Off to Birmingham..

February 29, 2008 at 1:44 pm (Event)

I’ll be off to London for the Jitsu Randori Nationals

I don’t expect to win anything because of my shoulder’s injury. At least, I have something to be blamed :).. I’ll share my precious experience soon. Insyallah (god willing) till then.. salam..

3 Comments

Languages of Malaysia..

February 29, 2008 at 12:18 pm (Bahasa Melayu, education, Malaysia)
Tags: , , , , , , , ,

In my first session of the ELLH03 Module (Language, Education and development). My lecturer asked about the number of the languages that exist in Malaysia. All of us could not give the exact answer. We just explained that Malaysia has mainly four languages. Malay language is the Malaysian national language, English is considered as the second language, and Chinese (mainly Mandarin) and Tamil are the mother tongue for the Chinese and the Indian community.

The fact

Actually, the number of the languages that have been mentioned is just the tip of the iceberg if it is compared to the actual number of the languages that is used by the Malaysian citizens. At first, we guessed that it would be just about 20 languages used for the whole citizens in the country. However the findings from my research was quite a shock. It was about 141 languages used in Malaysia. Sadly according to one of the sources, one of the languages has died. I believe that if there is no action taken to preserve the languages, they will eventually die and overpower by the languages that are commonly used by the majority.

My dialect (and slang)

It is quite a shame to note that among the list of the languages, I only know Malay and English. My ‘standard’ Malay is not that good as I always use the mixture of Malay and English (Manglish), as well as my regional dialect.

I make such statement because I have my own reasons. One of the obvious reasons is that when I meet a new guy which I’ve never met before, they can straight away tell me that I am a Kelantanese (citizen of Kelantan, the East Coast of Peninsular Malaysia). My tongue is thick with this regional dialect.

According Zuraidah in her artical (Language-dialect code-switching: Kelantanese in a multilingual context), Kelantan dialect has its own set of features of pronunciation, vocabulary and syntax, which differ from standard Malay (2003:3). This explains why one could easily detect my origin although I tried my best to hide it.

Actually I must should be proud of the this unique dialect as ‘the Kelantanese regard their dialect as a fundamental part of their regional culture and a symbol of group membership and loyalty’ (Zuraidah 2003:3). And at the same time, I should respect other dialects and languages as well.

Before I acquire the Kelantan Dialect, I had been the expert in the Sabah Malay and the Penang Dialect (also known as North dialect and Kedah Malay) because I lived there for quite a number of years. However, these special abilities were eventually died in me as I did not use and practice them anymore. What a sad ending..

p/s: please read the artical because it is an interesting artical especially the code-swithing’s part.

My language learning process

I have learn English since I was in the Kindergarten. And my English is still at the spaghetti English level. There are many factors which hinder me to be a proficient language user. Perhaps it is mainly because of my attitude? hmm..

When I was in the remove class, I learned Mandarin for a few months. Just the basic stuff for speaking and writing. But almost 90% of the knowledge was eventually dissapeared as I grew older. Whom should I blame to? hmm (again)..

I had an attemp to learn Tamil. I learned and wrote a few words from my friends, like Kalay vanakem (is it the correct spelling? Please forgive me if I am wrong). It was just for fun and to know others better. It was just in my foundation years back in IPBA and that was it. hmm..

I learned Arabic in my secondary school as I am from religious school. This involved mainly in learning the grammar and translating the religious text (the text book came from Al-Azhar University, Egypt. ie Fiqh, Tauhid, Nahu, Saraf, Balaghoh, Akhlaq, Adab and Nusus, Sirah, Khat and others). The communication part was in my opinion still lagging behind as it was more toward the exam oriented approach in the teaching and learning process. However, I should thank God and both of my parents for sending me to the school. It helps me a lot in my way searching for the Truth. A friend of mine requests me to teach Arabic to him. Maybe the right phrase for this is ‘to help and share’ instead of ‘to teach’ because I am not the expert in this area.

Besides that, I also learned Dutch and Japanese language. One semester for each language. Again, it was just the basic stuff. Luckly, there was no exam for these minor subjects or else I would be at the dead end.

