How Should We Inculcate The Reading Habit Among Malaysians?

Reading habit should start from young itself. There for parents should play a main role in convincing and telling their children on how important it is for a person to read no matter what type of reading material it is but it must be beneficial. Nowadays it is understood that parents are busy with their work, but they must make sure their children reads daily.

Other than that, parents should bring their kids to the national library at least once a week and they have to read together with their kids, so that the kids will be encouraged to read. Parents also can set up a mini library at home with the materials available and suitable for reading. Parents also should advise their adult children to read newspaper on a daily basis and not only reading story book or novels. This is to make sure that they are aware about the current issues.

For adults, it will takes time to change their habit when they realize reading is very important. Government also must carry out campaign regarding reading habits.

There are some ways to inculcate the reading habit among Malaysians. Firstly, set times. You should have a few set times during everyday when you’ll read for at least 5-10 minutes. For example, you can read during your breakfast and lunch or in time when you’re free like when you go to bed or waiting for someone. You also have to set a reading goal. Your goal might be a book a month or one per week.

Second, always carry a book. Wherever you go, you must take a book with you. For example, when you want to go to class or work. Before you waiting for someone like your lecture or friends, you can read the book that you caring. So, you don’t waste your time. It also a great way to pass the time.

You also must make a list. Keep a list of all the books you read and the books that you want to read in future. You can keep the list in your journal, diary or pocket notebook. Then, you can add any title of good book that your hear, online or ask your friends and colleagues what they are reading. It will make easy for you to find the book when you go to library or book store.

When you are reading, make it pleasurable and fine a quite place. Make your reading time your favorite time of day like have some good tea or coffee. Find a quite place that will your comfortable and be easy to understand what you read. A quite place will make you peace. If you fine yourself stressful while reading the book, don’t continue reading under pressure like that. Reading is for pleasure, so don’t push yourself too hard that you can quit reading forever, or even if you can read, the outcome won’t be so good either.

If you find that you cannot complete the task in the first place, don’t give up. Remember, winners never quit. You just have to try again until you achieve it.

What are the factors contributing to poor reading habit among Malaysians?

Just look at the statistics posted by my friends. Do I need to explain the level of reading in our country any further? Probably I should not, due to the fact that explaining statistics over and over again will not bring any benefit to anyone. So what should we do? Well, of course, to make things better, we always have to find solutions. Solutions, yes, the government surely knows about that. Book fairs? Campaigns? Anything more? Sure one, they are the government, are'nt they? They must have plenty of ideas to sort this problem out before 2020, don't they?



Problem is, this reading problem has flooded Malaysia for centuries! What can they possibly do to increase this embarrassing level to reach the so called 'ideal' level in ten years to come? According to Professor Datin Dr Noran Fauziah Yaakob, President of Malaysian Psychology Department, to find the solution of any matter, we need to search for the causing problems first. Which brings us to this one simple question - Why do Malaysians just do not read?



Well, for a start, let me tell you a little bit about the habit of our people. If they hear a Malay speaking English, they would go "Ahh, that feller wants to show off laa. He's not one of us maa". If they see a Malay being open, liberal, and speaks up his mind, they'll go "Haiyaa, he critisized the government ah? Surely not one of us maa ". And finally, if they see a Malaysian reading in public they'll go "Look at that boy laa, reading everywhere, why still got nerds here ah? Send them away maa, they're not one of us". Get the point? Its our mindset - our third-class mindset. Reading in public is thought of as weird, nerdy, and maybe even creepy. Why is that so? Why are we so afraid to open our mind up a little bit? My cousin, who studies in Tokyo, is a regular train passenger over there. He says it is weird to see the Japanese to not read while in the train! So there you go, my first point, our people are afraid to read in public because they will be perceived by 'our people' as 'not one of us'. Book fair organiser Datuk Ivan Hoe was once quoted as saying "they forget that books are intellectual food".



