I WRITE in support of Tan Fong Jian’s letter “Improve accessibility to online Malay literature” (The Star, Oct 28).
I faced an almost similar situation a few years ago but I was not
doing any research then. I wanted to improve my 10-year-old son’s
interest and understanding of Bahasa Melayu (BM) and tried very hard to
look for story books in BM for readers of his age.
Sadly, I could not find any good quality material in the local
bookstores and there was also hardly any available for sale online.
I tried to contact a few publishers on what books they might have in BM and some did not even bother to reply.
A search on Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka website also did not turn up anything which might have interested my son.
Needless to say the Dewan Bahasa website until today leaves much to be desired.
I also remember that I had a hard time looking online for BM to
English dictionaries then and could not find any translator app for BM
at all.
I hope all these may have changed since then for the sake of the
younger generation who are more interested to look up their tablets
rather than their books.
For the benefit of everyone interested to learn more about BM, I
hope the relevant authorities can enlighten us as to where our resources
for our national language are located, besides the obvious state
library which not everyone can access easily.
It would definitely benefit everyone if more is done to promote our national language online and offline.
I for one would look forward to national-level competitions, talks,
plays, spelling bees, debates, poetry recitals, etc. to show that our
national language is something we can all be proud of and not something
used just for passing our SPM.
A LECTURER
Penang
Saturday, November 08, 2014
Thursday, November 06, 2014
Hard to find quality BM reading material online
The letter from the editor which appeared in the Star 6 November 2014 is so so true. Here we are, well at least the politicians who goes on and on about the supremacy of the National Language but where is the commitment to make it easily accessible. There is a glaring gap between the aim to make it the lingua franca of the nation and the reality.
I find it hard even to find Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka's magazines at bookshops or newspaper vendors.
The letter is food for thought:
I find it hard even to find Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka's magazines at bookshops or newspaper vendors.
The letter is food for thought:
Friday, May 09, 2014
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)