M22

COMMENT

SATURDAY METRO, 17 JULY 2010

Finding a
common
language
Its not how well you speak but how you
choose to communicate that counts
EOPLE who know me know
that I love travelling and I
raked up most of my credit
card debt through travelling to different parts of the world enjoying
my youth, soaking up the culture
and meeting different people.
One of the reasons I enjoy it so
much is the opportunity to see the
different ways people live their lives
their diverse traditions, the clothes
they wear and the languages they
speak.
At the same time, I also like how
the people I meet learn a bit about
my background and the country I
live in.
One thing that always gets pointed out is language; they are often
surprised that I speak English well,
and that I am technically but not
necessarily effectively tri-lingual.
While I appreciate the need to
know your mother tongue (in my
case, Cantonese) and the role a common language plays in national unity
(Bahasa Malaysia), I am most comfortable expressing myself in
English.
That said, for the longest time, I
believed that English was the singlemost important language to master.
When people started talking about
the importance of Mandarin as a
global language, I attempted learn-

THE BANGSAR

BOY

NIKI CHEONG

niki@thestar.com.my

ing it but failed miserably.

I consoled myself with the thought
that there were probably enough
opportunities for me locally and in
the English-speaking markets if I
was going to miss the China-boom
boat.
Last week, however, I started to
see things a little differently. I was in
Warsaw, Poland, for the Imagine
Cup 2010, an annual international
student competition on technology
organised by Microsoft Corp.
There, over 400 students from
over 60 countries came together to
compete over the course of the week.
The primary language of the conference was English, although I was
informed that unlike previous years,
teams were allowed to use translators during their presentations.
But none of the teams in the sessions I sat in used any. I watched the
team members from some teams
struggle while speaking to the judges because they either couldnt
understand the questions or couldnt

Bonding through music: A group of students from around the world learning songs together at the
Imagine Cup.
find the words in English to answer.
I sat there squirming in my seat
but instead of flinching at the bad
English, I felt sorry for them and
found myself wanting to help I
couldnt of course.
The truth is, like many others who
speak decent English, I have been
guilty of judging people who speak
bad English.
I grew up with friends who, unlike
myself, didnt grow up in an Englishspeaking household but still had
decent, if not excellent, command of
the language from what they learnt
in school and from communicating
with friends.
I found it hard to understand why
other people couldnt do the same.
But then I met teams in Poland, like
the one from Costa Rica, who told me
that while they studied basic English
in school, it was still hard to have a

good command of the language.

So they had to spend two months
studying English prior to the competition. For them, however, it wasnt
just about having the language-tool
to compete better. Stefan Torres told
me that he also wanted to be able to
communicate with the people he
met at the competition better.
I met many people in that one
week who, like Torres, were happy
to struggle through conversations
because it helped them make new
contacts and create bonds with people from around the world.
But they also taught me the importance of valuing native languages as
well. The event coincided with the
World Cup matches and it was great
to see the Latin American countries
rallying together speaking a common language (albeit each one differs slightly from another) to sup-

port their teams.

Despite my love for the English
language, I have always been grateful for BM. For me, it also helps transcend many intangible boundaries
in Malaysia (and I guess, with our
Indonesian neighbours).
My experience last week reaffirms
this but it has also taught me that it
isnt how well you speak a language,
its how you choose to communicate
with other people that matters
most.
Its all nice and dandy if we have a
common language to speak and
bond over. However, I now have
more respect for those who dont
have a common language with others.
* Niki blogs at www.nikicheong.com
and Twitters at www.twitter.com/
nikicheong.