PAGE chairman Noor Azimah Rahim said when it came to learning English – or any other language – immersion was key.
“Learning about any language requires immersion and the deeper the immersion the shorter the learning process will be,” she told FMT.
She was asked to comment on MEF executive director Shamsuddin Bardan saying that graduates lacked the ability to communicate in English. He had advised graduates who were struggling to find employment to take a crash course in English communication or for those who could not afford it, to go and learn from YouTube videos.
Azimah said: “Using technology including watching YouTube videos should complement a formal learning platform.”
Azimah said she understood, however, that not everyone had the opportunity to be surrounded by native speakers nor English-speaking Malaysians.
“Therefore, immersion in the language might be a little harder to accomplish for these people and so watching a lot of English videos may be an alternative,” she said, adding that language was often learned online.
She said, however, that in today’s internet age, there seemed to be little excuse for the large majority of Malaysians to not find avenues where they could be more exposed to an English-speaking environment – even if that environment was virtual.
“Graduates could actively search for friends online who may be native speakers or Malaysians who are well-versed in the English language.
“In fact, this could even be done before they enter the university as long as there is some monitoring and safety is prioritised. Students should be resourceful if they are hungry to have an edge.”
Shamsuddin was responding to remarks by Pakatan Harapan (PH) chairman Dr Mahathir Mohamad who had lamented the fact that many graduates ended up becoming drivers for ride-hailing companies such as Uber or Grab, or selling nasi lemak.
He said this should be a source of embarrassment for the country.
Dr Mahathir, in his second policy talk recently, added that the rising number of graduates who were not doing what they were trained for was a testament to the government’s failure to create more job opportunities.