Speak Away

Browsing my ex-company website recently, I recalled the wonderful K-sharing sessions. K-sharing means knowledge sharing, mostly by staff. The session was intellectual, as all members were urged to read, a lot... motivational, self-help, business, biographies, management gurus, even daily doses of business section on newspapers.

Anyway, I came across the following article, dated 2006. I was a BD Exec then.

" Speak Away... " By Ernie Chen

English, being the first international language, is one of the most widely used languages in the world. With the globalization of the world economy, speaking a common language has become an extremely powerful tool in establishing international trade. Hence, many countries have put forth huge efforts to heighten the awareness of the English language. Being a multiracial and multilingual nation, we are blessed with the unique ability to converse in many different languages, English being one of them. Today, most Malaysians recognize the importance of the English language. However, many are still struggling to speak the language.

Why do some people find it so difficult to pick up the English? The Malaysian education system has made it mandatory for the students to learn English as a language from elementary school to high school. A regular student who has gone through elementary school and high school would have already taken at least 11 years of English lessons. Yet, many still shy away from the language at the end of the day.

One of the reasons causing this phenomenon is the fear—fear to speak, fear to make mistakes, and the fear of embarrassment. In Malaysia, some people, if not most, view the English language as the more ‘superior’ language. It is a common or stereotypical perception that people who speak good English are usually better educated or ‘cooler’. Therefore, some people are intimidated from the beginning to even try and speak English.

Undeniably, English is one of the hardest languages to master; on top of the countless vocabularies, there are many grammar rules, and even more exceptions within each grammatical rule. Therefore, many people feel discouraged when they could not figure out the logics of the language, and stop trying altogether. The point is that most of us do not want to be seen as incompetent, and we fear that making mistakes will make us look inferior or ‘un-cool’.

Nevertheless, always bear in mind that language is just a tool of communication. The ultimate goal for mastering a language is to effectively communicate with people. If we could abandon the misconception on the ‘superiority’ of the language and make some effort to understand the grammar, we will find that it is not a big deal to make mistakes, as long as we learn from the mistakes. Dr. David Schwartz, the author of The Magic of Thinking Big says, “Action cures fear”. Only through action that we will be able to conquer fear and gain confidence.

Thus for a starter, speak away…

http://www.outloud.com.my/enewsletter/enews06-08.html

Well, I'm pretty sure it was written by me, every word of it.
Oh well. Maybe it is just a mix up. Anyway, enjoy :)