Mandarin language offered to industries at UMP aimed at enhancing professionalism

By: YONG YING MEI, MANDARIN LANGUAGE AND CULTURAL CENTRE (MLCC)

Universiti Malaysia Pahang (UMP) is now offering Industrial Mandarin language to industrial workers aimed at enhancing their skills and is organised by its Mandarin Language and Cultural Centre (MLCC.

MLCC offered the course to 30 employees of Alliance Steel (M) Sdn. Bhd. (ASSB) on December 21, 2018.

ASSB operates a steel manufacturing facility at the Malaysia-China Kuantan Industrial Park (MCKIP) here.

MLCC Director Yong Ying Mei said it was not only about learning a third language at its basic level but more to master it for a professional reason, a skill that was very much in demand by the current market.

“The mastering of a third language needs to be further enhanced although the participants themselves already have a decent command of the language. There is a need for this in order to ensure smooth implementation of tasks given and for better interactions.

“UMP is a technical university that has experienced lecturers who can assist industrial workers here. In fact, the cooperation forged with Confucius Institute Headquarters (Hanban) recently  that will establish the Confucius Institute or Kong Zi Institute will not only benefit the university students but also the local community,” said Yong.

According to Mohd Shahrill Riza Mohd Fadzilah who is ASSB Human Resource Executive, the Industrial Mandarin course offered would help improve communication skill of those in the operations.

“We get to learn more vocabularies in Mandarin for practical use in the steel manufacturing industry. Every technical head comes from China and each leads a team comprising Malaysian workers so there is a need to know and master the language and its industrial terms as well.

“Seventy percent of workers in ASSB are Malaysians who do not understand the technical terms and names in Mandarin. In order to ease the language barrier, the company works together with UMP by having this Industrial Mandarin course for the workers,” he said.

Business Management Executive, Dzuliskandar Abdul Wahab, 31, from Melaka, said he took the opportunity to participant in the course although he had learned Mandarin during primary school.

“The course offered has helped me in learning more technical vocabularies used by staff from China.

“Having good command in Mandarin has been helpful especially when working in a company with the majority of workers from China. It ensures smooth communication,” he said.

As for Norfazila Sukur, 23, who works in the statistics department, said although she studied Mandarin in primary school, the technical language in Mandarin could not be learned elsewhere.

“The course offered by UMP really helped her in identifying names of equipment used in the plant that were written in Mandarin,” she added.  

ASSB Administration Officer, Chong Zhen Yeap, 26, said the Malay employers were always taught on the vocabularies and terms used in the plant to help them understand better, adding, it was actually a fun process.

Two ASSB employers who were from China also took part in the course – technical worker Dong Xu, 29, and Pn Wu Change, 31, an officer with the company.

Dong Xu said UMP lecturers did not only teach the language but also introduced the culture and other aspects too.   

They were also learning the Malay language from their Malaysian colleagues so they could work better and handle meetings more effectively.