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Monday, November 13, 2006

Language handicapped

I have always felt that I'm handicapped because I have a good grasp of the English language. Oh yeah, I'm not crazy or anything. Take for example in exams. I had this question appearing in my multiple choice question in my pathology paper today:

The difference of hyperplasia compared to neoplasia.

A. It may be reversible.
B.
C.
D.
E.

It is a true false question whereby we have to state true or false for each statement, A-E. Look at the stament in A. The fact is hyperplasia DEFINITELY IS reversible. So since it states 'may be' does that make the statement wrong? Because 'may be' gives us the idea that it can be reversible or it can be non-reversible. Am I thinking too much?

This isn't the first time whereby I had lots of ambiguities about the meaning of questions in exams. Back in my school days, I would be the one in class arguing the language aspect of questions while everyone else just doesn't see it. They just seem so oblivious about how the incorrect use of a single word can change the meaning of the whole sentence. To make matters worse, when I do argue, I get brushed off by the teachers. To them the questions were correct because all the other students were able to figure out the right answer and I get reprimanded the same way everytime.

"You are thinking too much"

Am I? Is this how we Malaysians are nurturing our young minds? To not think?

In my last semester finals I asked a coursemate about a question in the finals for biochemistry. In this dry practical where we had to do calculations for an experiment, the figures given where strangely different from those in the real experiment we did before. Obviously I calculated it wrongly because I followed the question figures. The others? They blindly followed the figures in the one used before. When asked why they didn't use the ones provided they answered, "Follow the old one la, sure the same one". What the hell! Did it occur to them that the experiment protocol may have changed? Are we all to be mindless zombies to get something correct?

It is sad when a kid learns at a young age that thinking is not beneficial and it is wrong... And we asked ourselves why Malaysia is not a first world country. How can we be, when we have such a third world mentality.

1 comment:

Inaesb said...

Thinking out of the box will get you nowhere in this country I guess. Either you're with the majority or you're wrong. No room for non-conformity. That's probably the reason why we've progressed not much in terms of human capital quality since independence. Not to mention our education system is another major lament. Sigh.