For many of us Malaysians, English is strictly a second language.

But as a citizen of a rapidly developing nation, I found a recent local news report rather worrying, and also ironic: over 1,000 medical graduates decided not to pursue becoming doctors due to poor English proficiency.

Sure, it will be mandatory for students to pass English in SPM exams beginning 2016, but I do wonder if this will really solve the underlying problem.

Based on my own personal experience, I suspect the declining standard of English proficiency among Malaysian youths partly lies in the prevalent mindset of “study English only to pass the exam” or “to score an A.”

This results in a lack of motivation and personal interest to use English for no other reason but to pass a test.

I grew up in a Chinese-speaking environment.

During this period, the only time I would communicate in English was either in a classroom setting or when I place an order for McDonalds delivery. I believe this is true for most of the people I grew up with. In other words, English did not come naturally to our day-to-day interactions unless we were forced to use it.

And I did have my reasons.

For one, I thought I sounded ridiculous whenever I spoke English.

I also felt that I could not convey my thoughts as eloquently as when communicating in my mother tongue.

Looking back, I can see that it was not only a lack of motivation, but also a lack of self-confidence to put myself out there. I was living in a bubble of comfort, interacting only with my Chinese-speaking family and friends.

I can’t recall now the reason why, but around the time I turned 17, I began to gravitate towards the idea of putting in a conscious effort to improve my English.

I began to spend more time pouring over English novels and took up the habit of scribbling down, in little notebooks, the definitions of new words that I did not understand. I hung out more with my English-speaking friends and even signed up for English poem recitals and emceeing gigs.

Today, English is second nature to me. And thank goodness for that.

Not only is it a valuable skill that will help you advance in your career, much of the knowledge and information available on the World Wide Web also requires proficiency in English.

There may be other factors that could cause one to give up on one’s ambition, but in my honest opinion, the language barrier should not be one of them.

The views expressed here are strictly those of the author's and does not necessarily reflect Astro AWANI's.