Good morning, everyone.
Thanks Lions Club of Tanjung Petrie Johor Bahru for inviting me to launch opening ceremony of meaningful event in this morning.
While education is important to every student, it is meaningful if NGO can provide financial assistance for poor and needy students to complete their studies.
As I know, the club's charity works includes providing financial assistance to dialysis centre, children's education fund (FACE Project), donation of books and computers to school, support for beneficial youth activities and Leo clubs, visits and donations to old folks' home and handicapped children's centre as well as medical subsidies to needy patients.
Today, to support needy students in their studies, Lions Club of Tanjung Petrie Johor Bahru will distribute education funds to 140 students to relieve their financial difficulty. I would like to take this opportunity to praise their caring action as a contribution to the society.
Thank you for your effort and I hope there will be more financial assistance to be given to students in needs.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is important to command multi languages, especially foreign languages. Besides, as Malaysian Chinese, it is convenient for younger generation to learn different dialects due to our local environment. You can see that there are several dialectic groups within Malaysian Chinese, such as Hokkien, Teo Chew, Hakka, Hainam, Cantonese. Younger generation should learn to speak at least one to gain more advantage.
Besides dialects, foreign languages are important as well to be commanded fluently, especially good command of English. As English is considered as global language, it will be useful and competitive with your fluent English in involving different activities globally. For example, there are many celebrities who command multi languages and become successful in their career, like Pope John Paul II, he can speak 8 languages fluently, which are Polish, Italian, English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese and Latin. Famous Hollywood actress Audrey Hepburn not only can act but also can speak Spanish, Grench, Dutch, Italian and English.
Chinese actress and singer who are excellent in commanding multi languages are Karen Mok and Teresa Tang. Karen Mok knows English, French, Italian, Cantonese and Mandarin while Teresa Tang knew English, Japanese, French, Malay, Indonesian and also Taiwanese, Cantonese, Shanghai and Shandong dialects.
If you study their successful stories, you will find that they are not only brilliant in learning languages, but also make a lot of effort in learning. They devoted their precious time in their hard work persistently and they harvested their fruits they planted tediously. They are the perfect and excellent model for fellow students to learn.
So, keep your hard work and try your best to build up your competitiveness!
Furthermore, we as Malaysians gain lingual advantages due to our multi ethnics environment. Malay, Chinese and Indian are main races in our country while we still have other indigenous people in many states. By commanding at least three main languages, Malaysians are considered as lingual talents to the world, not to say we still have chance to learn Chinese dialects and indigenous languages.
China, India and Indonesia are the countries with large population, especially China and India are the top 2 largest population countries in the world. It will be advantageous if we command Chinese and Tamil in our country when competing with foreign talents worldwide. It is quite normal to command mother tongue and English as second language, Malay as national language. If Chinese can learn Tamil as the fourth language, it will be a breakthrough.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I urged the government can come out more open lingual education policy with the emphasis in mother tongue. With so many races, cultures and languages, it can be our country's assets and improve our competitiveness in current global era.
Let's look at some multi ethnics countries with to see how they conduct multilingual education policy. In Sweden, the Swedish is the majority language and English plays as the global lingua franca. However, there are 5 officially recognised indigenous minority languages. There are also Acts of Parliament to guaranteed minority language citizens the right to use their languages in their contacts with the administrative authorities and the courts in some of northern communities of Sweden.
Apart from the officially recognised indigenous minority languages, there are almost 200 'immigrant' minority languages spoken among the Swedish population. There is also a considerable degree of bilingualism among the majority population. They not only can speak English fluently, but also command some knowledge of another European languages, such as German, French or Spanish. So, you can imagine the linguistic ecology is quite complicated in Sweden. This thus makes Swedish possess more competitiveness in languages.
Besides, another Northern Europe country, Finland, also adopted multilingual education policy by emphasizing two official languages, Finnish and Swedish, English as dominant lingua franca and other European foreign languages. This kind of lingual education policy helps Finland materialize a multilingual ideology in almost monolingual member state of European Union.
In fact, Finnish schools provides welcome support to parents who wish to bring up their kids speaking other languages in addition to Finnish or Swedish. As a immigrant country, the government respects minority immigrants by setting up school system to give children of immigrant or mixed linguistic background extra lessons in any other languages they may speak at home.
Another immigrant country with large population, Canada, also adopt multilingual education policy. Did you know that around 20% of Canada's population speak a language at home that's neither French nor English? That's nearly 6.6 million people who are comfortable interacting with others in one or more of over 200 non-official languages.
