English Class an Appreciation for Military
Pauh Putra, October 19 – In an effort to honour the sacrifices of the Malaysian Armed Forces, especially the Malaysian Army in safeguarding the peace and sovereignty of the nation, the Centre for International Languages (CIL) from Universiti Malaysia Perlis (UniMAP) organised an English Language Course for army personnel.
UniMAP Vice Chancellor Dato 'Prof Dr Zul Azhar Zahid Jamal said this was the second collaboration between UniMAP and the army after the inaugural programme held in June last year.
"Before this we had no channels to organise such programmes. Organising this course can be considered a small UniMAP contribution to our security forces employing the skills that our language instructors possess.
“Community programmes such as this is one of UniMAP’s aspirations that is to diversify activities that could help society,” he said in his speech during the Army English Course Closing Ceremony at the Tuanku Syed Faizuddin Putra's Library Auditorium.
Also present were the Territorial Army 504th Regiment's Deputy Commander Lieutenant Colonel Huzaini Hussin, Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic and International) Prof Dr. Ir. Rezuwan Kamarudin and CIL Director Dr. Sharmini Abdullah.
He added, in addition to teaching English to the military, the instructors were also able to learn from the experiences shared by the army.
“This is one of the bilateral learning programmes where both parties can share knowledge which I believe is not easy for the public to learn from the army,” he explained.
Meanwhile Lieutenant Colonel Huzaini Hussin said that this opportunity was a new experience for the army to learn with university lecturers.
“Previously we had never attended programmes or classes with civilians because the army has its own Education Corps which has military instructors.
“This class is a preparation for training with other foreign military like Australia, the United States, and operations on the border of Thailand and Sabah,” he said representing Major Tadris Ahmad as the 6th Brigade Headquarters Education Second Officer.
According to Huzaini, joint military trainings with foreign nations require that our army personnel be able to communicate in languages other than Malay, so this English preparatory class would be very useful to them.
“For this programme, we combined personnel of various ranks from Infantry and Support Services in the northern region so that they would be more confident in undergoing training and operations.
“I hope this collaborative programme will go on as it giving us, the military, a beneficial experience,” he continued.
Earlier, Lieutenant Dzulfikar Dasuki, a participant from Sungai Ara Camp, Penang, said that during the programme he stayed at a nearby camp in order to attend the programme.
According to him, although he graduated from the National Defence University of Malaysia (UPNM), the opportunity to join the UniMAP programme afforded him new experiences.
“Also, the activities were fun and I was able to make new friends with soldiers from other bases and also with UniMAP instructors," he said.
The five-day course was attended by 50 army officers which took place from 15 to 19 October at the UniMAP Pauh Putra Campus run by eight CIL staff members including one international instructor.
The learning sessions focused on speaking, listening and collaborative skills in order to help military officers execute missions more efficiently and effectively.
