I still remember my first corporate training session in Malaysia. As is often the case, my pleas to test the group before offering training had fallen on deaf ears, so I decided to start the session by getting the participants to introduce themselves - this would give me a chance to assess their level of English while getting to know about their work.
The first fellow stood up and began to speak. "My name Roslan," he started.
This was very concerning to me. In every English textbook in every school around the world, the very first thing that a child learns to say in English is "My name is...". If Roslan couldn't get this simple sentence correct, it must mean that he had virtually no grasp of English whatsoever! I was expecting to teach the group how to write business reports, but instead I might be teaching them how to say "How are you?", "Good morning" and "My name is John."
However, I was wrong. Roslan continued speaking and was able to describe his work using words such as facilitate, liaise and implement. He could communicate and function in English at a high level.
But it left me wondering... what kind of English speaker can use words like facilitate, liaise and implement, but is unable to say, "My name is Roslan" without making a grammar mistake? It was something that I would wonder about many times throughout my years of teaching English here.
Malaysians can be very hard on themselves when it comes to assessing their English. I've heard many people lament that "Malaysians speak terrible English" and that they are "behind other countries" or that Malaysians used to speak better English in the past. I have also noticed that my course participants consistently think their English is worse than it actually is, which in turn affects their confidence.
The truth is that Malaysians in general have a better standard of English than many advanced countries such as Korea and Japan. Malaysians also have many strengths. Their listening skills are very good. They tend to have an advanced range of vocabulary, especially when it comes to business-related words. They have the ability to talk at length and they can often communicate and make themselves understood even with broken English. They use a lot of idioms, too.
In my experience, absolutely and by far, the main weakness that Malaysian speakers of English have is a poor grasp of grammar, as we saw with Roslan.
The second weak area is writing skills. However, poor writing skills are often due to poor grammar. I have been approached many times by companies enquiring about a writing course, but upon further questioning what they were really looking for was to improve their employees' grammar. Grammatical mistakes stick out in writing where they are plain for everyone to see. On the other hand, people feel that they "get away with" grammatical mistakes when they speak.
Having said this, I have also noticed poor writing skills in terms of simple things like punctuation, capitalisation and planning out a simple paragraph.
English has been spoken in Malaysia for many years now, long enough for Malaysians to have developed certain quirks. For example, I was surprised to learn that, in Malaysia, a bungalow is a large house, whereas back in the UK, it specifically refers to a small house.
Another example is the pronunciation of the word liaise. Most people seem to pronounce it as "lie-ass", to the extent that they find it hard to believe that this is not the standard pronunciation. (Click here for the standard pronunciation.)
Then there's the ubiquitous lah that finds its way into English from Malay. The Chinese add meh, mah and ah, too!
Or what about the Malaysian habit of answering a question with "can" or "cannot"? (Can I have a glass of water? Can!)
In fact, we have to accept that there are regional variations of English. There is American English and British English, so why not Malaysian English? I personally draw a distinction between Malaysian English (correct English as spoken in Malaysia) and Manglish (broken English as spoken in Malaysia). Words, pronunciation and even interjections, such as lah, vary between English-speaking countries. However, English grammar does not tend to vary. For this reason, I would accept bungalow, "lie-ass" and lah as Malaysian English, but I would say that answering a question with "can" is Manglish - broken English.
Many companies are keenly concerned about the way their employees write in English, and rightly so. There is a tendency for Malaysians to use old-fashioned or overly formal English, for example:
You are hereby requested that, in order to facilitate the application process, form 4B must be completed in full and returned to us at your earliest convenience.
When checking my students' writing, I see words and phrases like goodself, at your earliest convenience, herewith, thenceforth and so on. It's like being transported 50 years into the past.
Writing like this stands in the way of forming a genuine and warm connection with customers or business liaisons.
I also see issues such as a lack of understanding of how to structure a simple report, email or even paragraph. All of these things can easily be learned in a few training sessions.
In short, the profile of the average Malaysian speaker of English is that they:
If you are thinking of sending your employees for English training, you will want it to have the maximum effect with minimum cost in terms of time and money. You can't waste time training them in things that they already know; a better method is to focus on their weak areas, namely grammar and writing. Speaking practice should be skills-based and focussed on practical scenarios such as giving a presentation, greeting customers or voicing opinions in a meeting. Confidence-building exercises can definitely be useful.
Armed with a good understanding of your employee's strengths and weaknesses in English, it is possible to put together a customised and effective training programme that will have a positive impact on your business!