NABALU NEWS COLLABS WITH UPSI TO EMPOWER KADAZANDUSUN LANGUAGE

Dr Rosliah (second left) and Marryan (second right) during the MoU ceremony as Ewon (third left) looks on.

1 April 2021

KOTA KINABALU: The Nabalu News portal and the Faculty of Language and Communication, Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris (UPSI) have agreed to work together in order to empower Sabah's native tongue.

To realise the effort, both of the parties today signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in the collaboration of the "Let's Learn Kadazandusun Language" programme.

During the signing ceremony, Nabalu News was represented by its Editor-in-Chief Marryan Razan while the UPSI Faculty of Language and Communication was represented by its Kadazandusun Language Programme Senior Lecturer Dr Rosliah Kiting.

The brief ceremony which was held at Sutera Harbour Golf Club here was witnessed by UPKO Vice President cum Kadamaian State Assemblyman Datuk Ewon Benedick.

Nabalu News' Editor-in-Chief Marryan stated that the Kadazandusun Language Learning column was started last February and was broadcast three times a week - every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

According to her, this is one of Nabalu News's efforts to help uphold the mother tongue of the Kadazandusun community as well as disseminate current news from within and outside the country.

“The creation of a space to learn the Kadazandusun language through news portals and social sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram is currently seen as very appropriate because most of the younger generation prefer to read news online.

"I hope the efforts of Nabalu News and UPSI will be a good start towards upholding the language and culture of Kadazandusun," she added.

Also present were Nabalu News General Manager, Rowindy Lawrence; Kadazandusun Language Foundation Advisor, Tan Sri Bernard Dompok and Chairman, Datuk Philip Lasimbang; Nabalu News staff, as well as representatives from UPSI and Nabalu Maju Enterprise.