Selepas mengambil bahagian dalam 4 acara maraton dalam 4 minggu berterusan seperti yang dinyatakan dalam "No Woman, Don't Cry", akhirnya saya sudah dapat menghabiskan kesemua acara-acaranya. Semasa perlarian, saya mendapati bahawa perlumbaan berlari jarak jauh bukanlah sahaja sesuatu yang memenatkan secara fizikal, malah ia juga sesuatu rintangan yang mencabarkan kekuatan mental seseorang individu. Untuk mengatasi cabaran tersebut, anda memerlukan sokongan moral dari keluarga, rakan-rakan & Tuhan.
Kadangkala semasa perlarian, terdapat situasi dimana saya hampir ingin mengalah & menarik diri dari acara tersebut kerana kaki saya terlalu penat bahkan juga kesakitan otot. Tetapi apabila saya terkenang akan kata-kata daripada golongan atas tersebut yang menggalakkan saya untuk berusaha bersungguh-sungguh, kepenatan serta kesakitan kaki saya akan hilang secara perlahan-lahan & semangat akan terbina dalam hati saya untuk meneruskan perlarian. Terima kasih banyak terutamanya kepada rakan-rakan saya dari E11 yang tidak pernah mencurigai impian saya serta memberi sokongan mereka yang tidak terhingga.
You guys are just bloody damn awesome ~Persoalannya bukan sama ada M'sia boleh ke tidak, tapi mahukah M'sia berjaya?
I'm actually tired of blogging in Malay. Too much time is needed for the translation works & there's not much improvement in my Malay composition by doing so anyway. It's too difficult, just too difficult. I want the easy way out, just stick back to English. Never mind if I'm a M'sian, I decline to write in bahasa M'sia anymore as well as learning how to speak my mother's tongue which is Mandarin. I refuse to upgrade myself to be better linguistically.
But wait! Don't you see that this is a problem that lies within most of us M'sians? We're not enthusiastic when it comes to challenges in life. We M'sians always want the easy way out. Hardwork, perseverance & determination doesn't seem appealing to most of us. The same thing goes for the latest controversial issue that everyone has been going hoo-ha about. It is none other than the Teaching Mathematics and Science in English policy or better known as PPSMI (Malay acronym).
My Economics lecturer, Mr. Gopal once said that what a M'sian student learns in the SPM level (specifically the General Math subject) is equivalent to what a GCE O-Level Year 2 (or simply Form 2) student in Singapore is learning. If what he said is true, then M'sian youths must really buck up their efforts in order to be globally competitive lest should they be outclassed by their foreign peers forever. On the contrary, I see youth nowadays are really lazy, ignorant & too emotional especially high school students.
The main focus is about their ignorance. They are not bothered on improving themselves in terms of linguistic skills. Everyone wants to speak only one language. Every race only uses their respective languages. Even English speaking M'sians wants to stick to English only, claiming that English is the international language & learning other languages is a waste of time. I think that this kind of mentality is wrong. Everyone should learn to be multilinguistic. At the moment I am only bilinguistic as I can speak two languages which consist of English & Malay. But it is not good enough because I need to master my mother's tongue as well. I must preserve my heritage as a Chinese person. No matter how good my English is, people will always still see me as a Chinese person & this is a fact that I cannot escape from;
Me: So you're a Chinese but you were born in the United States. Can you speak your mother's tongue?
American chick: Of course I can. What about you?
Me: Honestly I can't. Wanted to but I'm too old to learn a new language.
American chick: C'mon, what kind of dumb excuse is that?
This is probably the first time in my life that an American actually lectured (more towards scolding) me for conveniently giving excuses for not learning Mandarin. I want to reiterate that she is right for doing so. How can I give up on learning when I haven't even try yet? Yeah I was born in a English speaking environment, but that should not deter me from picking up a new language. Therefore I've decided that I'll start attending Mandarin classes after my STPM is over, no excuses.
Since we know that the standards of SPM is lower than the GCE O-Level, yet there are people who still wanted the government to lower the SPM standards even more by reverting the teaching medium of Science & Mathematics subjects back to bahasa M'sia. For those who advocated the teaching medium in English, actually it is not entirely the government's fault. The government is just bowing down to the demands of the majority who wanted bahasa M'sia. Yes if you compare the ratio, educated M'sians are still outnumbered by the 'katak di bawah tempurung' type of M'sians that forms the majority.
I am pleased to be a Form 6 student due to it's high academic standards. I think this is the only educational route that we can proud of in the M'sian education system. But the STPM still has it's drawbacks as most of the subjects are taught in Malay. Even the 5th subject that I'm taking, which is the Sports Science subject must be answered only in bahasa M'sia during examination. Can you imagine how much stress & frustration I have to go through by translating all the scientific terms from English to Malay? At the moment this subject has no reference material whatsoever in Malay as the current market only offers books authored in English. What a real pain in the ass!
