No wonder he still cannot retire and rest now, as more and more of his undoings is surfacing now and need to use blog to glorify his past.

-woody

Oh my god! It is not whether you have money to go overseas to study and it is certainly not if you are a first grader. It is simply whether you understand what is good and proper English !

For 30 years, I buried my head in shame reading memos after memos from my boss. These memos, had Shakespeare read them, would send him rolling on the floor laughing. One soon get used to it as a norm for Malaysia.

This is the result of the world best Malaysian System. This has been a nation of Monkeys see monkeys do. Ask no questions because there is no place for using your brains. Malaysians do everything, expecially going to work, by leaving their brains at home. Those who bring them to work have nothing but frustrations.

Now, there is a sudden awakening. Friends, you will need another 2 generations- if you start seriously today - to set it all right again.

It is just pathetic and well beyond my time.

My suspicion is,

I think he wrote a nice piece in Malay , than do google-translate (or babble-fish it)…

that is the end result..

-woody

It is almost impossible to make drastic change. It has affected many generations. The best way is to let these old generations to fade away. But it is another gigantic impossible task. The vicious cycle has extended too deep in.

I knew a girl who was studying at TARC after her form 6. She was having hard time following her course. She consulted me and showed me her notes. Goodness gracious. Do you know what I saw? Every page of her notes were full of her scribbles. There were English-Chinese translation of almost every single word. How could she possibly follow her course while she spent most of her time looking up the dictionary?

Finally, she took my advice and quit studying at TARC. Do you know what was the next worst thing? She enrolled into teacher training college at her hometown. I guess she is already a teacher by now.

A change of our education system means to take people like her out of the loop. Otherwise, the vicious cycle will continue endlessly.

We cannot remedy 50 years of annihilation with 50 years of recovery. The system needs more than 50 years to recover.

I fully agree to the contents you have posted.

Kesiannya negara kita terdapat orang-orang seperti kau yang tidak berotak. Sekurang-kurangnya tulislah dalam bahasa jika anda mengakui bahasa Malaysia anda lebih baik daripada saya! Jangan menjatuhkan air muka orang Malaysia lagi dengan bahasa Inggeris seperti itu.

This is the first time in more than 20 years I write in Malaysia language. I am not a translator and I refuse to use a translator software so I try my best to translate the above for my international readers, here’s the translations:

There is a saying:

An advice will be handicapped if it is delivered clearly.

(I hope the translation is correct.)

If I write it clearly, then it does not provoke my readers’ thinking.

Pity our country to have such brainless people. At least comment using Malaysia language if you claim your Malaysia language is better than mine. Please do not humiliate Malaysians further for such English.

u write not clear n u say what lack critical reeding so many things also u say. U look like banana can write chinese and LCLY.

Why universities? Lets ask Google to setup a Google University with Professor Google.

I have a master in Computer Science and specialized in distributed computing. I setup Beowulf clusters in my university (256 nodes) and my employer’s lab (1024 nodes). Recently I setup a tiny Beowulf in my home using 4 Mac Pro and an iMac, giving me a total computing power of 34 cpus. I upgraded the memory, hard disks in the Mac Pro and iMac myself without calling a computer technician.

If you need to call a computer technician every time you need to fix your computer, how could you possibly do your PhD work?

I know to fix computers down to circuit board level. I just think that being a specialist in computer science, you have to be well versed at the fundamental of computers. What use if you can write thesis or papers about complex computer technicals and can’t even fix a computer?

I think you are a typical case of very dependent Malaysian Adrian was talking about.

Ken: Well, a PhD may not be good in all fields. That doesn’t suggest that they can only be good in publishing papers as they are trained to write papers. If you are talking about Computer Science PhD, the fundamental knowledge for a Computer Science graduate is programming and algorithm analysis and design. That was a damn simple programming Adrian was talking about and it should not be a problem at all to a PhD because it did not require a PhD to write such algorithm/program. She wasn’t hired to manage. She was hired to develop and to lead the development team. If she didn’t know how to develop, how could she lead? If a computer science PhD does not know how to fix a computer, it is indeed very doubtful of his/her PhD. Come on, it is computer scientist you are talking about. Are you a computer scientist who don’t know how to fix computers? I see that you don’t understand the whole picture, perhaps lack of critical reading? Yes?

