DON'T PLAY PLAY…. OUR MANGLISH/CAMPUR ENGLISH…. ALSO CAN, AH!

by Ho Cheng Leong – 3 April 2024

This afternoon as I received these pictures and video clip from my good friend, the CEO of Lighthouse of Hope in Kapit, Sarawak….they almost brought tears to my eyes and a flood of chronological memories (although sequences of events may be out of alignment a bit…. please forgive me)

Throw back:

Just before the great lockdown for Covid in early 2020, I came across a young enterprising lady (under grad in one of the local Universities) who was doing English tuition classes on-line. She had one or two students from Indonesia and a couple of local students….just to earn some pocket money for her uni days. And she lived in Seremban!

Immediately, I liked the idea as I was searching for a program that we could do online (esp English language) for marginalized students across the nation. In particular, I was searching for such a program to help the students who are staying at our hostels in Sabah under the Starfish Malaysia Foundation. Tucked in a far corner of Sabah, lacking behind in their studies, these students need more than "booster shots" in their studies and esp English. Starfish has limited resources to get tutors and because of distance, tutors were reluctant (and also cost factor) to offer such services. Some of the students in higher Standards could not read well (or not at all), let alone comprehend and of course it was next-to-nothing when it comes to spoken English.

What I liked about the lessons offered by this young lady was the ability to merge a simple formidable English language framework, add some interactive apps and presto you have a winning formula for an attention-grabbing lesson for interesting learning. Students armed with cheap tablets (a pair of earphones and cheap stylus pen), 100 or 1000 of km away with stable internet, and any simple meeting place (we even conducted classes under the roof of extended veranda of a kampung house) were our tools-of-trade for delivery over Zoom platform.

I managed to convince her to develop blocks of lessons where teachers could easily teach interactively and interestingly and stored them in the Cloud. Just as we thought we were ready to test it out, the Covid restrictions came down on the nation. But then…. the online teaching became a trend and a necessity….

I got another NGO in West Malaysia - Compassi Berhad - to spearhead and fund this program.

I managed to get Lighthouse of Hope in Kapit (another NGO in Sarawak) to gather a group of students to test the program on a weekly basis in 3rd Qtr 2020. We aimed at doing a block of 10 lessons. The result was that the parents, the teachers and even the principal of a Methodist school thought it was a worthwhile program for the Std 4 students. Then the next block followed …. And then another block. We had successfully "nurtured and graduated" this first pilot group from Kapit at the end 2023 after 3 years in the program

As the Covid restriction lifted towards the end of 2021, we began to roll out more groups.

…..2nd group in Kapit in 2022

…..2 groups in Sabah in 2022

…..2 groups in central Kuala Lumpur collaborating with a Malay NGO (working amongst the B40s - super poor local and undocumented children) in 2023.

By the end of 2023, we received many requests wanting to try this program.... the rest are history….as they said.

This coming academic year we have agreed to do almost an additional 30+ groups for the program - an almost 500% growth in groups, year upon year, and would easily exceeded 300 students involving in the program. Our part time teaching staff (some volunteers…aiyo, mana ada money for full time staff) includes local teachers and professionals who have passion for social development work, Indonesian Malaysian, American, Republic of Congo, Iran (ex-refugee) ….and more to come.

Way back in 2020, it seemed like a little "start-up" company almost going nowhere... One part-time under-grad, small fund (or almost zilch) …. but big vision and…. of course…. a BIGGER RESOURCEFUL GOD!

I don't know where this will lead us in future…. but just DON’T PLAY PLAY…. our Manglish/campur English could make a difference for a whole new generation! Psst… wonder whether God really speaks English! LOL [Debate! Debate! Debate!]

Thanks to and our appreciation for all the NGOs who had helped in our journey