English in our classroom..RP or others?

1.RP
Received Pronunciation (RP), also called the Queen's (or King's) English,is the standard accect of Standard English in Great Britain.. Most former British colonies use this type of English.

2. American English
American English and British English (BrE) differ at the levels of phonology, phonetics, vocabulary, and, to a lesser extent, grammar and orthography.

3. The case of Malaysians?
Due to our exposure to English movies [RP & American], we tend to mix them up unknowingly, and now emerge a new variant - OUR OWN ENGLISH!

Presently, the English Language as a subject in Malaysia is tolerant with the mixture of both varieties, especially in writen form.

* * * * *

and this is Fadzilah Amin's take on this issue, as published in Mind Our English, The Star :

British or American English?
by FADZILAH AMIN Tuesday March 6, 2012  

Should you call it ‘movie’ or ‘film’? Well, it depends whether you’re talking about an Oscar (Hollywood’s Academy Award) or a BAFTA (British Academy Film Award). Confused? Read on...

THE ideas in this article have long been playing around in my mind, because I am aware that Malaysians are exposed to the two main varieties of English: British English and the English used in the United States, which I shall refer to here as “American English”.

Some of the older ones among us were taught British English during the colonial days, and passed it on to the generations after us with varying degrees of success. American English, on the other hand, is the variety we are more exposed to now through cinema, TV, the Internet, popular songs, and so on.

Although, due to the circumstances of my education, I feel more at home using British English. I don’t think that one variety is necessarily better than the other. I was stunned, therefore, to come across this paragraph in a letter from a reader of Sunday Star on Feb 12: For decades, Malaysians have been proud of using British English without the American corruption of the language. (emphasis mine)

Surely this is a harsh and inaccurate way of describing American English, the language used by John Steinbeck, Arthur Miller, Ernest Hemingway, Robert Frost, Mark Twain, and a whole lot of other excellent writers, some of whom have won the Nobel Prize in Literature!

While I share the concerns of the writer about the need to improve the standard of English and English teaching in our country, I do not think we can or should prevent the American variety of English from being used here, whether in writing or in speech.

Speaking as a former teacher, I don’t really mind if at first my students mix up the two varieties of English, as long as they can use the language clearly and grammatically, and continue to increase their vocabulary. As they get better, some of them would perhaps be able to distinguish between the two varieties, in their spelling, pronunciation and vocabulary.

American and British English are not that different from each other. They are about as different as Bahasa Malaysia is from Bahasa Indonesia. Speakers of each language can understand each other, with a little bit of accommodation on each side.

The differences between American and British English are perhaps most apparent in their pronunciations. For example, when there is an “r” within a word like “burn”, the Americans would pronounce the “r” while the British generally don’t – except for the Scots. Also, the “a” in many words like “pass”, “dance”, “chance” is pronounced like the “a” in “that” (indicated phonetically as /ae/) by Americans, while the British would use a long “a” sound as in “calm” (indicated phonetically as /a:/ - the colon denoting that the vowel is long.)

However, how many of us Malaysians who were partly educated in Britain or America really speak like the natives of those countries? Most of us will have a Malaysian accent, with a trace of British or American flavour in it. I don’t think there is anything wrong with that, as long as we can be clearly understood by other speakers of English, and don’t sound strained through trying too hard – and failing!

Let us look at how a few words of different origins are used or pronounced in British English, American English and in Malaysia. Since the Academy Awards were recently presented in Los Angeles and telecast live here, let us take the word “movie”. The word is of US origin, is an abbreviation for “moving picture” and has been in use since 1912.

The equivalent in British English is “film”. In 1950s Malaya, English-speaking people would say they were going to “see a film in a cinema”, or less formally, they were going to “the pictures”. I never heard anyone mention the word “movie” then. Nowadays, “movie” seems to be the preferred word, especially among the young. Even the British Daily Telegraph uses it interchangeably with “film”. For example, in its online edition of Feb 29, in the section called “Film”, the phrase “Movie reviews and previews” is written before “film news”. So, the word has not only gained currency in Malaysia: it has also sneaked into British English.

