A Malay student in a national school studies Malay, English, and optionally Mandarin or Tamil. A Chinese student in a SJK(C) studies Mandarin, Malay, English, and often finds Malay a struggle. The result? A generation that is either trilingual (urban Chinese) or effectively bilingual (Malay rural), but rarely fully fluent in all three. English proficiency is a marker of class, not just ability.
A Malay student in a national school studies Malay, English, and optionally Mandarin or Tamil. A Chinese student in a SJK(C) studies Mandarin, Malay, English, and often finds Malay a struggle. The result? A generation that is either trilingual (urban Chinese) or effectively bilingual (Malay rural), but rarely fully fluent in all three. English proficiency is a marker of class, not just ability.