Malaysia’s badminton men’s doubles duo Mohd Haikal Nazri and Choong Hon Jian (鍾鴻健) recently won the Guwahati Masters 2023, their second title in India. However, instead of being congratulated on their win, the duo were recently slammed for their English speaking skills instead.
After their winning match on 11th December, Mohd Haikal and Choong Hon Jian did a post-match interview. The two then stumbled their way through the interview, leading many to supposedly mock their English skills after. While some defended them, Haikal later claimed it didn’t bother him.
“#GuwahatiMasters2023 Post-Match Interview with the (champions),” the Twitter post read. “Both of them were shy.” The one minute fourteen second clip showed them being interviewed by an Indian TV host who spoke to them in English. However, the two seemingly struggled to reply in English, with Haikal notably answering for both of them.
Netizens were quick to jump on the shuttlers, with some alleging they needed a translator or to be trained for interviews. One even blamed our education system. “How is it most of our players cannot speak proper English?” they said. Another chimed in with: “Hope (the) education minister will look into this and (continue improving our) education.”
But, Haikal later told Timesport that he was entirely unfazed by the whole matter. “To be honest, I didn’t know about this,” he told them. “In fact, I wasn’t expecting to be interviewed on court after winning, so the whole thing caught me by surprise.” Haikal also insisted: “It’s not a big issue. My focus is on my playing career.” In fact, he admitted the video had made him laugh. “It looked somewhat comical because Hon Jian didn’t want to speak and kept looking at me. I found that funny,” he said.
Still, there were plenty of netizens who sided with Mohd Haikal and Choong Hon Jian. As one person succinctly put it: “(Don’t) worry (so) much about (their) English fluency. Let’s (let their) rackets do the talking. We must be proud of them.”
Well, congrats to Mohd Haikal and Choong Hon Jian on their back-to-back title win! Hopefully they’ll continue climbing the ranks, regardless of their language proficiency.
Watch the clip here:
#GuwahatiMasters2023 Post-Match Interview with the champion.
Men's Doubles
Choong Hon Jian / Muhammad HaikalDua2 malu la pulak. 😂😂😂#BadmintonMalaysia #GuwahatiMasters2023 #ShuttleHard pic.twitter.com/ghNIF7kVKq
— Craig (@craigansibin) December 10, 2023
Sources: Twitter, New Straits Times, Facebook