Last few night, I starts learning Polish language from my work colleague which is obviously a Polish. I started with learning just a few words I, you, hello and thank you. Sadly, all of the simple words disappeared when I woke up in the next morning. Maybe I need to eat dates (kurma) to strenghten my memory power. huhuhu

Issues

There are many issues concerning the different languages used by the communities within an area. This includes the employment, education, religion, cultural and identity and power issues. Maybe I’ll write about these issues in the other post.

Things to ponder..

All of Mankind are the Children of `Adam and Hawwa’ (taken from tafsir Ibn Kathir)

Allah said:

يأَيُّهَا النَّاسُ إِنَّا خَلَقْنَـكُم مِّن ذَكَرٍ وَأُنْثَى وَجَعَلْنَـكُمْ شُعُوباً وَقَبَآئِلَ لِتَعَـرَفُواْ إِنَّ أَكْرَمَكُمْ عَندَ اللَّهِ أَتْقَـكُمْ إِنَّ اللَّهَ عَلِيمٌ خَبِيرٌ (Al Hujraat:13)

(13. O mankind! We have created you from a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes that you may know one another. Verily, the most honorable of you with Allah is that (believer) who has At-Taqwa. Verily, Allah is All-Knowing, All-Aware.)

Allah the Exalted declares to mankind that He has created them all from a single person, `Adam, and from that person He created his mate, Hawwa’. From their offspring He made nations, comprised of tribe, which include sub-tribes of all sizes. It was also said that `nations refers to non-Arabs, while `tribes refers to Arabs. Various statements about this were collected in an individual introduction from the book, Al-Inbah, by Abu `Amr Ibn `Abdul-Barr, and from the book, Al-Qasad wal-Amam fi Ma`rifah Ansab Al-Arab wal-`Ajam. Therefore, all people are the descendants of `Adam and Hawwa’ and share this honor equally. The only difference between them is in the religion that revolves around their obedience to Allah the Exalted and their following of His Messenger . After He forbade backbiting and belittling other people, alerting mankind that they are all equal in their humanity.

Allah said,

﴿يأَيُّهَا النَّاسُ إِنَّا خَلَقْنَـكُم مِّن ذَكَرٍ وَأُنْثَى وَجَعَلْنَـكُمْ شُعُوباً وَقَبَآئِلَ لِتَعَـرَفُواْ﴾

(O mankind! We have created you from a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes that you may know one another.) so that they get to know each other by their nation or tribe. Mujahid said that Allah’s statement,

﴿لِتَعَـرَفُواْ﴾

(that you may know one another.) refers to one’s saying, “So-and-so the son of so-and-so, from the tribe of so-and-so.” Sufyan Ath-Thawri said, “The Himyar (who resided in Yemen) dealt with each other according to their provinces, while the Arabs in the Hijaz (Western Arabia) dealt with each other according to their tribes.”

Allah the Exalted said,

﴿إِنَّ أَكْرَمَكُمْ عَندَ اللَّهِ أَتْقَـكُمْ﴾

(Verily, the most honorable of you with Allah is that (believer) who has At-Taqwa.) meaning, `you earn honor with Allah the Exalted on account of Taqwa, not family lineage.’ There are many Hadiths from the Prophet that support this meaning. Al-Bukhari narrated that Abu Hurayrah said, “Some people asked the Prophet , `Who is the most honorable among people’ He replied,

«أَكْرَمُهُمْ عِنْدَ اللهِ أَتْقَاهُم»

(The most honorable among them with Allah is the one who has the most Taqwa.) They said, `We did not ask you about this.’

for more info and flow, refer to the Tafsir Ibn Kathir (Quran Tafsir) Surah Al Hujraat.

The moral of the story

The word that can be best described the whole post is “respect”. All of the differences show how great and unique the diversity is, how small each of us is. Ironically, there are some people tend to be a bit ethnocentrism especially who has the power. Yes, we should be proud of what we have but at the same time respect others (I need to have more space to explain about this issue = another post) . If we respect others, others will do the same. What goes around, comes around. The most important key element is that ‘Shuhudul wahdah fil kasra, shuhudul kasrah fil wahdah’. If you know what I mean.

