- My Messy Desk, WSA, Auckland (21.05.08) -

I keep stumbling upon blogs of young Malaysian bloggers these past few days. Some are taking PMR and some SPM. Makes me feel a little bit nostalgic somehow; I remember my days of manual blogging in 2001 before using Greymatter in 2002-2004 and moving on to b2evolution, and finally wordpress and Joomla. But it’s not this recollection that hit me with this sense of nostalgia. It’s what I read in those young darlings’ blogs.

Aside from records of normal everyday occurences, it seems that most of them are talking about scrapping as many A’s as possible in exams. I remember how I was like that too when I was at that age. It’s not until I’ve left school that I actually reflected back on what I view education as - what I truly want from education, and from being educated.

Life of A Student and the Race for A’s

I thought back on why I wanted so much to get as many A’s as possible. How did I feel back then when I got 5A’s in UPSR? How did I feel back then when I got 8A’s in PMR? How did I feel when I got 8A’s in SPM? I remembered getting extremely upset with my SPM results. I felt like tearing the result slip, because it hurt to look at the B’s when I’ve worked myself sick for the exam. I got slightly envious of those who got straight A’s, and felt really, really low because it was the first major exam where I didn’t manage to scrap all A’s. And the B’s upset me because they were what I didn’t expect.

Now that I think about it, I couldn’t help but smile. Never mind if the smile is actually bitter or not. While chasing after the A’s, the grades and the rank, I was unconsciously falling into a dangerous trap. I didn’t realise that I was trying to please other people all along. I didn’t realise that getting the A’s was not really about personal gratification, but about feeding the expectations of society. At that time, maybe even now, some people’s view on what makes a student ‘good’ is his or her grade. Academic excellence comes before anything else, because it is what we can easily observe. It’s what the eyes can see. Like me, years before, I never really considered that they are actually many ways to define excellence and intelligence. As I grow up, portions of my thoughts mature with me.

I’ve come to learn that the nature of excellence and intelligence varies across cultures and society. What a particular society defines as ‘giftedness’ may not necessarily apply to another society. Imagine the uneasiness I feel when breaching the subject of education in Educational Psychology tutorial. We get to hear the views on education from students all over the world. Like in Japan, grades are everything for students. In New Zealand, the United States and a few other countries, skills and abilities matter the most in defining intelligence (particularly cognitive skills). So then, what is the definition of excellence and intelligence in Malaysian culture?

I ask myself now: For all the subjects that you got A’s or those that you worked so hard to get A’s for, do you still remember what they’re all about? If you got A for History, do you still remember all the historical facts you learned in History? If you got A for Math or Add-Math, do you still remember all the formulas? If you got A for Chemistry, do you still remember all those equations for chemical reactions? Chances are: “Probably” or “I don’t” would be the answer. I don’t think I could ever say “Absolutely!”. What might had taken me only 2 minutes to solve back then might take 30 minutes now. Some people might even straight away claim “I don’t remember anymore la~”

What tickles my brain at the moment is the fact that there’s still a race to get as many A’s as possible in education. Does it still mean anything if deep understanding is not achieved?

Life as a Teacher-trainee and Teachers

When I graduate as a teacher, what is it that I want my student to achieve? What do I have to emphasise in the classroom? Should I keep reminding them of how they should work hard to get an A for the subject I teach? Or do I remind them of how important it is for them to acquire the right skills and the right knowledge so that they can use it in the unseen future? Why do I get the feeling that I’d be told off by the school authority if I choose the latter?

Moving out of the topic of students and learners, I have other dilemmas weighing down on me too.

Why are teachers rated on the scale of how many of the students taught by them managed to get A’s in their subject disciplines? Why are schools rated on how many of their students get high results? Why provide teacher-trainees the motivation to ‘make a change for the better on the education policy’ when they’re going to be ripped off of their ‘freedom of speech’ once they are posted at schools? Why keep telling us that we’re the ‘agents of change’ if we’re going to be asked to ’shut up’ later? Why pay us to study overseas if we aren’t allowed the opportunity to change what we were initially asked to change?

My seniors who had just had their graduation ceremony a few weeks ago are already teaching. However, it upsets me greatly that many of them were actually asked to teach subjects which are completely out of their subject discipline. I knew this scenario isn’t foreign in the past, but I had hoped it would change before our era. They were sent to study English, and how to teach English. This also applies to teacher-trainees of other programs - they were taught their respective subject disciplines and were supposed to teach within their subject disciplines. Within their expertise. So why, when it’s so blatantly obvious that there are shortages of teaching staff in a particular subject discipline, are they not assigned to the right ones?