Im a big fan of American best-selling author Mitch Albom. Among his inspirational books are Tuesdays with Morrie, The Five People You Meet in Heaven and For One More Day. When I went to the bookstore to check out these books, I could not believe my eyes when I saw the price. Nearly RM100 - and some were more. "Perhaps Mitch's books are always expensive," I thought. Then I looked to the other international books, and.... Yes! You guessed it right! All books are so expensive that students would have to starve their tummies for months to be able to buy it! Why is this so? Why have'nt the government controlled the price for these interesting reading materials so that we could afford them? Maybe providing subsidies, anyone? Oh yes, I forgot, they've been putting their efforts so much on reading campaigns and missed the whole point of why we cant afford books we want. Good job Mr.Government. Should this problem continue, only the rich would be able to buy them, and only the rich would taste the benefit of living in this country.



But yes, some might argue, if we cant afford the expensive books, why dont go for the cheap ones? Why dont we borrow from the library? Well, you see, the quality of the library here in our country is not even comparable to the ones overseas. Of course there are good libraries in some schools and universities, but overall, the standard of our libraries are so devastating. I once went to a library in town to do some research. Apparently the place was dirty, the air-conditioner was'nt working, and the people were so noisy. Most of the people there were'nt looking for books, instead they were busy dating!

Speaking of creative, best-selling, awesomely popular authors, I dont think many of my friends even bother to know who they are. Higly-rated overseas, they seem to be no one here in our country. That brings us to my point number three, Malaysians prefer light reading materials rather than books. Stats carried out by Ministry of Arts, Culture, and Heritage showed that out of 85% of Malaysians who read regularly, 77% of them prefer newspapers, 3% read magazines, 3% read books and 1.6% read comics. If we were to compare with American citizens, 53% of them read fiction and 43% of them read non-fiction books. If I ask my friends if they know about any popular books or articles I find interesting, I would never get a good feedback. But if I ask them whats the latest comic edition they have, they'd be listing out all sorts of comic titles. Ujang, Apo, Anak-anak Sidek, One Piece, Naruto, Sin Chan, the list goes on and on. Yes, reading comics can also be categorized as reading, as they say, I cant deny that. But at the end of the day, who benefits most in terms of knowledge? The book reader - or the comic reader?

Some other sad reasons given by Malaysians for not reading is no leisure time and no interest in reading (Ministry of Arts, Culture and Heritage). To be perfectly frank, even my 6 month old baby nephew knows those excuses are just unacceptable. Seriously? No time? Whatever reason it is, Im pretty sure there's one thing we need to change - attitude.

Some sentences are purposely written in our Malay-English language to show what we really are about.

Mohd Akif Farhan bin Ahmad Basri.

A126895.

Why is it important for Malaysians to read?

An average adult reads about 250-300 words per minute, that’s about 15000-18000 words per hour and that number brings us to an average of 360000-432000 everyday. That’s like 144540000 words per year! Isn’t that a lot of words to be reading? You would be surprised by the amount of words you’ve read so far and how many words that you know in your vocabulary. Well, we can’t expect you to keep tabs on them, but people nowadays seem to take for granted just how important it is to read or being able to read. Thought its not likely to find an illiterate these days, many people don’t find reading as a main activity during family nights, hobby or just simply for recreational purposes. Due to the vast growth of technology, doing an activity such as reading a book might come off to you as something boring or old-fashion. When in fact, since it is so easy to get anything with just a click of a button, you should have easier access to a book and therefore more likely be in favor of reading. So, why is it important to read, I hear you ask, my fellow Malaysians?

Well, to start things off, reading is like providing the mind with nourishment. It’s like pouring water to a wilting plant, if you don’t take care of it by spraying fertilizers and the likes, how do you expect it to grow as healthy as possible? With knowledge, we are able to conquer the world. There is no limit to what we can achieve as long as we have knowledge and that is where reading comes in handy. Most people were introduced to books at a very early age due to their parents upbringing when others started during their schooling years. Reading doesn’t just apply to books, you can be reading anything from newspapers to magazines, textbooks, novels, autobiographies or even reading from the internet. When you start to read, it takes you into another world where anything is possible. Those who like to read novels are likely to be able to escape reality for a few hours, letting their imagination run wild with stories from different genres such as science fiction, romance, mystery/thriller and classics. For those who want information on current events are more likely to pick up the newspaper or a tabloid magazine so that they are up-to-date with everything that is going on in the world. When were seating in the LRT (Light Railway Transit), or drinking at a mamak stall, we noticed that out of 10 people, there is at least 2 people who will be having their nose buried in a book, a newspaper or any reading materials. This is what we call a reading culture where reading has become sort of like a habit to the citizens.