Oster again: Adrian did not say it was wrong or not appropriate at all to Google. But the teachers’ (including lecturers and professors) job is to teach and guide the students. “Kick his rosy ass” said they approached the lecturer (PhD) for pointers, not answers. Giving a pointer is not spoon feeding. Giving an answer is. Another case of lacking critical reading.

Azhar: Well, Adrian has published a paper in an international conference. His English is at some standards. He is not a writer but I believe he has made every effort to reduce language errors. Writing a post is very different from writing a paper in Adrian’s context. To him, writing a blog is just like rambling, everything is straight from his heart. That’s a lot of difference between him writing a post and a university publishing an advertorial. Is your English any hotter?

This is not a post about how good or how bad someone’s English is. It is about how critically bad your tertiary education system. Please understand the motive of the post before commenting.

Some cases of pathetic commentators.

“Some students even revealed to me that some Ph.D. lecturers plagiarized lecture notes and assignments from foreign university’s websites”

This is only wrong if the authors have not been notified. I’ve seen this done plenty of times in the UK, with original authors being told of their reproduction. Are your friends sure that it is a case of plagiarism?

“Some of them even were told to Google for answer when they approached their Ph.D. lecturers for pointers”

Again, have seen this happen plenty of times in the UK. In a way, it’s not bad, since giving the proper answer can be spoonfeeding, and student initiative is a very important skill, IMHO.

conscience = konsains !
‘i put it to you’ = ‘ saya taruh sama lu’ !
carbon dioxide = car-burn die-outside !
shameful = kemaluan !
opinion = pendapatan !

don’t lose sleep over it folks.

Another incident was when a student constructed this England sentence: “Yesterday I saw a man pass away” when what he meant was he saw a man passed by.

And there was this incident when I asked for some “pepper” after being served steak in a western restoran served by Malaysians (don’t want to mention the race). Guess what the waitress brought me? “Paper”!!

Atrocious! Pathetic! Sad! Stupid! I run out of adjectives to describe the situation we’re in. By the way, what’s “adjectives”? Are we taught this word in our England lessons?

At the rate we are deriorating… anything can be happen! It’s so dangerful to speak England like that. I just looking and looking and finding the cannot for the reasons how come our England has become so tewwible.

Whew! Writing the last para is really an ordeal!!

and to those who study local uni: don’t be such a loser to complain about the lecturer. university does not carve your future but your attitude is what matters. if you consider yourself a tertiary educated person, start thinking critically and don’t just be an intellectual coward. mature people don’t complain of the situation, they work out the best of it.

Please do not give up. Despise those who blamed their parents/family for not able to support financially to study abroad. Pity those who think they are not bright enough to study abroad.

Getting straight As does not mean everything in tertiary education although it will be a measurement for academic achievement.

Studying in university means a lot more than education itself.

My partner has recently managed to secure a US scholarship for a young boy from private secondary in Klang. He is at the bottom of his class and his family has no financial resources to support his study abroad.

But his sheer determination and unique potential have earned him a scholarship to a US university. He is so proud of his parents and never blamed his parents for not being able to provide financially. But his parents gives him a hell lot good of encouragement. I think his success is due to this.

If you are determined to become a butterfly, so be it and work your way to become one and soar high. Stop blaming your parents and yourself. Improve your competitiveness all-round, not just academic. Remember, straight As doesn’t mean everything.

I really support and agree with “Kick his rosy ass”. We pay both arms and legs for a university degree and all they tell us to do Google?

My family is not rich to send me overseas. And I am not so bright to get a US scholarship. What can I do? Does that mean I deserved such a shit education?

our students used to top all the universities in uk. that was once upon a time. today, they are struggling to pass english as a subject, let alone enter university in uk.

what a shame! what an embarrassment! what stupidity!

But it’s totally unacceptable for an institution of learning especially a university to blunder like the the above example. This is not just bad grammar here and there but everywhere!

By the way, if you subscribe to Malaysiakini and you try to login when your subscription ran out, they will take you to a page to renew subscription that says something like this:

“You are pleased to logout then relogin to Malaysiakini once your renewal had done.” !!!???

Not sure if it’s still there, emailed them about it but no reply. This is an English online media!

But it’s totally unacceptable for an institution of learning especially a university to blunder like the the above example. This is not just bad grammar here and there but everywhere!

By the way, if you subscribe to Malaysiakini and you try to login when your subscription ran out, they will take you to a page to renew subscription that says something like this:

“You are pleased to logout then relogin to Malaysiakini once your renewal had done.” !!!???

