Have you ever been shortchanged by a few cents? Has it ever happened that your one cent coins were not legal tender? It is puzzling when one cent coins are no longer accepted as a denomination of a certain currency. Many restaurants that I have frequented have shortchanged me by a few cents. One cent it seems would not make any difference and that customers would neglect this oversight by the cashier? On another occasion, when I gave 10 one cent coins to buy a newspaper, it was rejected by the newspaper vendor. His reason,” The banks will not accept this!” I am left perplexed. Are one cent coins no longer legal tender?

How is it possible? Would it be fair to either the consumer or the seller if sales are rounded up to the nearest figure? Who would decide? Would the accounts ever be balanced by repeatedly ignoring such minute sums? The answer is pretty obvious. We are not yet ready to live without the one cent coin. It remains cash and has its usefulness.

I suggest that the next time someone shortchanges you, demand for what is rightfully yours. Make it known that we are not fools and ask them in return if they would accept it if a lesser figure is paid. As for those who do not accept one cent coins, I would rather then take my business elsewhere.

Viewing CCTV(China Central Television) on Astro was very invigorating. Their newsreaders are reading impeccably. This comes as a surprise when this is a television station from China. With China only recently adopting an open door policy, it is a great wonder how fast the Chinese are mastering English.

Back in Malaysia, I am dismayed at the quality of reading of our newsreaders. Their pronunciation was on many occasions inaccurate and certainly lack dynamism. This hardly reflects a country with decades of British influence and thus a supposedly head start in the mastery of English.

What happened? Why have we fallen behind other countries that had no lasting historical contact with English speaking countries unlike ourselves?

One clear contributing factor is the previous educational policy of our Government which stressed on Bahasa Malaysia as a medium of instruction. Instead of balancing and stressing the importance of both languages, English was unfortunately sidelined. Despite having English classes available, the standard was woeful for a nation previously under the British rule. There was a lack of classes encouraging communication in English. It was even implemented in universities where Bahasa was advocated as a medium of instruction. Despite the importance of maintaining Bahasa Malaysia as a major language in Malaysia, English has to be emphasised as a language for global communication.

It was not until the era of the current information technology that our Government realised the folly of their ways. Most materials on the internet are in English. And for Malaysians to fully utilise the power of the internet, English was certainly essential. Subjects like science could hardly be taught in any other language apart from English. Take medicine for example. The amount of medical texts are enormous and impossible to translate accurately and completely. This has led to a revision of our educational policy and thus the reintroduction of English in subjects like science and mathematics.

Unfortunately, we are left with a generation deficient in their command of English. Decades of poor educational planning and foresight has put this nation several steps back and falling behind nations that had no prior English influence. We now even lack teachers who can teach English. Even existing ones do not have a satisfactory command of English themselves.

Perhaps, our future generations would benefit from this recent policy change. But what I would like to see now is for our politicians to improve their command of English and should be an important criteria for holding office. Our current political leaders appear inept at holding a conversation in English without being interspersed with another language. Some grammatical errors are profoundly embarrassing. They should be good role models for our young generation to emulate.

There is much work to be done. I believe that we are headed in the right direction. Nevertheless, our pursuit of excellence in English should have an added vigor and enthusiasm. Perhaps blogging could be a good avenue to pursue one’s literary talents in English and promote reading and communication in English!