Teaching English allow me to face variety of students, observing not only their skills in that language but also their perceptions towards the language.
"I refuse to learn it...I hate those who speaks that language." This is how did one of my students perceive English when I was teaching him few years. " But why?" I asked him. He answered rudely "English people is colonist in our country! Why should we learn their language...it shows that we are respecting it more than our language".
I did not want to argue with him, though I have many strong reasons to deny what he had said...Looking at him, I did not think he really respecting his race, "Malay" and the religion he embraces; "Islam"...and one more, the way he talked to me definitely did not resemble a polite Malay speaker (who claimed that respecting his mother tongue)....just smile and left him. He looked surprised with my reactions....maybe, he refuses to learn what he has just experienced.