I’m learning English, and I’ve lived in Kelantan all my life. If me asking to teach in Kelantan receives a reply sounding like “There’s no empty post” in the near future, then I would know how much of a nonsense that is. My old school was short on English teachers. The school my mother taught in was short on English teachers. Even the schools my elder brothers and sisters-in-law teach now are short on English teachers. So why pray tell are those who were trained to teach English stuck with teaching subjects they are not trained to?

I could get a headache out of all this. I even worry about writing a blog entry such as this - worry that I’m not allowed to voice all these out. Will I get some kind of penalty for this? God knows. Until later.

So sad that my holiday is finally coming to an end. My days of sleeping after subuh prayer, lazying around doing nothing, shopping until my feet cannot hold, not worrying about food, etc etc… They’re all coming to an end My flight is on the 20th, 9.15pm. Ah.. Another over 10-hour trip. At least I get to sleep on the plane.

Let’s see what have I bought during this looooong summer break:
+ Sony Vaio VGN-CR23G/W (white is so cool~ and 2.0ghz + 2gb ram is good enough for me And free VOS too, and lots of freebies)
+ Sony Cybershot DSC-T70/W (because T2 has smaller LCD, and I don’t need 4GB to take pictures! The free 1GB memory stick is more than enough for me.)
+ Philips SA3124/37 - 2gb (finally, a new mp3 player! Okay, it’s music and video player, but I only use it for mp3s)
+ Western Digital Passport (External HDD) 160gb
+ Motorola V6 Maxx (okay, I give up. V9 is still too expensive…)
+ 2 2GB PenDrive Mini
+ Lots and lots of clothes (jeans, cropped jeans, t-shirts, lounge suits, etc)
+ Lots of Nike stuff (yes, I’m a big fan~), including the cool (yet bulky) Chisel watch (I want to buy Imara Kylo or Imara Keeva.. maybe in Auckland) and 3 pair of shoes (1 free mary jane, 1 sl IV wide and 1 air force 1).
+ Elizabeth Arden Valentine Set and various L’oreal and Maybelline products (and other products too, actually. I haven’t bought cosmetics and skincare for a while…)
+ Elizabeth Arden Green Tea EDP 50ml and Salvatore Feragammo Incanto Charms EDT 100ml (couldn’t resist!!)
+ Sony headphone and Philips In-ear Turbo Bass earphone with neck strap (yay!)

There are more, but it’s impossible to list down everything.

I’m really, really BAD when it comes to spending money. For the next two months and a week, I shall live with this:

AU$ 5850
(Nigel, I owe the pic to your creativity XD)

Signing off~

The first Kelantan branch of Tesco is now open. It was initially scheduled to open 2 weeks ago, but the recent flood had caused a delay in the actual launch date. So, this morning, it was officially launched. The complex is big, but not as big as KB Mall. I have to say that the interior is very impressive. The food court is situated just right - you’ll reach the food court once you get into the complex from the parking area. I’d say the placement is convenient. You can can choose to either eat first and then shop or the other way around.

There are a few other shops in the complex. Reject Perfume Shop, Nagoya Textile, InfoMusic, Beauty & Slimming Center and more.Customers rushed to apply for free Tesco clubcard. You can say that the place was really crowded up until this evening before I left.

Bought a few stuff from the complex. I think the complex is off to a good start. Spent around RM150 at Nagoya, and another RM70 at Tesco. I’m thinking of going back to the complex later to buy some discounted perfume. Well, it’s only discounted because we don’t get the perfume box with our purchase. There’s a reason it’s called ‘Reject’ perfume shop. Box or no box, RM150 for 100ml Eau de Parfum that normally costs around RM185 - RM250 is a great deal. Afterwards, I treated Mom and Dad to some ice-cream on the way back.

I don’t think this will be a competition to KB Mall’s Pacific or Kota Sri Mutiara’s Billion. The products available in this new complex differed in quality and brand name. For people who are on tight budget, I’d say this is a blessing for them. We don’t have Carrefour, but at least we now have Tesco. The fact that it’s situated along Sultan Yahya Petra’s bridge which connects the main road to the heart of Kota Bharu is sure to attract customers too.

