ELAP in Focus

Former MA student: Sim Tze Wei

The environment in Penang, Malaysia, that I grew up in has endowed me with the ability to speak six languages fluently. But I realised that a few languages that I hear and speak today will probably go extinct in the next few generations. Since this realisation, I have become a strong proponent of linguistic and cultural diversity. So I undertook the MA in Language Documentation and Description at SOAS to gain a deeper knowledge of linguistics and the issue of language endangerment.

After graduation in 2010 I found a job in an advertising agency that localises international advertisements into local languages. The theoretical linguistic knowledge I gained from the MA course has given me a leg up in managing the translation of advertising scripts. Apart from that, I also work as a private Chinese language tutor. The linguistic training at SOAS has also helped me in teaching languages.

With a better understanding of language endangerment I can look at the issue with a broader perspective. This greatly assists my advocacy and activism as many cases and examples can be drawn upon and systematically analysed. I have recently set up a website in collaboration with another activist living in Penang to teach one of the endangered languages in Malaysia (http://www.penanghokkienclass.com/). We collect terminologies and expressions spoken by elderly native speakers that are being lost by younger speakers and present them on our website. We also publish these terminologies in local newspapers. A Facebook group has also been set up to explain the importance of speaking Hokkien at home to young people of child-bearing age.

In October 2011 I was invited to present my dissertation at a university conference on Taiwanese Hokkien. I had a chance to interact with local community members and to observe how a local language class was conducted at a primary school. This greatly helped me in understanding the effect of language policy and the importance of co-operating with other groups outside Malaysia.

Right now, I am waiting to hear if my MA dissertation has been accepted for publication in a journal while I am working on forming an alliance with language activists in Hong Kong and Mainland China to try to influence changes in language policy to protect the survival of local languages.