I would like to respond to the letter, ‘We need to keep our native tongue alive’, published in the Opinion page on July 24, 2024. I believe the author really hit the nail in the head when he or she said local words are slowly going out of vogue.
As a parent, with a strong local identity, I have been having a very hard time trying to get my six children to embrace Bahasa Melayu Brunei (Brunei Malay language). Whenever I ‘accidentally’ uttered a Brunei Malay word, they would look at me as if I was speaking in a foreign language.
Growing up, my grandparents would sing me various local nursery rhymes, such as Oh Kanak-Kanak. These songs are unique to our culture, but at the rate that we’re going, I fear that they would disappear along with our native tongue. We need to do our part in making sure they don’t go extinct.
In the globalised world we live in, youngsters are more exposed than ever to entertainment materials of the West. Our job is not to deny them the window to the world; our job is to help them appreciate our heritage. Perhaps we can start with local nursery rhymes?
Local Mum
