Safety Talk by NIOSH

On Wednesday, all engineering students were invited to attend a safety talk given by the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). This talk was very important as it introduced students to NIOSH and the occupational safety and health practices required at all workplaces in Malaysia. In the beginning, everything looked promising as Prof. Abdul Shukor, dean of the faculty of engineering, gave a few opening words. However, as soon as he stepped aside to allow the representative from NIOSH to speak, things slowly started going downhill from there.

There was a lot of talk among students after the event and the blog has even received an email regarding the technical setbacks during the event and the speaker’s choice of language. Although at first it was understood that the talk would be presented in English, the NIOSH representative took it upon himself to change the medium to Bahasa Malaysia, throwing in a few English words supposedly to appease the many international students in the audience. Then, the inevitable happened; students started leaving one by one, obviously unhappy with the way things turned out.

One of the international students sitting in the front row beckoned the speaker and asked him to speak in English, so everyone could understand the presentation. The speaker agreed, and spoke in English for the next few minutes, only to gradually revert back to Bahasa Malaysia. It was after this moment that scores of local and international students started leaving the hall. As can be seen in the pictures, the lecture theater has a lot fewer students near the end.

Talks and visits by companies and organizations like NIOSH are an integral part of the learning experience and all students are encouraged to attend them, especially students whom the topics concern such as those going for industrial training next semester in this case. However, it must be ensured that such events be carried out in a language every student can understand, so as not to alienate the large number of international students attending the university. After all, they have crossed oceans and lands to come here and learn in English. If a presenter insists on speaking in a language not everyone can understand after having been explicitly informed that they must speak in English, then it is upon the organizers to remind them and strongly insist that they speak in English, whether the organizing body is a club or the faculty.

Nevertheless, I applaud the Civil Engineering Club (CEC) for bringing us such an important event, and I encourage them to take the initiative and continue to organize more events everyone can benefit from. I am sure the students who made all of this possible have worked very hard to make it successful. They have issued an apology to everyone who attended. These were clearly some unforeseen circumstances and was evidently not their fault, so everyone needs to cut them some slack. After all, the only engineering club that is active in organizing events in the faculty is the CEC.