Was in a Chinese restaurant last weekend and overheard a mother talking broken English to her kids. It’s not just some Manglish or grammatical errors, her English was simply horrific.
If parents are hoping to improve their children’s English by communicating in the language… what’s the point if they are speaking crappy English? They are just showing bad example to their kids.
In fact I am against people using English to replace mother tongue for kids… it saddens me when I see my cousins that cannot communicate well in Chinese, but in English only. To make it worse their English is nothing better than mine, just as half broken.
The global trends are changing rapidly everyday, we won’t know what’s the worldwide dominant language will be in future; that makes multilingual capability a great asset. Focus on building a child’s English communication by neglecting other languages will be a huge mistake.
The worst is when parents try too hard to teach their children English when the parents can’t use it properly. They should just use back their mother tongue to communicate, and leave English to school, tuitions and other channels.
November 16th, 2006 at 12:33 am
Sounds like you master english well
My enlgish also half broken 
No offence here.
November 16th, 2006 at 12:52 am
that’s how government teach its people.. btw, i’m not good at any languages.. haha
November 16th, 2006 at 9:11 am
i agree with ya.. i was kinda shocked when i came to kl and found out that most of my friends can’t speak in their mother tongue.. their english is good but anyway i just think that it’s better to be able to communicate in their own language too..
November 16th, 2006 at 9:12 am
anyway how r u?
November 16th, 2006 at 9:41 am
Jee..see it on a lighter sight,,,at least they tried..probably these parents are not educated well..take it as an entertainment that goes with your meals….
or would u rather listen to hubby and wife argue in front of u.
any signage with ‘lousy’manglish display in the restaurant.! no surprise if there are…
November 16th, 2006 at 10:23 am
alicia..fully agreed with u …it’s sad kids don’t speak their mother tougue..today kids understand their mother tougue but refuse to speak it…same as most m’sian chinese don’t speak mandarin. if u r ever in a chinese restaurant runs by a China chinese with mainland chinese as waitering staff..they look down at you for not speaking mandarin…esp overseas like australia
November 16th, 2006 at 10:27 am
KJ.. nah, I am just decent with my English; and I write far better than I speak.
WTJ.. ermm what does this have to do with government?
alicia.. I am fine, better than fine actually, thanks.
It’s great to be able to command multilingual, but it’s good enough if they can command a single langual well.
Rm.. my point is, they shouldn’t try. It’s like someone without a medical degree trying to operate on someone.
Definitely don’t prefer anyone argue in front of me at anytime.
Lousy Manglish? Ermm yes to Manglish, we heard that everyday don’t we?
Lousy? That’s for personal perception, there are lots of people that think that Manglish is cool.
November 16th, 2006 at 11:16 am
say Jee..where does ‘Manglish’ actually came from.?.. is it to counter the Singaproen Singlish? any idea ?.
November 16th, 2006 at 12:37 pm
No idea.. does the term Singlish exist any sooner than Manglish?
November 16th, 2006 at 2:33 pm
Haha i think both came at the same time…the moment our countries were colonized(and when Singapore was just a fishing village), the mangling of languages came about. I am kinda ok with Singlish and Manglish, i have the belief that people can switch between proper English and colloquial english.
The americans and even the english themselves are guilty of it sometimes haha
November 16th, 2006 at 7:36 pm
Joshy.. I am not that critical about Singlish or Manglish, I don’t mind people adding a bit of culture in their English.
As said the mother that I met was speaking some horrible English, which was not even enough to be defined as Manglish.. it’s really really bad English.
November 20th, 2006 at 9:04 pm
Jee, since you have highlighted Malaysian English, I believe these articles worth for a read
Manglish
Malaysia English vocabulary
Malaysian Enlgish
British and Malaysian English
November 21st, 2006 at 9:39 am
hi guys how does one define what is Singlish and Manglish??.. does it means Singlish is when speaks in a ‘fishing village’ island and Manglish speaking in Malaysia??? or is it with a ‘lah’ or ‘lor’ ??
