Teng, Mandarin is the most popular “foreign language” taught to students at UiTM.

Much of this is influenced by the international political landscape, with China’s position as a global superpower, said Yap whose research includes the learning of Mandarin by non-Chinese adults in Malaysia.

Yap said the rise of China as an economic superpower has made Mandarin a preferred second foreign language worldwide.

“In 2004, there were less than 30 million Mandarin learners worldwide, and by 2015, there were 120 million,” she said.

The Malay community, too, is not spared, with more and more Malay parents sending their children to Chinese vernacular schools to improve their competitiveness in the future.

Similarly, Yap said, Malay youths or young adults view Mandarin as a tool for development, unlike the older generation who view it only as the mother tongue of the Chinese community.

Catering Mandarin lessons to Malay speakers

Mandarin language lesson provider MandarinJer spotted this trend among the young adult Malay community as far back as 2009, when it started its first class.

At the time the syllabus available for Bahasa Malaysia speakers learning Mandarin was not as accessible, head coordinator Ebby Lee said.

They were either dictionaries or dryly focused on grammar rules, which were not very attractive to young adult Malays who were already showing interest in the language, said Lee, who is of Malay-Chinese parentage.

This prompted MandarinJer - colloquially understood as "it’s just Mandarin" - to develop its own syllabus and approach to teaching the language, catered primarily to the Malay community.

Today, it boasts classes in five locations in the Klang Valley, and a strong social media following of at least 50,000 followers on Twitter.

Lee - or Ebby Lao Shi (Teacher Ebby) to his students - said most MandarinJer students are working adults who want to learn the language to get an edge in their careers.

But some also confide that they want to learn to speak Mandarin to avoid being gossiped about by their Mandarin-speaking colleagues, said Lee, who attended Chinese vernacular primary and secondary school.



As a child of mixed parentage, Lee said he does not only include sharings on Chinese philosophy, history and culture in his lessons, but also his experience in growing up in both the Malay and Chinese culture.

He also tries to find similarities between Mandarin and Chinese culture and Malay or Islamic culture for his students to help their understanding.

“I love to find things that are relatable to students, for example, intonation in Mandarin is very crucial in building sentences - one mistake can change the whole meaning.

“So I will give an example as to how significant tajwid (pronunciation rules) are in reciting the Quran, and how it is similar in Mandarin.”

Bridging the gap between communities

Deena's student Ahmad Husaini said while Mandarin helps him at work, part of his decision to pick up the language is to contribute to the harmony in the country.

“I encourage others to learn Mandarin because not only is it one of the most used languages in the world, but also because we can encourage bonding through this language, given that Malaysia is a multiracial country,” he said.

Lee agrees that by learning Mandarin, his students are trying to understand their fellow Malaysians and bridge the gaps among them.

“From my perspective, it’s about making the effort. For example, if we want to understand our Indian friend better, we learn Tamil.

“From the language then, we can learn the culture and history. We learn culture and tradition to understand another, to strive for harmony.

“From that effort, people (from the other community) will be happier and feel close to us, and they, too, would want to understand us. It builds bridges and compassion among the races,” he said.

UM’s Yap hopes the Malay community will increasingly view Mandarin as an important language tool, not just for economic reasons but also to build bridges among the different communities.

“The framework of learning Mandarin in Malaysia should be based on ethnic harmony, and with national interest as the key guiding ideology,” Yap added.

😁

19 comments:

  1. A 20-year old today is likely to be having to earn an income for the next 40 years.

    In the next 40 years , they will need to speak, read and write the language of the CCP, the dominant and domineering economic, technological and military power.

    ReplyDelete
  2. In addition, they need to be prepared to suck CCP-cock.

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    Replies
    1. Liken to u sucking yr demoNcratic masters!

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    2. Hehe, far far better than one old cock unable to wean off from white cocks.

      Delete
  3. malay r so lucky, they have a choice to learn or not to learn mandarin, unlike mongolian reside in mainland.

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    Replies
    1. Mongolians in inner Mongolia, China has choices of learning true Mongolian script & language besides the more encompassing Chinese.

      Unlike those in Mongolia, only Cyrillic Alphabet of Russia origin is been taught & speak!

      Indeed, just like the melayu, ONLY borrowed & forced foreign culture based on zombieic indoctrinations r been meme-ed.

      Delete
    2. Mongos are proud of their history , culture and language.
      Once, the Mongos ruled 3/4 of the entire Eurasia, including all of China, all of Russia, parts of India, much of the Middle East, as far as Poland and Hungary.

      Delete
    3. Another of Batty's fake news, typical of the 3-BlindMice Club happily dishing out anti China fake news. Mampus la this bunch of parroting OCBC...makan banyak lagi pisang OK ? , hehe

      The truth is, in the Mongolian language primary education system, Mandarin has been taught even in the 60s. The ONLY Change this time, is the replacement of localized Mandarin textbooks ( which use some non-standardized Mandarin words ) with the national, official Mandarin language textbooks. But parallel to the Mandarin language, Mongolian-language education system was also in existence for decades, with government funding to assist law-required quota for Mongolian-taught students if they got entry into top Chinese universities.

