ARTICLE :ENGLISH IS USEFUL FOR US

The English we learn and use in Malaysia is not Queen's English, or Received Pronunciation.

Only three per cent of the world's population speak or use it. The rest are varieties of English.

At macro level, what we are speaking here is new English; at micro-level, Malaysian English.

New or world English, to cite a few examples, are American English, Malaysian English, Singlish and Bruneian English.

Braj Kachru, a professor emeritus at the University of Illinois, the United States, said English could be understood in an expanding three concentric-circle model. The inner circle is the English spoken by native speakers from the United Kingdom, United States, Canada, New Zealand and Australia.

In the second expanding circle, there is English spoken by former English colonies, while the outermost circle refers to the English used by nations that take English as a foreign language.

In Malaysia, British English was used at institutional and administrative levels. But, now, only a few, or none, speak Queen's English.

Regional elements ought to be tolerated and understood in this variety. In this vein, structures like "I already pay him" rather than "I have paid him" are understood and accepted.

The argument is, what model should we adopt? I suggest the more tangible model, which is Malaysian English, and use it in our own way, but intelligible in terms of syntax and pronunciation to foreign users.

my comment :

As we know that English is an international language, which is spoken by a majority of population in the world. So you do not have to worry about being totally misunderstood when you visit a new place or country.Most of the books and instructions are written in English. Almost the subject such as Science, Math, History, Geography and others are all taught in English. Learning will be much easier if you know how to speak it. Besides,communication also important.More than a billion people around the world speak English language. Most of the international conferences, seminars and trainings are in English. The language is considered to be an international medium of communication.