Instead of loitering around and doing nothing, reading keeps us occupied and helps us use our time fruitfully. Words are our everyday tools, we use it to speak and to write. By reading, we have a wide selection of words in our vocabularies allowing us to to use all kinds of different words in all kinds of context in speeches and writings. For those who are picking up a new language, reading will be helpful in identifying new words and teach individuals on how to use it when speaking in that language and writing sentences. As you can see, there are many benefits to reading! When you have been taught to read at an early age, it sort of becomes natural to be picking up a book even when you get older. Children nowadays take for granted for the things that they have and do not use it to their advantage. People should make use of technology because they have the richest sources of information. It covers a wide range of topics and people from anywhere in the world can access it 24/7. Therefore boys and girls, brings us to the conclusion that reading is an essential part of our lives. It is important that we know just how big it plays a role in our growth as both a person and a human being.

Mardhiyah Amirudin

A126958

What is the status and data on the reading habit among Malaysia

The Malaysian Goverment target to have Malaysians read atleast 10 books yearly from 2010. Many afforts have been done so that the objective is achieved.

On 31st January 2007, by then Cultural, Art and Heritage Deputy Minister Datuk Wong Kam Hoong said Malaysians only read an average of 5 books a year in 2006. He added that people in Britain and Japan read and average of 20 books a year. So this means that, in terms of reading we are far behind developed countries in the world. No wonder all sorts of problems such as the recent issue of the use of the word Allah becomes such a big problem. This symbolizes the lack of open mind and intellectual knowledge in our people due to the lack of reading.

The Malay Mail on August 27 2006 carried out by the National Statistics Department looked into local reading habits. What was learnt is that more than half of the 60,441 odd Malaysians surveyed read less than seven pages a day. Those at the age of 10 years and above read about two books a year (the figure excludes text books for students and books that are work-related for working adults). Also shocking is that most of those who read books and magazines, read less than three hours a week. The survey also showed that 55 per cent of those aged 10 to 24, read books, compared to 39 per cent within the 25 to 56 age bracket. Only six per cent are those aged 57 and above.

Reading is not even the favourite pastime of Malaysians as most prefer to watch television and video. I guess our people are just too lazy to read so they prefer watching and listening. Most Malaysians read in Bahasa Melayu, followed by English. Reading in Jawi comes third and finally, Mandarin. This explains our low standard of English speaking, writing and understanding. In fact, certain parties are just too naive that they think reading english will destroy our mother tounge.

Of the total number of respondents, 60 per cent were aged 10 years old and above and 99.9 per cent of them had formal education. Two books a year is the figure that the last survey in 1996 came up with, and in 2006 the figure increased slightly. Still, there is nothing to be proud of.

Surprisingly, MPH and Borders reported increasing sales and the book business locally is apparently worth two billion ringgit a year. Apparently, Malaysians have the habit of buying books but not reading it!

Posted by,

Mohamad Ridzlan Bin Mohd Sidek,

A128230.

Introduction

Reading is the act or practice of a person who reads, whereas a reading habit means the regularity on which we read. It could be anything from magazines, novels, comics, newspapers or even our textbooks. As Malaysians, we are living in a fast-paced country, trying to keep up with the current events of the world in this new-age technology where we can get absolutely anything with just a single-click of a mouse, be it information, accessories, gadgets, in a blink of an eye and I mean it literally. Previous past times such as reading has become sort of an old-fashioned ritual. Therefore, our purpose in putting up this blog is to discuss ways of encouraging the reading habit among Malaysians.

Feel free to comment in any of our posts. Your input is very much appreciated. Thank you for visiting us.

Yours truly,
Super Read3ers.