This is it. It's finally happened.
The stuff of bad dreams for many language teachers has today materialised for me, rearing its ugly head, scoffing at my abilities as a language professional.
This is an actual letter from one of my students as part of their coursework.
Final year student. Soon to graduate and meet the workforce of the nation.
Read it and weep...
Comments
Welcome to my blog.. Yeah, it's amazing isn't it? I almost cried when I read it...
U ever had something like this in ur career? The irony is it would have been so hilarious if it wasn't a depiction of the actual standard of English here...
But then again... it is hilarious isn't it?...
err...mesti rasa mau bunuh diri kan?ahaha
kesian lah. ini direct translation.
saudara = relative
pihak = party
sukacita = cheerfulness
and most of the words are totally direct translation
err..sorry to say, but i think secondary school students can do better than this. sheesh~
Cheerfulness I want give thankful to side sir, because taking time for lighting to I.
Atiqah,
Don't difficult liver you...
HAAAAAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
*ehem*...
sorry...
I have a feeling that this literal translation was done on the internet. Its a copy and paste thing.
It happened to us in one of our advertorials relating to Tunku Zarith Sofia. The advertorial was prepared by a university confering some award to her.
I've seen letters like these too.
What irked me especially is getting phone calls from PR people whose English is pretty bad.
My nine year old nephew speaks better.
I rather they speak Bahasa Malaysia than English.
I've always told my reporters that English is a skill. We're not born speaking a particular language.
We acquire the skill through learning.
Welcome..It is indeed a rare pleasure to see you in my site. Please do drop by more often.
Yes, I do agree with you in the fact that I'd prefer them to speak or write in Malay, than in English, but that would put me in a bit of a quandary..As a English language professional it's my sworn duty to make sure that these people rise to the required level..but as you can see it's an uphill task, because most of the damage has been done at school..and more often than not in primary school, where the absolute basics are not properly taught..
However, I do see a ray of hope with the Government's new policy of ensuring that all future teachers sent to primary school are graduate teachers..
We'll see what happens in the long run..
And keep our fingers crossed in the process.
Welcome to the real world...It's your job when you graduate to make sure that you don't pass over students like this to my end ;)
I did weep!
ps I take it, he meant "Saudara"
Never EVER use a kamus dwibahasa. Take it from a translator and interpretor!
thank god, ade yang lagi terok dr i.. huhu...i think it's internet punye pasal la kot.. ade je bende camni tuk translate bm ke bi.. but directly lah.. i've seen it too..
I would have given a lot of money to see that. Was there a lot of rolling on the floor as well? ;)
Dya,
Welcome to my site. It's always nice to see new faces here. Hope to see you around more often...No matter how good/bad we are, there's always someone better/worse...wouldn't you say?
Take care k..
oh, btw, it was fun to see you at the mosque with ur baju melayu hitam ;)
2 zero 2 zero is a scary thought indeed..
Give us some examples from ur end man..
nway...dat black baju melayu was my baju raya 3 years ago...thnk of it...i wonder how can i still fit in it...haha
It's a new language emerging from the grassroots, set on becoming our national language in 75 years to come...
Scary eh?
Another form of language is already blazing headway into our teen's written lingo; the sms language.. very much more scary.