I've been writing this blog in English and Bahasa Melayu since the end of 2008. What I notice since then is that posts in Bahasa Melayu attracts most of the Malaysian readers while the posts in English get their readers mostly from oversea. I know this because I use Google Analytic to analyze who and where my blog readers are. I also notice that English articles rarely get any comment. I wonder why is this happening. Does Malaysian does not read English?
I'm writing this to promote the importance of English in our life. Everyday in my life almost 80% or written materials either hard-copies or digital are in English. Signboards, banner advertising, or billboards are now being published in English. Can we still ignore the messages just because we can't understand. Almost everybody love to watch movies and most of them in English. Do we still need to rely on subtitles to understand the story? Problems will get worse regarding to career. Unable to speak and understand English clearly will bring us nowhere. I have a real story for you. This happened about 2 weeks ago to my friend who had graduated with an honorable degree. Right after he finished his study, my friend managed to get a job with a company, After about a month working with the company, he resigned (or maybe advised to quit) because he cannot understand what his boss asked him and also cannot provide feedback to his boss and co-workers. You don't want something like this to happen to you.
Jobstreet.com had organized a campaign to improve our English and help career seekers to shine in front of thousands employers in Malaysia or perhaps around the world. You can check your level of English with this campaign and also try to improve using the tools provided. Everything is free of charge so don't worry that you might need to spend something for this.
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