On the other hand, there is the word “fall”, in the US sense of “autumn”. It is not a US coinage, even in that sense. It was first used in British English in 1545 in its full form, “fall of the leaf”.

Although “fall” meaning “autumn” is only used in some dialects of British English now, the poet G.M. Hopkins used “Spring and Fall” as the title of one of his poems (published 1918) and the Scottish essayist and historian, Thomas Carlyle, used it in that sense in his biography of the Scottish author John Sterling: His first child ... was born there ... in the fall of that year 1831 (OED).

The word “momentarily” gave me a fright during my first visit to the US. It has different meanings in American English and British English. In the former, it means “very soon” or “in a moment”, while in British English it means “for a very short time”. Imagine my alarm, while travelling from one city in the US to another by plane, when I heard this announcement: “We will be landing momentarily in Atlanta.”

Since Atlanta was my destination, I thought I really had to hurry off the plane in the short time it would be on the runway! And what about my luggage? Then I calmed down, thinking, it must mean something a little different here; and it does!

To come to pronunciation, let’s take the word “vase”. It is usually pronounced /veis/ in the US and /va:z/ in British English and in Malaysia.

Many years ago, I was watching the film Plenty, with great admiration for Meryl Streep’s faultless English accent. Then she said “veis”! Well, her English accent was almost faultless.

The word “route” has an alternative pronunciation in the US: it sounds like “rout”. So don’t be surprised if while on a visit there, your bus driver says what sounds like: “We have a little change of ‘rout’ today.”



sourced primarily for your reading pleasure by Mr Kelvin Liew Peng Chuan 2011/12

Stories for my mother ,(I)

Smarter than most ,

by Chong Sheau Ching, ‘Stories for My Mother 1st Collection’, 1999

“These fellahin (villagers) are stupid! If you want them to do something, you have to tell them over and over again! Even after you show them a million times what to do, they still forget everything. And when they do something wrong, they don’t tell you until it’s too late!” Dr. Mona pointed at Zaineb as she rattled off her frustrations to me. “Her sister has worked for me for a year and she still makes the stupidest mistakes. I have to scream at her every time she comes!”

Dr, Mona then harshly scolded Zaineb, who stood there timidly with her head down, her two hands folded in front of her. She looked like a frightened cat.

I had just arrived in Mansoura, a town by the Nile Delta in Egypt. Dr. Mona, the director of an organization, was my counterpart and local contact. She was doing her best to help me settle in, including bringing me Zaineb as my maid. For over an hour that day, she gave me a cultural run-down on how to treat maids. She also translated what I wanted Zaineb to do and showed Zaineb how to operate the electrical appliances. Zaineb listened attentively and nodded at everything she said.

When Dr. Mona was satisfied with her instructions to both of us, she warned me before she left, “You have to cut her wages if she doesn’t satisfy you, otherwise she will never learn. Remember, she is a fellahin; she doesn’t think as we do.”

Zaineb had come down from a village near Mansoura. This was the first time she worked as a maid, a low-level, despicable job in Egypt. Her husband had been unemployed and the twenty Egyptian pounds I gave her for two afternoons of work was like a gift to the family. She was about my age but she looked older than I. Her hard life had carved many wrinkles on her face.

Zaineb cocked her eyebrows and nodded in an exaggerated manner whenever I gave her instructions in my broken Arabic. She would say, “Aiwa (yes)! Aiwa!” Assuming a subservient posture, she never looked me in the eyes and always stood five feet from me. Even when I approached her, she would timidly withdraw. No matter how much I tried to be warm towards her, she behaved like a cat trapped in a cage with a lion.

