Help make Bahasa Malaysia an international language: Maslan

Kota Kinabalu: Academicians, lecturers and professors are urged to come up with a formula to materialise the idea of making Bahasa Malaysia an international language.International Trade and Industry Deputy Minister Datuk Ahmad Maslan said Bahasa Malaysia should not only earn international place as a communication link but also used as a trade and technology language.

"We learn both English and Bahasa Malaysia on a daily basis, but we need to emphasis the usage of Bahasa in terms of trade and technology," Maslan said after the closing ceremony of the 4th International Psycholinguistic Seminar at Tabung Haji Hotel, Wednesday.

He said that instead of using English words to enrich Bahasa, compositions from local tribes' language should also be used as Bahasa not only to enhance the vocabularies but also to promote the mother tongue of the multiracial states in the country.

Each local tribe's languages have its own uniqueness and it should be applied into Bahasa and not just use English terms, he said.

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"For example, 'Pironok' which mean "spell" from the Dusun Kimaragang tribe, is a new word for me and it can be used as Bahasa," he said.

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Meanwhile, during the event, 154 working papers were presented by 350 participants to share the ideas of materialising Bahasa Malaysia as international language and few emerged winners, including Dr Juliana O, George Thomas and Tengku Zaihiri from Institut Pendidikan Guru Campus Gaya Kota Kinabalu with their project entitled Cabaran Bahasa Melayu menjadi Bahasa Dunia (Challenges of making Bahasa Malaysia as World Language).

The seminar was organised by Institut Pendidikan Guru Campus Gaya Kota Kinabalu, Universiti Putra Malaysia and Psycholinguistic Association (Persima). - Jeremy S. Zabala

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