Nevertheless, Kelantanese should rejoice not because they now has Tesco. Kelantanese around the state should be glad because new store means more job opportunities. Cheers!

I came back at 11 something last night and was too tired to write down the events that entrailed. So yesterday, I when to check out my ASB. I was glad that I got around RM700 of profits out of the whole sum, meaning I had a little over RM700 extra to spend on what I’ll be buying before flying off to New Zealand next month. It’s sad that my long break is finally coming to an end, but at the same time, I’m glad that I’m now a second-year student. Getting through the first year was tough; I hope I’ll do a lot better this year. I withdrew a small amount of RM1,500 from my account to buy some stuff.

Back to the topic at hand..

After going to the bank, I picked up a few blank shirts I I ordered for t-shirt printing purpose. I hoped to settle the order of 20 t-shirts and 15 mugs before next week. Once I’m done, I may be able to get a clean profit of around RM10 per shirt and RM8 per mug. That’s already a lot to me. Sounded a lot for 20 t-shirts, but� those include design charges for 3 different designs. While designing is fairly easy, completing a satisfactory design is definitely not. Especially if your customer is very fussy

And then I went shopping (again)! Initially, I wanted to find a new luggage but later decided to buy one in KL instead. Spent Rm135 on a set of affordable women suit (suit, shirt and long skirt), RM112 on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, RM20 on two cheap black tank-tops and RM105 on lingeries.That made a total of RM372, so I still haveRM1128 left.� I think I’ll go buy some sports wear with them. And the luggage. And maybe, a new mp3 player. Mp4 makes no impression on me because I don’t like to watch videos or anything on small displays (as I blatantly expressed in one past blog post). So now, the important stuff left to buy are:

1. �Sony Vaio CR 23/GN: RM4,488
2. Motorola V9: +- RM1,500
3. Sony DSC-T20-B (RM1,199) or the DSC-H3/B (RM1,399)

Aaah! Lots of money! Feel so sad to watch them flow away from me :((

Lots of things happened today - both good and bad, but not really bad. I’m trying to get back to the way I write blogs in the good old days - by sections. My friends once told me they like that style of mine, so I’m trying to start it again.

The Trouble With Renewing Driving License
My driving license expired on December 27, so I thought it would be good to go and renew it today. Papa suggested I renew it for two years to make things easier, and I chose to follow his plan. The three of us (Papa, Mama and yours truly) headed for JPJ HQ to renew my license, but unfortunately, the counters won’t be open until 2.45pm (it was 12.25pm when we arrived). Break from 12.25pm to 2.45pm? That’s quite long a period. I was like ‘what the heck’ and we decided to go somewhere else first before coming back to the HQ. Just outside the building, we met my driving instructor. He said that even if we wait, I wouldn’t be able to renew my license anyway. The server is temporarily down, and whatever devices the have in the building were currently out of service. %*##$#*@?? I was fortunate, though, my instructor offered to renew my license because he’ll be coming back to the HQ a few more times this week. I’ll just have to go and collect my license from him when it’s done. Thank God! That’s one problem down.

The Trouble With Registering For Public Bank Online Banking
Unlike other cards (at other banks), registering for PB Online Banking required me going to the customer service representative, filling out a registration form, and waiting for a loooong time. No, it didn’t take more than 5 minutes to get the ID and password to access their online banking facilities. It’s just that more people keep coming to the CS table even though it’s occupied (by me!), and the rep finished theirs first because theirs were more complicated and involved a lot more pen-slashing and signing. Um, next time, how about doing the fastest and easiest and definitely less complicated first? Move from basic to complicated, you know, like David Ausubel’s receptive learning theory… I wasted more than 40 minutes when it shouldn’t be more than 10 minutes, 15 minutes maximum if you count the time I spent reading the terms of use and filling out the simple form. And the ID and password can only be used after 24 hours. Great, more waiting.

Shopping at KB Mall

Alas, the best event of my day. Spent around RM350 for a Voir/VJ Jeans jacket with faux fur neckline, a knee-length Institute skirt, a cute yellow Institute long-sleeved t-shirt, and a white Nicole blouse with black vertical stripes. Cheap huh? Of course, the Institute skirt and t-shirt went on an 80% discount and the Nicole blouse got 50% discount. Only 10% discount on the jacket, though, because it’s one of the ‘New Arrival’ items… Click the images for full view.