During her first few days in my apartment, she sucked my brand new panty hose and socks into the vacuum cleaner and burned my dress with the iron. Sometimes the vacuum was turned to the highest level and I would hear loud noises of all kinds of things being sucked into it, followed by Zaineb’s frantic retrieval of them with her fingers or a broom stick. Repeated instructions on how to adjust the vacuum cleaner and iron didn’t yield any effective results.

Although Zaineb was supposed to work from one to five, she stayed till way past seven. Dr. Mona told me she had to take a one-hour bus ride back to her village and waiting for buses could take her over an hour. If she stayed late in my apartment, she would arrive home late to prepare dinner for her family. When I pointed at the clock, Zaineb looked at it with a blank expression. Not wanting to take advantage, I said, “Sabah (seven)” or “Sitta (six).” She would then rush off, suddenly jolted into reality.

One day, I found the brown outline of an iron on an expensive silk blouse. “Eh da (what are you doing)?” I demanded.

Zaineb’s hands shivered. She pointed at her head, then shaking it furiously she said softly, “Mefish! Mefish (there is none)!”

Zaineb lifted her face towards me and slapped her cheeks several times. Two tear drops rolled down from the corners of her eyes. She then lowered her head and shoulders, her two hands folded in front of her, as if she were waiting for me to pound on her.

I was stunned by such strong showings of remorse. “Malesh (never mind)!” I shrugged my shoulders and walked away. I didn’t know what else I could do.

Torn between keeping her because she needed the money and asking Dr. Mona to get me another maid, I thought I could give her another chance by having her do my food shopping. I gestured to follow me to an alleyway near my apartment where there were fruit, bread and vegetable vendors. A woman vendor had a table full of breads.

“Ithmin (two),” I pointed at the bread. “Bee kam (how much)?”

“Khamsin pastre (50 piastre).”

I took out some notes and sorted them slowly. Having arrived in the country not long ago, the Arabic numbers were confusing and I still had difficulty figuring out the money. Zaineb beckoned me to hand her the money. She took out a note swiftly and showed me. It was a 50 piastre note. She paid for the bread, and as the vendor wrapped it in a piece of local Arabic paper, Zaineb stopped her.

She spoke rapidly to the vendor and signaled me to wait. She went into the pharmacy beside the walkway. Pointing at me, she talked animatedly with the proprietor. He went to the back of the shop and brought out several pieces of newspaper. He showed the front and the back pages to her. She took the newspaper and came back with it happily. For the first time, she looked at me as an equal.

“Ingeelishi.” Zaineb’s eyes were radiant with warmth as she pointed at the newspaper. It was the Egyptian Gazette, a local English daily. Then, she wrapped the two loaves of bread in the paper and handed them to me.

She carried the rest of the Egyptian Gazette with her and told all the vendors to wrap my purchases with it. She also sorted out my money for me with ease.

When we came back to my apartment, I felt very touched by her thoughtfulness. Zaineb was more clever than I had thought, and there was a cheerful side to her as well. I wanted to ask her more about herself, but my Arabic was too limited for a meaningful conversation. Thinking that she could write, I gestured her to put her name down using my pen on a piece of paper.

Zaineb shook her head and shrugged her shoulders, “Musha’arif (I don’t know).”

It finally dawned on me that Zaineb couldn’t read or write. She went home late because the sun went down by four o’clock in the winter and she couldn’t tell the time when the clock reached five o’clock. She didn’t know how to use the appliances because she couldn’t figure out the words that indicated the power and the level of voltage.

One day, I brought Zaineb to the pharmacy where she got the English newspaper and asked the proprietor to translate my questions for her.

I learned that Zaineb had never gone to school because her family was very poor. She spent her childhood helping her mother in the house. She married when she was thirteen and became a homemaker, just like other fellahin women in her village.

Zaineb recognized the notes and coins from their colours, shapes and sizes. She could only count up to twenty because she had never bought anything for more than twenty English pounds in her life.

When I told her she could still learn to read and write, she pointed at her head and shook it sadly, “Mefish!”

