KUALA LUMPUR - MALAYSIA's deputy education minister said that speaking English in the workplace is 'weird' and harmful to the nation's culture and identity.
Datuk Mohd Puad Zarkashi said employees in the private sector used English 99 per cent of the time and should switch to Bahasa Malaysia in order to show pride in the national language, the New Straits Times reported.
'This also occurs in government- linked companies where we have this weird culture of people speaking to each other in English instead of the national language,' he said at the launch of a linguistics seminar.
'We are polluting our own culture and identity as a nation,' said Dr Puad, who is known for being vocal in his views and who has previously called on the government to give more prominence to the Malay language.
'It would be difficult to strengthen the position of Bahasa Malaysia if this culture continued,' he added, urging Malaysians to emulate the French, Japanese and Koreans, who stuck to their own language.
The New Straits Times said Dr Puad also criticised young people for using a mix of English and Bahasa Malaysia in SMS text messages and on the Internet. -- AFP
Read the full story in Friday's edition of The Straits Times.