Why can't the Education Minister simply understand this? Every knowledge & information at tertiary level will be taught in English. If students learn everything in Malay during STPM, they will definitely gonna have problems grasping instructions & lectures in English when they pursue their higher studies. I was lucky enough to be raised in an English speaking family but what about the others? Most of my classmates have repeated their MUET (M'sian University English Test) but they are still struggling to score a good band because English is not their main language during conversations with friends or at home. Bloody hell for God's sake, just change the teaching medium into English for all subjects! That way students can be more fluent in the language & life in university later on would be much smoother for them.
Again it is not entirely the government's fault. Personally, I blame the majority of M'sians whom are narrow-minded nationalists that voted these politicians into power. Whatever seed you have sowed, you shall then reap it's harvest. I don't want to harp too much on this issue (although I wrote quite alot), instead I'll end it with an article that I've picked from Raja Petra's blog;
A Republic of Virtue
Azly Rahman
The refusal to teach Mathematics and Science in English is not just an ideological position but an idiotic one as well.
It is an attempt to self-fulfill a prophecy that the rural children especially the Malays, cannot be challenged and must continue to be given easy passes through social promotion.
The refusal to acknowledge that English is currently a language of scientific progress, more than Bahasa Melayu, is an example of the policymakers' and Malay language nationalist's hypocrisy in dealing with success.
Based on spurious research findings headed by a teacher training university, sanctioned by other public universities, the government has erred in its decision that will not only impact the future of Malaysian children in a continually globalised world where English is the lingua franca.
And this will open up avenues for the establishment of classes of schools, increasing the demand for the setting up of private schools that will emphasise the English language as a language of instruction and a rigorous curriculum that will prepare students for a competitive world.
The premise that Malay children cannot follow instructions in English and therefore not only standards should be lowered and subject matter made easier, but the teaching of Mathematics and Science itself must be reverted to the Malay Language points to this: that Malay children especially are presumed to be losers even before all avenues of success are provided.
Because in one study they voiced their concern over their inability to understand instructions, the future of a generation is sacrificed.
It is like saying that the more a child says that he/she does not like school, the less the teachers need to work to challenge them.
While children of the privileged in urban areas get first class education through private and international schools or even in high schools abroad and master the English Language (so that they can be given places and sponsorship in English-speaking universities abroad), children of the rural poor are left to become victims of policies dictated by research findings that hardly make sense in the realm of educational futurism.
Retired professors, poet laureates, die-hard Malay nationalists who themselves are well-educated in the English language having tasted the successes and given national accolades become incoherent and hypocritical spokespersons to a government policy that will make the myth of the last native a reality.
'Strategically denying success to the poor'
These individuals do not understand changing times; that English is no longer a language of the colonials.
The colonies revolted against the colonials through the natives' mastery of the English language.
These individuals who are against the teaching of Science and Mathematics in English are giving wrong advice to the nation; mastering English does not mean challenging whatever status Bahasa Melayu has been accorded to.
The government is strategically denying success to the poor of all races, with this language policy reversal.
We are creating a nation at risk; incompetent in the language that will give them the chance to pursue their studies in good universities in the English-speaking world.
There is a specific process one needs to follow in order to gain access to Western education; especially in the fields of Science and Mathematics.
Many of the critical subjects are taught in English.
The multitude of English proficiency tests is evidence that one must understand English for specific purposes (especially in the Mathematics and Sciences) right up to being able to write a Bachelors, Masters, or even Doctoral and Post-doctoral dissertations in the English language - all these are stages one has to go through.
Especially for entry into American colleges where English proficiencyis given through tests ranging from the TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) to the challenging GRE (Graduate Record Examination), which require consistent polishing of skills not only in English as a language but English taught in the content areas.
The government has blundered big time, succumbing to irrational voices disguised as those who care about the rural poor who are slow to master Mathematics and Science concepts in English.
Who said kampong kids can't learn?
There are enough success stories of children of the poor of all races coming from the rural areas slogging and struggling hard to master any language and to any subject matter and triumph to become world-class surgeons, engineers, lawyers, academicians, diplomats, musicians, and even culinary experts.
Who said kampong kids cannot be challenged academically? There is enough evidence that if you provide them with dedicated teachers, a nurturing learning environment, a supporting home, and a challenging curriculum, and constant reminder of "yes you can" and "when the going gets tough, the tough get going" - kids will excel.
Down with those who are out to underestimate the ability of our children to succeed.
We must ignore bad advice and demand for success for all - urban and rural, Bumiputra or non-Bumiputra.
We must demand a radical restructuring of our schools so that the same standard and support is given to all schools and the commitment to a philosophy that however we want our own children to succeed, we want the children of others to achieve similarly as well.
Start early in teaching English. Put an end to any effort to make the myth of the lazy native a reality.
We must remove our glass coconut shell.
