How much should Malaysians acquire the competency of English? Should we speak like a native speaker? Or should we be comfortably enough with Manglish? There will always be two sides of the coin.
Just a handful, and when they do, Malaysians tend to think of these 'elite' few as trying to show off, simply because we don't need RP accent to be understood. In fact, it does the opposite.
And btw, Manglish, Singlish, Chinglish, and all other -lishes are being 'lobbied' to be considered Varieties of English. I can't remember where I read it, but 'English now no longer belongs to the native speakers'. Look at how 'innovative' non-native speakers are, in blending the language to suit the local culture and scene.
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The point here is, we are able to speak and understand 'their' language. Can they speak and understand us? ehemmm that's what I thought so..
And now we have Malaysian English, Singaporean English, Chinese English, and God knows what else. I really pity the RP
Alamak, I initially thot the RP in your comment refers to someone's initials. Do you mean native speakers then?
RP is Received Pronunciation, right?
yup..RP is the Received Pronunciation..but think of it.. who speaks English with a perfect RP in Malaysia?
Just a handful, and when they do, Malaysians tend to think of these 'elite' few as trying to show off, simply because we don't need RP accent to be understood. In fact, it does the opposite.
And btw, Manglish, Singlish, Chinglish, and all other -lishes are being 'lobbied' to be considered Varieties of English. I can't remember where I read it, but 'English now no longer belongs to the native speakers'. Look at how 'innovative' non-native speakers are, in blending the language to suit the local culture and scene.
No offence meant to those who speak with an RP accent. I think they're great to be able to speak it well. Tapi perlu kena pada tempatnya.
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