Actually, there are five industries in Canada that require job seekers to possess multi languages, like healthcare, travel, education, customer service and social services. Studies show that it is quite important to command more than one language in seeking jobs.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
According to scientific study, there is close relationship in language learning and brain side.
Scientists have long held the theory that the left and right hemisphere of your brain control different functions when it comes to learning. The left hemisphere is thought to control language, math and logic, while the right hemisphere is responsible for spatial abilities, visual imagery, music and your ability to recognize faces. The left hemisphere of your brain also controls the movement on the right side of your body.
Hence, it is encouraged to learn second language or more for brain training. Language shapes the way we think. Whether we are listening, reading or engaging in a conversation, language can introduce us to new ideas perspective and opportunities.
But at a more fundamental level, language might physically alter your mind. Bilinguals can more easily focus on 2 tasks at once. They think more analytically. Parts of their brain devoted to memory, reasoning and planning are larger than those of monolinguals.
It is useful to know that learning a second language is like a workout for your mind. It can also increase creativity too. While bilingual speakers better at switching between 2 tasks or handling tasks, bilinguals can have better conflict management which is quite useful in future employment.
Besides, learning a second language can develop new areas of your mind and strengthen your brain's natural ability to focus, entertain multiple possibilities, and process information.
Just as you exercise your body to keep your heart healthy and muscles strong, exercising your mind can sharpen your decision-making and improve your communication skills.
Reference:
http://education.seattlepi.com/left-right-hemisphere-brain-learning-foreign-language-1343.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dan-roitman/your-mind-on-language-how_b_3902184.html
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新山布蒂里獅子會義走和頒發貧寒學生教育補助金活動新聞稿，出席嘉賓士都蘭區州議員（3月16日）
（新山16日訊）士都蘭區州議員曾笳恩呼籲，政府應提出更開放的語言教育政策，同時強調母語教育的重要性，以在全球化時代提升國人的競爭力。
他認為，我國擁有多元種族、文化和語言，若政府善用這些文化資源，將成為有利我國的資產，應付全球化時代的激烈競爭。
他提到，馬來西亞人因為多元族群的環境，具有掌握多元語言的優勢，除了華巫印三大種族，各州屬還有原住民。
「因此，馬來西亞人可說是語言人才，至少懂得母語、國語和英語這三種語言，華族還有機會學習各籍貫的方言。」
他也提到，中國、印度和印尼是全世界人口最多的國家之一，尤其是中國和印度，若通過馬來西亞的多語環境來掌握多種語言，尤其華族學習淡米爾語，將是一項突破，面對國外人才也獨具語言方面的競爭力。
他是在昨早出席新山布蒂里獅子會義走和頒發貧寒學生教育補助金活動，致詞時這麼表示。
曾笳恩也在致詞時提到，教育對下一代至關重要，而多語能力是年輕一代必須掌握的能力，因此國家語言政策在這方面扮演重要的角色。
「以北歐國家瑞典為例，該國有5種官方語言，包括本土少數族群的語言，因此除了瑞典語和英語，該國政府確保每個國民掌握兩種以上的語言，包括歐洲其他重要語言。」
此外，他指出，另一北歐國家芬蘭，雖然官方語言為芬蘭語和瑞典語，語言政策卻鼓勵國民學習英語和其他歐洲語言。「學校體系也確保他國移民或非官方語言的家庭，在學校能學習非官方語言，讓移民家庭也擁有少數語言的學習權，平等對待和尊重少數族群的語言。」
他也提到，另一移民國家加拿大，有20%國民在家用語不是官方承認的法語和英語，也就是將近660萬人口分別使用超過200種非官方語言舒適地互動，且形成多語生態環境，這也是拜該國多語教育政策所賜。
主辦單位在活動上頒發140份獎勵金予清寒子弟，協助他們解決求學方面的經濟困境，獎勵金總數超過14萬令吉。該會希望，通過舉辦義走活動，籌募補助金予貧寒學生，作為教育補助金。
新山布蒂里獅子會主席李健聰致詞時表示，該會頒發獎勵金予清寒子弟已有13年歷史，第一年共有50多名學生受惠，總數約2萬令吉，至今年受惠人數已增加至140人。
圖說：
Walkaton1：曾笳恩（前排左6）與李健聰（前排左5）在頒發教育補助金後，與受惠學生合影。
Walkaton2：曾笳恩（左）致詞勉勵學生掌握多語以增加競爭能力。
Walkaton3：曾笳恩（右2）為義走活動主持揮旗禮。
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