The high standard of the English Language used and spoken in Malaysia is fast becoming history. It has not acquire the status of history yet, just becoming antic. English is the foreign language that once Malaysians could speak and write so well that even the Englishmen were proud and envy of.

To-day, the Senior Citizen can still speak and write good perfect English, but most of the young Malaysians today speak and write what is called Communicative English. What is Communicative English? It is a language that sounds like English, similar to that of English, most young Malaysians can understand the thoughts of the transmitters of the messages, but it is not English. As an example of the Communicative English, I quoted below the following passage from an English daily:

“Two nabbed over sex posters in hotel
Two men who were busy posting posters offering sexual services in the toilet of a five-star hotel in Genting Highlands have been arrested”.

Let us analyse the sentence.
The main clause in the sentence is: “Two men have been arrested”.
The adjectival subordinate clause is: “who were posting posters” describing what the two men were doing.
“offer sexual services” is an adjectival phrase that describes the kind of posters that the two men were in the process of posting when they were arrested
Where did they intend to provide the sexual services? “in the toilet” is another adjectival phrase that describe the venue for the sexual services.
Which toilet? In the toilet “of a five-star hotel in Genting Highlands” is another adjective phrase that identified the location of the toilet.

Is this the message that the reporter was trying to tell the public? I think not. I believe that the author of the sentence is confused in the construction of that sentence. The sentence is consisted of one main clause, one adjectival clause and three adjectival phrases. The main problem in the sentence is that there is no punctuation therein and therefore the poster describes the kind and venue of the offer, 1.e., “sexual services in the toilet”.

According to the Rules of English Grammar, the adjective is the describing word, which must be placed as close as possible to the noun or another adjective it qualifies. The same rule applies to adjectival clause and the adjectival phrase. Applying the rules to the aforesaid sentence, “sexual services” describes the kind of offer in the “offering” and the phrase “in the toilet” describes the place or venue where the “sexual services” was going to be rendered.

Is it better to restructure the sentence as follows?

The police had arrested two men who were busy posting posters in the toilet of a five-star hotel in Genting Highlands. The posters reveal the offer of sexual services [probably in the hotel or elsewhere, as it was not reported in the English daily].

Here is another sentence that tells you information that is everybody’s guess.

“Free return Airfare to Ho Chi Minh City?”

This advertisement was placed on the Malaysian English daily that I had obtained it in Petaling Jaya. In the first instant, it appears that the advertisement aims to attract the Vietnamese in Ho Chi Minh City to visit Malaysia, but how can the residents of Ho Chi Minh City read it when the newspaper is sold in Malaysia?

Read on further, you will find that the prerequisite qualification is “minimum total of 3 nights stay required at Hotel XXXXXX Ho Chi Minh City”. It becomes clear that the advertisement is intended for the Malaysian residents to read. From here, let us analyse the word “return”. The word ‘return’ means to go back to the place where you came from. Why must I return to Ho Chi Minh City again after visiting Ho Chi Minh City?

Where are we heading from here?