November 22nd, 2006 at 5:58 pm
Here is my personal observation. I think it is very hard to learn English from school, tuition, or anywhere else but home. The key to good command of a language is to speak that language. So the fact that the mother tried to speak in English to her kids, is commendable. I repeat: the fact that she *tried*. Goes to show that she understands the importance of English.
The mother may have poor command of the language, but at least the kid gets some exposure and in time, hopefully he/she’ll know what’s right, and what’s wrong. It is definitely better than some families totally neglecting English at home, leaving the child to learn by him/herself.
On the other hand, the mother tongue should not be neglected. In particular, Mandarin. You know what’s the ideal situation? A child goes to chinese school, but comes home to an English-speaking environment. That’s what I think, and what I hope to do to my kids, in the future.
Thanks for bringing this topic up ;). Otherwise there would not have been a constructive discussion here!
November 22nd, 2006 at 7:15 pm
Rm… Singaporean speak Singlish, Malaysian speak Manglish???
narrowband… I see your point; I still believe that it’s better for that mother to not try at all.
Well if you are good in English, it is a good idea to send kids to Chinese school and then learn English at home. Vice versa if those parents are good in Chinese instead.
December 1st, 2006 at 2:35 pm
Who care? People dun feel shame to speak manglish in malaysia because this is malaysia. Even in singapore they r speaking singlish ok?
It doesn’t matter if u can speak a fluent english or not in malaysia, i think learning new skill, earn money and building a caring society is more important in malaysia.
Besides that manglish is one of the malaysia culture. Nowaday i prefer to learn mandarin rather than english due to the rise of china. And i feel proud to speak mandarin.
December 2nd, 2006 at 1:36 pm
Allow me for interrupting but I couldn’t regard English as not important as it is widely spoken in every parts of the world.
I am a Chinese myself and I don’t understand a single word of Chinese and I’m not ashamed of it.
I appreciate my culture. My mother tongue is Hokkien. I’m quite good and well-versed at it. I’m from Penang by the way.
I am not “westernised” like most of my friends do in school. They listen to only English songs and despise Cpop, whereas I don’t.
I understand the rise of China and I have no absolute doubts that China’s GDP rate will surpass that of US and shall replace the No.1 status in terms of economy.
But yet, both language is as important as I think it would be.
Great being here.
December 2nd, 2006 at 2:02 pm
daniel… we are in the verge of globalization. I can’t precisely predict but sooner or later surviving in Malaysia will not be enough, we need to interact with people all over the world, and we do need to master a certain language.
I agree with Eric… English should still play an important part in near future, and the rise of China will also signal the importance of Chinese language.
But we will never know, Malaysia could surprisingly (A HUGE SURPRISE) to be world dominant force in future because of something we invented, and Malay will be an important language instead.
December 3rd, 2006 at 1:51 am
By the way.
I’m like you. I am against people using English to replace mother tongue for kids. My friends used more of English instead and refused to communicate using their mother tongue. I, well, on the opposite.
But I’m a Cpop hardcore fan lols.
I’m enrolling Chinese classes next year. ^^
December 21st, 2006 at 11:11 am
Was looking for something on English and stumble upon your website.Very interesting discussion even if I’m a little late for it. Would just like to leave my 2 cents worth. Anyway, I think its crucial for students/parents/ whoever to try speak the language even if it means we have to stomach horrible English. If they do not speak no matter how much they learn English in school, tuition centres it really won’t help. I’m actually an educator and from my experience they learn faster when they speak. In this case even if the mother speaks horrible English, it still beats not speaking any English at all. It helps to speak because something someone might be kind enough to correct you and help you improve. If you do not try how would you even know it’s wrong. What might seem simple to you and me might be a whole different story to them. Take care
December 21st, 2006 at 1:26 pm
cheryl… obviously we have very different ideas
You are right about the best way to learn a language is by speaking; and communicating with parents is probably the start for every kid.
I just felt that the parents must be good at their mother tongue, and it’s a waste that they are not teaching their best stuffs but rather use a language that they are not familiar… in the end the kids are not able to learn good English nor their mother tounge, that’s a waste imo.
I could be wrong… as what you said, what applied to me might not fit their shoes.