Taski Cemerlang

My son has been in his preschool for six months now. I recently got his class picture, which I’ll post below. The picture was ready weeks ago, but when his cikgu, teacher, would tell him to tell us it was ready, he would reply with a firm “anh” of assent. And then promptly forget. Or chances are just as good he had no idea what she just said. You’d never know he’s only catching about a tenth of the Bahasa Malaysia he hears, because anytime anyone asks him anything, “anh” he says. “Paham, Ridhwan?” “Anh!”

In spite of that, we got his first report card after the semester exam: First out of 21. I’m bragging, I know, can’t help it. Of course, my US readership is probably thinking, “Report card? Exam? In Preschool?!” It took me some getting used to, too. Especially with the homework. Some evenings, there is just no getting him to sit and concentrate for half an hour. I can’t bring myself to come down heavy on a 5-year-old for that. Besides, he doesn’t grasp the evaluation process anyway. When I told him he got first in the class, all I got was a blank look and a shrug.

You have to click below for the picture; he’s second from the right, first row.

Second from right, with the smudge over his head

Previous Iwan page

About this entry

You’re currently reading “Taski Cemerlang,” an entry on Bin Gregory Productions

Published:: 07.22.03 / 9pm

Category:: Journal

Briefly

Anwar Ibrahim and the Opposition: Malaysian Seeks End to Decades of Firm Rule - a pretty decent roundup of political developments in Malaysia, from the New York Times.

The Spiritual Aspirant: Sidi Khalil Moore will be in Singapore conducting a workshop for The Spiritual Aspirant, to be held 27 June to 5 July. I had the pleasure to hear Sidi Khalil speak in Detroit back in 2002 in conjunction with the US tour of Habib Ali Al-Jifri. I regret I won't be able to make the short trip across the South China Sea to attend, but I recommend it to anyone in the area. The workshop is being sponsored by Simply Islam, under the capable hands of some of the fine people who put on the Journey to Ihsan event a couple years ago, which I did attend and enjoyed immensely.

Collapse Preparedness: The transition from the USSR to the republic of Russia was a catastrophic event for the people who lived through it. The eventual (imminent?) collapse of the US will be much much worse, warns Dmitry Orlov. The USA has a Collapse Gap. Orlov realizes

that some people will react rather badly to having their country compared to the USSR. I would like to assure you that the Soviet people would have reacted similarly, had the United States collapsed first. Feelings aside, here are two 20th century superpowers, who wanted more or less the same things – things like technological progress, economic growth, full employment, and world domination – but they disagreed about the methods. And they obtained similar results – each had a good run, intimidated the whole planet, and kept the other scared. Each eventually went bankrupt.

Valuable lessons on what to expect and how to prepare follow. Read it yourself, but the condensed advice is this: Live on the margins of society. One encouraging sign that Americans are picking up the skills they will need to survive: haggling at the mall.

Recent Comments

Bin Gregory: You are misunderstanding the usage of the word privileged in...
Abi Qalam: My dear Superman, Please understand the 'uslub' of the di...
Yusef Shain: Iam a white american revert and i see a lot of tye about all...
superman: Salam readers, i was reading the bigraphu of imam abdullah...
superman: kenapa tak ikut sunnah daripada ikut imam imam ni?...

~lin~ 07.23.03 / 6am

Sweet!

Do you teach him both languages - English and Malay?

Is there any arrangement of the Wife speaks Malay to him and you speak English to him ?

Bin Gregory 07.23.03 / 12pm

Yes, we want him to learn both. Without a doubt the arrangement you suggest is best. Theoretically, she speaks to them in Malay and I in English, but what more often happens is we all just speak rojak. So now, for example, at the dinner table my three-year old daughter says “nak more lagi” when she wants seconds. Even though this is what we are reduced to, I find that way of speaking hideous, especially the widespread use of english personal pronouns in an otherwise BM sentence. “I dah bagi you card I, kenapa you tak call”, that kind of thing… eek.

lennonist 07.23.03 / 5pm

You are one funny feller lah. Lucky you not in America man. Shit, you’d be stoned to death or something. Bush is an arse.

daniyah 07.24.03 / 2am

that is such a nice pic! his classes are in malay?

Bin Gregory 07.24.03 / 12pm

Yes. He learns Arabic and English too, but the medium of instruction is Malay.

atok 07.24.03 / 9pm

Well done to your son!
[Sadly to say, education system in M’sia has always been haywire. Things change everytime the minister change. Poor thing, those little kids have to go thru so much of memorising and tons of homework even at the pre-school level, not to mention when they start their ‘proper’ school; late nite is a norm. On top of that, going to school is like moving house; burdening such delicate bodies with truck size luggages (read school bags).]
As most things there, it operates on the concept of ‘quick fix’. Not much emphasis on the basic concept and understanding, but more on the quick result (thru routine + memorising). Tak tahulah nak cakap apa lagi…(sorry, sidetracking).
by the way… it’s good to be a bilingual. keep it up. msia boleh!

malbatt 02.07.05 / 12pm

hehe… atok is rite but then again.. educational system has to be dynamic. kids today r different from kids 30 years ago. my mom teaches in a kindergarten and she teaches tauhid, sirah, malay (both rumi and jawi), english, math (std 1), science, ayat lazim, adab, art. and she teaches this to kids from 4-6 years old. can u imagine?

Bin Gregory Productions

Taski Cemerlang

About this entry

7 Comments

Have your say

Briefly

Recent Comments

Pages

Subscribe

Flickr Photos

Other Blogs of Note

Recent Posts

Categories

Migration

Malaysian

Tech Support