      As usual NYT can't wait to cook up new FAKE news to distort the truth, just like how it incredulously did a butchered job covering China's medical system a few years back...their lies are so glaringly, blatantly obvious, putting words into the mouths of those Chinese patients they interviewed, that critics had a field day demolishing that piece of shit...and up till today, NYT just ignored the deservedly severe criticism and pretended that their journalist had died and that he had never written that fucking piece.

      Looks like this time, again, they are going to eat the shit pie again for outright lying. Old habits die hard.

      Fabricating fake news to create hatred and conflicts between the native populations has always been a standard colonial conquest tactic and has been practiced by the western imperialists for centuries.

      Btw, in Xinjiang, you could see local Arab language not only spoken but written openly in certain official signs in local streets and subway stations in Urumqi. In Shanghai, most locals there speak Shanghainese, in Guangzhou, they speak Cantonese. There are also Hakka, Hokkien and other languages ( dialects ) still spoken throughout China by the locals. The whole of Hainan island spoke in Hainanese, but of course they could converse in Mandarin too.

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    4. https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Society/China-arrests-130-ethnic-Mongolians-over-language-policy-protests

      Anytime there is news that casts CCP in a bad light, the CCP-cocksuckers here will be out in force tarring it as fake news.

      Long Live CCP....

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    5. Within that fart filled well, everyone is been indoctrinated that in CCP China ONLY 普通话 is been speak, study in Chinese & Nothing else!

      Delete
    6. true or not? insist to learn a subject in mother tongue pun kena tangkap? it seem umno is pretty mild in comparison. n some even claim mongolian kids that succeeded to pursuade their buddy that boycott school to attend class will be rewarded with cash, wow bribe kids somemore, education with ccp kharacteristics kah?

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    7. Old moneyed mfer, have u noticed that some of those protestors' playcards were written in Cyrillic Alphabets in that Nikkei's report?

      Who in inner Mongolia would use Cyrillic Alphabets?

      This Nikkei reporter is a dickhead known famously for his CCP China bashing fake news. In the same legendary act of BBC in reporting Uyghur concentration camp fart with words of mouth evidence or paid actor reenactment!

      Every time such reports come out, those meme-ed CCP bashing dickheads would sing the chorus w/o simple & easy clarifications!

      China bashing fake news r their daily cocaine to sustain their demoNcratic high.

      Delete
    8. Why should one be even be surprised by the reaction of WhiteAss Kisser cock sucker ? He simply can't rebut on ANY facts presented to counter those China-bashing lies, so one can imagine him frantically googling news articles from the likes of Nikkei and such lapdog-media to shore up their lies. Who could forget the depth BBC could sink into using an actor impersonating an Uyghur supposedly imprisoned in a so-called Xinjiang 'concentration camp'.

      The assholes here in the Blind-Mice Club should be ferreted out like the rats that they are and be 'shot' at without mercy, hehehe



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    9. Stupid CCP-cocksucker.
      The Nikkei photo description clearly states the photo posted is a demonstration in Ulanbatar, capital of independent Mongolia, which is a sovereign country,

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    10. "insist to learn a subject in mother tongue pun kena tangkap?"

      Wakakakakaka…

      A mother lode of foul gaseous leaking out from that fart filled well, with all those dwelling katak croaking in chorus!

      That's how fake news r been fed to the world as if all those outsiders r getting intoxicated like these katak.

      Delete
    11. both inner n outer mongolian protest, mongolian in japan protest, in fact mongolian worldwide protest a authoritarian regime that try to sinicized them so whats the problem playcard in eng chinese malay russian japanese latin or even drawing?

      so got mongolian kena ttangkap or not? tell us, no need tok3tok4tokearthtoksky.

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    12. Which Mongolians r u farting about?

      Or u r going to play dumb for not been able to distinguish inner Mongolia from Mongolia?

      Wakakakakaka…

      Sinicized?

      犬养mfer, those living in inner Mongolia, under CCP China, r still able to learn, read & write the original & traditional Mongolian script, known as the Hudum Mongol bichig, until this day. So what r the Mongolian going to protest about?

      It was the first writing system created by Tata-tonga, a Uyghur man as ordered by Genghis Khan.

      Whereas, Mongolia ONLY used Cyrillic script, a Russian import in 1946. Many Mongolians NOW have to return to inner Mongolia in order to learn/speak Hudum Mongol bichig in this day. Why ain't they protest the list of Hudum Mongol bichig?

      The photos shown in Nikkei's accompanied report labelled the protest was in inner Mongolia. Those protestors were using Cyrillic scripted placards!

      So u tell the world lah r those claimed arrested true or false.

      Tok3tok4tokearthtoksky is the dalliance with fart circulating around fake news by mfer like u!

      Delete
    13. Old moneyed mfer, so what r those Mongolians protested about?

      The Hudum Mongol bichig is still been taught/learned/speaker within the Mongolian schools in inner Mongolia!

      Why ain't those Mongolians in Ulanbatar protesting about the lost of Hudum Mongol bichig in Mongolia?

      Learning additional Chinese language in inner Mongolia isn't a OK. But learning only Cyrillic & only speaking Russian is a OK in Mongolia.

      These Mongolians must be one hell of a bananas!

      Delete
  4. Support all streams of education- let the parents decide which is best, the weak streams will eventually die out....

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