Teach Malay First (Part 2): A Multilingual Malaysian Family Story – Lessons from Real Life

 

This follows Part 1: The "Teach Malay First" Debate – where we covered Dr. Azizah Zain's push for Bahasa Melayu (BM) as the main language for young kids, the strong pushback from people like Sarawak's Datuk Dr. Annuar Rapaee, and Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim's order to include BM and History in every school, even private ones. If you missed it, check it out here (link-to-part-1).

Now, let's shift from big ideas to everyday stories. Policy is one side; family life is the other. And it often tells a different tale.

Read to your children, whatever their ages

 

One of my readers, Heidi, left this comment on an earlier article about dyslexia:

“I read to my son every night since he was a baby. He grew up to be dyslexic. He is awful with punctuation, but I never have to change his grammar or sentence structure. It is always correct. He also likes to write stories (just for years they weren’t spelled right). Now I know the reading must have really helped his correct usage of word structure, and probably his love for writing stories.”

Notice what she emphasises: even though her son struggles with spelling and punctuation, his grammar and sentence structure are consistently strong. She attributes that foundation to the years she spent reading aloud to him from infancy.