Zaineb refused my offer of money to pay a teacher to teach her. She insisted that such expensive activity be given to her sons and her husband. “What does the mother of Mahmood (her eldest son’s name) do with things like this? She can’t cook or wash the clothes with them!” The pharmacist translated Zaineb’s refusal.

He shook his head and said to me, “Madam, you are wasting your time. These women are not born to learn things like this. They can’t think!”

Not satisfied with what I was told, I devised a way to prove that Zaineb was not stupid. I marked the suction-control on the vacuum cleaner with different coloured markers—red for “high”, green for “medium” and blue for “low”. I showed her the power of the suction according to each colour.

Then I cut squares from clothes made of nylon, linen, wool, cotton and silk. After pasting each piece of cloth on a piece of paper, I marked them with different coloured markers. I stuck a piece of masking tape on the temperature-control of the iron and marked the signs with different coloured markers that matched those pasted on the paper. Satisfied, I pasted the paper on the wall right near the ironing board.

From then on, Zaineb didn’t have any problems with the appliances.

I went to see Dr. Mona in her office one day. She was buried behind the stacks of books she was supposed to have authored. After the usual greetings, I handed her a pile of US dollar notes that the office gave to our project for equipment purchase.

“So much money confuses me! These notes look the same!” She fidgeted in her seat and tried counting it, but messed up every time.

“Ahmad, sit here and count this for me!” Dr. Mona yelled at her clerk. “Don’t you make any mistakes!”

Then, turning to me, she asked, “Is Zaineb doing what she’s supposed to do? I told her if she makes many stupid mistakes in a foreigner’s apartment, she should be ashamed of herself.”

“She is doing fine. She is smarter than many people I know!”

............................................................................................................

* a good reading material, full of moral values


sourced primarily for your reading pleasure by Mr Kelvin Liew Peng Chuan 2011/12

DISCUSSION ESSAY

• When do we write a discussion essay ?
• We write it when we want to present a balanced argument , giving points for and against a topic . We give our own opinion of at the end of the essay . 
• Structure
  • Introductory paragraph : Write a statement that explains the topic and say that there are arguments for and against this idea.
  • Second paragraph : give the points for the topic or the advantages
  • Third paragraph : give the points against the topic or the disadvantages .
  • Last paragraph : sum up the arguments and give your conclusion
• Content
  • Start by writing down a list of points for and against OR advantages and disadvantages .
  • Choose the easiest points to write about and group them into paragraphs .
  • Think of facts or ideas to support your arguments .
  • Use linkers to introduce your ideas and to make additional points .
• Useful language
  • Starting : Many people say …/ think that …/ It is true that …/ There are many reasons for …
  • Commenting on the question : This is not an easy question ./ There isn’t a clear answer …/ We must look at both sides of the question .
  • Introducing points : Firstly , …/ Secondly , …/ On the one hand , …/ One advantage is that …
  • Contrast : On the other hand , …/ However , …/ But …
• • Adding : What’s more, …/In addition , …/ Furthermore , …/ Moreover , …/ too / as well / also
  • Reason and result : This is because …/ Because …/So…/ Therefore
  • Concluding : On balance, …/In my opinion , …/In conclusion , …
• Sample
  • Nearly everyone thinks that they would like to be famous . However , there are also disadvanteges to being in the public eye . We must look at both sides of the question .
  • It is true that if you are famous people recognize you all the time and ask for your autograph . You belong to a special group of people and this can be fun . In addition to this , fame usually brings money . A very big advantage of being a celebrity is that you probably live in a fantastic house , drive a fast car and have holidays in wonderful places.
  • On the other hand , it is not always easy being a celebrity today . A major disadvantage is that it becomes difficult to have a private life . People come up to you in your home, on the beach , or after a late party ! What’s more, some people become obsessed with celebrities and follow them everywhere .
  • On balance, I think the life of a celebrity has disadvantages , but it also has a lot of attractions . I would like to have the opportunity to try it .