The Big Language March

In Malaysia we take our learning seriously! 

We undertand that on the 1st of April there will be a march to parliament to hand over a memorandum to the new PM by no less than 43 people representing all the “races” in Malaysia. They all want learning of Mathematics and Science to be carried out in their own languages. We managed to interview Andal Anak Kabul from Sarawak. 

“Learning science is already difficult for us pribumis in Sarawak! And then we have to learn English too!” Raising his voice, he says, “We are hit with a double whammy! Surely our chance to fail is double.” Why the double whammy? “Cant you see? We were having difficulty learning Science and Maths in Malay! Then we were asked to switch to English! Let us learn in our own language!”

The above sums up the general sentiment of the group. Are they afraid of the water canons? They think the police will not do anything because they are going to march in single file each carrying a flag with the name of the language, starting with Malay, Javanese, Mandarin, Thai, Tamil, Telegu, Malayalam, Hindi, Kadazan, Murut, Dayak……

Learning of anything should begin with the mother tongue! Let a new chapter begin with our new PM!

Filed under: education, learning, march

Rewiring the Brain – Learning English

There is still a lot to be learned and understood about the brain. Latest research estimated there are 100 billion cells making up our brain. Each of these cells are connected to possibily all other cells through its axion and the dendrites that sprouts, grows and connects or “touches” other cells through synapses. There is a constant flow of information between all these cells. It was previously thought that each part of the brain performs a specific function – localization. So if the part that controls your left arm is destroyed, then you can no longer use your left arm etc. This “localization” of the brain also imply that once your brain has gone to learn something in a certain way you will not be able to undo or to “rewire the brain”. It is like wires and cables had been laid down and you can do nothing about them.

When people speak about Malay kids are a disadvantage when it comes to learnng a new language like English, or that Malay kids are “naturally” not inclined to excel in Maths and Science..they are followers of “localization”. The evidence out there tend to prove these people right. In research an unconcious bias or a peconceived opinion could be proven true by selecting data or interpreting data to prove one’s unconsious bias.

Current studies on patients who have suffered massive strokes have shown that it is possible to recover use of their once paralysed limbs. Micro brain scans have shown that different parts of the brain can take over the functions of destroyed cells so that even hearing and sight could become partially restored.

This means that anyone can learn or unlearn anything. The part of the brain learning language may be wired in a certain way if we have learned and are only using 1 language all our lives. When we listen to another language for the first time we will not be able to distinguish between all the different sounds and thus maybe hearing only noise or gibberish. But if the sounds are presented slowly and in a clear manner it should be possible for the different sounds to be differentiated.  If the student is then motivated to learn the new language, he/she will learn the language. Forget about “hard-wired” brains.

Our brains are malleable. The brain can reorganize it self thoughout its owner’s life span. Of course if the owner decides not to use it…as they say…you will lose it if you dont use it…the term we need to remember is plasticity….So learning English or math is possible.

Filed under: Uncategorized, brain, learning, plasticity