BY and large, many Malaysians of various ethnicity seem to have some ambiguous feelings about the English language.

Even now, the use of English as a medium of instruction for math and science subjects in our primary schools is hotly debated among parents, educators and politicians alike. Meanwhile, private colleges, international schools and tuition centres are raking in a fortune, by imparting basic skills in English usage to students whose parents can afford their exorbitant fees.

The rise of the prominence of English proficiency as a hot commodity is understandable. It is the nearest thing we have to a universal language.

Blame it on the success of the British Empire in conquering many corners of the Earth in the last couple of hundred years if you like. But English has become an important language in many developing countries. In India, it is even one of the official languages of state, despite the resurgence of Indian nationalism in recent decades. In my home state of Sarawak, English is still spoken in the state legislative assembly.

The imperial success of the British was succeeded by the Americans in the 20th Century and beyond. The Americans did not have to resort to territorial colonialisation as the British did. Their dominance in industrial production, and their mighty presence in international politics supported by their military juggernaut ensured the premier position of their brand of the English language throughout the world.

Two unseen hands of history also consolidate the invasion of the English language into billions of non-English homes.

English in the cyber world

The first one is the global proliferation of American pop culture. Wherever people have higher income than before, they need entertainment like they need air. For nearly a century now, the American entertainment industry has built up a global empire, mass producing movies, pop music, comic books, soap operas, television drama series, as well as game and reality shows. It does not matter where you live. The minute you turn on the television set or switch on the radio, chances are you will learn some American English along the way.

The other factor has been the emergence of the personal computer as one of the most essential piece of furniture in one's household. Almost all of the personal computers in the world run on the Microsoft Window operating system. Naturally English is the language of choice for Microsoft, it being an American company.

There are softwares that allow computer users to communicate in Chinese, Thai or Jawi. Still, it pays to know some English when you enter into the cyber world of the Internet.

Therefore, in this much touted age of globalisation driven by advances in information technology, it is only to be expected that English should become the unofficial de facto lingua franca of international trade, commerce and finance.

When major cities of the developing world have become mere assembly stations for the global production lines of multi-national conglomerates, with astronomical investment funds moving across national borders at the click of a mouse, people without any knowledge of English can hardly jump on this universal band wagon of prosperity and enjoyment of the good life.

English has also become the international language of learning, scholarship and research. Universities and other institutions of higher learning in the West have always been the custodian of knowledge and learning for many centuries. In the last hundred years or so, the pursuit, production and propagation of knowledge in these universities have also been intimately linked to the national economies of the English speaking world in complex but decisive ways.

Large corporations and government agencies have become the most important sources of funding, not only for maintenance of the universities and colleges, but more importantly, for numerous research projects in all fields of the academia. Many of these universities also have vast publishing houses, promoting the latest finding in scientific research and scholarly studies in the humanities. The most important works of non-English scholars are also routinely translated into English.

Dominant language

Research findings must also be tested and authenticated through publication in speicalised professional journals, which are also mostly in English. (The biggest problems of our Bahasa educated university graduates is their lack of excess to these publications because they lack English proficiency. This is probably one of the reasons why Malaysian universities have been slipping in international rankings.)

Finally, English is also the dominant language of international media, politics and diplomacy. Our personal feelings not withstanding, CNN and BBC still pretty much determine the focus on the world's political agenda to a great extent. Despite the nationalist misgivings of the French, the Chinese and the Japanese, English will continue to dominate the world stage for a long time ahead.

I am merely describing the reality in the world of linguistics as it exists today. Not everybody is happy about it.

Many post-colonial and proto nationalists in all manners of emerging nation states view this increasing prominence of the English language with alarm. It would appear that, with some possible exceptions like Korea and Japan, citizens of various states in various stages of social and economic development must be assimilated into the universe of the English language in order to compete in the savage global market place. Is this linguistic imperative not a bit like another advanced form of imperialism, a sort of lexical hegemony?

Ethnologists have a different set of reservations; they are worried about the death of other languages.

At the last count, there are now slightly over 8000 natural languages left in the world. Languages are indeed dying fast, especially among the dwindling indigenous populations at various isolated parts of the world. The dominance of the English language as dictated by the logic of globalised trade will only aggravate this situation. Some ethnologists have predicted that within a few decades' time, only 2000 natural languages will remain.

For some strange reasons, natural languages can only be born, not made. The birth of any natural language is a miracle in itself, and can never be repeated. Once dead, it stays dead. Greek and Latin may still be studied and used by contemporary scholars, but they remain dead carcasses of the living universes that they once were.

Contrary to popular belief, any language is not a mere tool for communication, like an axe is a tool for cutting trees.

We cannot think without a language. When we think, listen to, speak, and write in any language, we are already steeped up to our nose in an ocean of pre-existing lexicon, syntax, and grammatical rules. We are enmeshed and tangentially enchained to the language we use.

In this way, any language is a universe unto its own, providing a grid of complex and inter-locking references with which a speaker and a listener together can interpret the world, and interpret the relationship between the Self and that world. Therefore, different languages will influence and shape the sense of unique self-identity of the speaker in different ways. Language is the carrier and the medium of a person's identity.

The 'Banana Man'

Now perhaps we can begin to understand the resistance, and even resentment, felt by many nationalists of various ethnic persuasion against the English language.

To them, learning and using this foreign language is to admit defeat in their struggle to rid themselves of all their colonial legacies. It is almost like an admission of the inferiority of their National Language, or that of the numerous mother-tongues existing in our multi-racial country. To the ultra-nationalists, the invasion of English into the mind of their young is an act of desecration against their purist perception of ethnic and self identities.

Among the Chinese people for instance, the wholly English educated person is sometimes labeled as the 'Banana Man'; he may be yellow outside, but inside he is all white.

This is the dilemma of many Malaysian parents and educators. Despite their love for their own respective language, the harsh reality remains that proficiency in English is still a short cut to the lucrative professions or big business. It is a stepping stone on the way to better pay, a higher standard of living, and a financial future in old age. Being pragmatic Malaysians, those who can afford it will give their children tuition in English; some send their children to high schools overseas to receive an all English education.

I am not much of a fervent nationalist of any sort, and neither am I generally pragmatic. I understand the ambiguous feelings many Malaysians have towards the English language, but I do not share them.

At the end of the day, most Malaysians are multi-lingual anyway. It is our virtue that many of us can speak two or more languages. This linguistic agility allows us to traverse across many cultural universes, making us more tolerant, more human, and much better at appreciating the plurality of Malaysian life.

By extension of this argument, English is just another language to be learnt. At least it is not as hard to master as Chinese or Tamil. Adding English to our Malaysian vocabulary is like adding another feather to our linguistic cap. At least, proficiency in English will open us a window, to peek into the cultural, historical and spiritual universe of the Western civilisation. In this age when clash of civilisations brings nothing but strife and acrimony, knowing another language and another universe cannot be so bad.