This is one of the most convincing reasons for learning English language...
Excerpt from a letter to The Star:
"
Although Ma’s e-commerce success impressed me tremendously, even more impressive is his perseverance and foresight in mastering English. When he was a teenager, he went the extra mile to learn English. He went to a hotel near his home to communicate with Western tourists in English and when he wasn’t satisfied with what he had learnt from them, he decided to pursue a degree in English, graduating in 1988.
If Ma hadn’t taken great efforts to master English, he wouldn’t have had the opportunity to explore the enormous potential of the Internet in the United States in 1995. With that exposure, he finally returned to China to form Alibaba in 1999. And the rest is history. In less than two decades, Alibaba rose to an astonishing level, making its historic listing in the New York Stock Exchange two years ago.
Learning English in China is far more difficult than in Malaysia as it isn’t widely spoken. When I was in Shanghai in 2001, I noticed that many parents there were keen to send their children to kindergartens with outstanding English teachers. They were aware of the importance of this global language.
If our local university graduates failed in their endeavours to master English, they probably need to listen to the conversation between President Obama and Ma on the “Obama interviews Alibaba billionaire Jack Ma” website. Ma speaks impeccable English even though he didn’t have an environment conducive to learning this language more than two decades ago."
IMHO: In Malaysia, it seems hopeless to expect our education system to include English as an essential language in whatever form. That students cannot cope must be one of the silliest excuses. So it will continue to be left to the decision of parents and later, the students themselves, whether to learn English sufficiently to benefit from the information technology which is in use in our daily lives. Learning any language needs contant practice and exposure. Watching English news on tv and reading English newspapers would be helpful, so does speaking English with those who use the language, like what Jack Ma did initially.