Not sure if it’s still there, emailed them about it but no reply. This is an English online media!

Reaction to comments : It doesn’t really matter where you go to school…if your core attitude is *hit, all the degrees in the world won’t mean a thing. Personally, I’ve met both local and overseas uni grads of all sorts…even some who graduated from UK unable to speak a single error-free English sentence. But what the heck..at least, they are giving it a try, right? And I’m getting really tired of people assuming I graduated from overseas just because I can speak and write virtually perfect English.

So people, give it a rest…and look in the mirror. You want to fix this society…it begins with that man in the mirror.

I’m ashamed, as I’m one of those enrolled into the Malay medium, and not the English medium! If so, I would be one of those US graduates…

Sigh!

There are other grammar errors but I shall let the writer go through his own article and discover the errors himself/herself.

Perhaps the writer’s excuse is that he/she is an unfortunate product of out sub-standard tertiary education.

c h ong

But if this is outrageous, it potrays something even more pathetic — a sense of decency and the total lack of governance in any of the universities. That this abominable piece of work passed scrutiny speaks volumes of the abject decadence.

Well written…

I do believe in one conspiracy theory, the authority is out to “stupidize” the citizen (Sorry, I know there is not such word in dictionary). So that those in power (BN-aristocrats) can conveniently sent their own offspring out to overseas to be educated and come home to rule the “stupids”, as local universities are creating so much of them, enforcing feudalism by trying to sustain the master and slave equilibrium.

If not, why all ministers had their families in overseas ?

-woody

People like you, they call ‘kacang lupa kulit’. Aiyah, so sorry, you educated in west. You can read Malay or not? It means, the bean forgot the skin lah. English say forgot the roots lah. Where you learn your English? Not Malaysia ah? Just because you study in west and can write and speak little bit like Mat Salleh (aiyoh, sorry again, this time it mean Kwailoh), you think we local graduate all useless one.

US graduate also same lah. Last time I got two staff, both graduate from University of Oklahoma City. Engineer some more. Their English is so bad, I tell you, if you read, you sure laugh one. I think my English is bad one but their one is worse.

When I ask them, they tell me their SPM English, they only get C4 and then some more, dare not take Cambridge O Level English paper. I said, no wonder lah so bad. I wonder how they can graduate from US university if their English is so bad one. Of course, I didn’t tell them that lah. Give them face mah, also I don’t want to make them angry, otherwise they wallop me, I die.

So, what you get for English SPM? You got take Cambridge O Level English or not? I think if you got take this exam, sure score A1 one.

I only get A1 in English SPM and A2 in Cambridge ‘O’ Level English. And I never study in Mat Salleh school before. So, ‘Phai Say’ lah….

Somebody should correct it and have a side by side comparison. To shame the writer and to teach others how it should have been done.

This will show the readers of the Internet have better command of language instead of those working in Higher Education in Malaysia

This only shows the level of our higher education. It looks like it was written by someone who has no idea how to write and use the correct English expression.

I think a normal Form 1 kid in SG (being dual language – English and Mandarin) can do better than that.

For example, in the example above. We should judge the US comp sci PhD above by looking at the international referred journals he/she published, in his/her area of expertise. Not in terms of team leader or management or getting a dos program design right. It’s the manager fault to hire her as a team lead just based on PhD qualification, but this doesn’t nullify her PhD and we shouldn’t judge her PhD on able to write a dos program or not.

We often have difficult question from our grandparents, since you are computer graduates, why can’t you fix a computer for me? Actually, they should look for a technician coz not all computer graduates are trained for computer fixing, although most of us know how to do that, not professionally though. If you have the same mindset that PhD holders should be good in everything, then you are thinking like my grandparents.

oh, btw, I have a phd as well, from one of the reputable country u mentioned above, and have led team of international PhD holders and other graduates as well. PhD are good in certain area, do have its advantage in something (like analytical skills, etc). But in general management or whatever, it’s just not fair to compare; it should be just compare on an equal ground.

And on the news above, who cares whether the university get the grammar koret or not? We can just run thru an office word to get all the grammar fixed. Hononary degree are usually awarded to an honour person, so we should check whether the receipient do have social standing or contributions to the society, and argue based on that, instead of pinpointing to the grammar. Oi yah, btw, it doesn’t mean that I am endorsing the quality of UTHOM. Just that it’s flaw to compare in such a way.