In a Facebook Live video, he said those who viewed English in a negative light would lose out as it was both an international language and the language of knowledge.
“In the past, it was Greek, then it was Arabic, then it was Latin and from Latin, European languages became the language of knowledge, the most common being English.
“If we want to wait until that knowledge is translated into our own languages, there’s a possibility that not everything will be translated. There is also a possibility of things getting lost in translation,” he said.
Mahathir also refuted the notion that learning English would make people forget their mother tongues.
“I studied at an all-English school. They didn’t have the Bahasa subject when I studied there. But I used the language whenever I spoke to my family and my friends, and I read books in Bahasa even though, admittedly, there weren’t many.”
Mahathir said when he entered politics, he also had to speak Bahasa Melayu fluently as many with whom he conversed could not speak English.
“Mother tongues come naturally to us. We are raised in places where the language is used all the time. We will not lose our mother tongues simply by learning English.”
He also disagreed that learning to speak English was an indication of support for colonialists.
“Learning to speak in English enabled me to read many books, and through these books I learned what the white men did to the natives in America, in Australia and the blacks in Africa. I learned to hate colonisers even more.”
Mahathir said today, with technology, it had become much easier to learn multiple languages.
“We have the computer, we have the internet. There are even books which come with discs which can teach you how to speak a language. These books are even better than what you get in school because they are written by native speakers of that language.”
He added that it would be a good idea if schools encouraged students to read more story books.
“If at every level you read three English story books and then are quizzed by the teachers, you will be good at the language.”
During Mahathir’s tenure as prime minister, he had encouraged the use of English in schools by implementing a policy where Maths and Science were taught in English.