Ps: What if what goes around does not come around? The answer is you can be either a tree full of fruits or a beehive full of bees. If you throw something at the tree, you’ll get fruits. But if you throw something at the beehive, you’ll be badly injured. Which one would you choose? huhuhu..

3 Comments

Three Options

February 23, 2008 at 2:59 pm (Uncategorized)

I have three options for my summer vacation.

1) Gang house 34

  • Number of days: 36 days
  • Places: berlin, krakow, prague, vienna, budapest, bucharest, sofia, athens, rome, venice, zurich, nice, cordoba and lisbon
  • Money needed: + £1200 just for transportation and accommodation

2) Gang house 31

  • Number of days: 21 days
  • Places: berlin, prague, austria, hungary, romania, bulgaria, greece, italy, switz
  • Money needed: + £1500 for all.

3) Kelana Konvoi (travel agency)

  • Number of days: 14 days
  • Places: 7 countries
  • Money needed: ++£1000

and..

I’ve just got another option from my friend.

4) Egypt

  • Number of days: maybe 14 days
  • Places: around Egypt
  • Money needed: not sure yet

Can anyone help me with this problem? Actually I can solve the problem by myself, but maybe my financial problem give me a little bit of headache.. I’m just a little man, with a big ambition.. huhuhu.. Therefore I need to choose the one that tailors my pocket instead of my interest.. sigh..

*to my sis: You are most welcomed if you want to join my vacation. Use the money that maa gave.. huhuhu (evil laugh)..

4 Comments

You can save the world

February 15, 2008 at 6:44 am (Uncategorized)

i)

If you were familiar with the tv series Heroes season one, you might come across with the saying ‘Save the cheerleader, save the world’. Apart from this series, there are also a lot of superheroes who claim that they are able to save the world with their supernatural power.

However, that is not what I am going to talk about these superheroes. In fact, I have found something more interesting about you and me. All of us can save the world.

___________________________________

ii)

Yesterday, before I went to the class, I had a small talk with my house cleaner about things around us.

Sue : It is freezing cold outside.
Me : Hmmm.. (I opened the curtain of my room to see the weather outside my room).. It seems warm outside ..
Sue : You shouldn’t be easily deceived by the sunny day. Its windy and cold outside.
Me : Ooo.. (I just agreed with her).
Sue : It is usually cold in February, the windows of the cars are frozen a few times this week.
Me : Yeah, I’ve seen them frozen last week. But, I’m still waiting for the snow to come. (I showed my 10 penny face (muka 10sen).
Sue : If you are lucky, they’ll come.
Warid: But, with the global warming and all, it seems impossible.

And then, the killing question comes…

Sue :Do you know how we can save this world?
Me : Recycle? (I raise my eyebrows (~ ~).

We suggested a few answers based on our previous knowledge.. But none of the answers seemed to satisfy her. And then, she gave me some clues..

Sue : Look at the ceiling, and what’ll you see.
Me : (pretended to be clueless)
My mute monologue: OMG.. Is she trying to say that we never turn off the light at night?
Sue: When I come here every morning (before 9 a.m.), I can see that almost every houses in the village (our residential area) do not turn off the light. That means that the light is on all the night.
Sue started her early morning lecture: I think the college has spent load of money for this. I know that you pay about £60 per week, but you have got the complete package which including electricity, gas, water, Internet and even cleaner. That is fairly cheap isn’t? If you can turn off all the lights when you go sleeping, you can save the world, its very much energy.. bla bla bla..She ended up her lecture when we said that we have to rush to the lecture or else we’ll be late..

The discussion made me wonder for a while. Sue is actually has got her point. I am pretty sure that I was somehow convinced that I can actually save the world. It is by saving some electricity!! as easy as that.

ps: the dialogue is not the actual dialogue that we have in that morning. But the main idea about what we were talking about are there.

____________________________________

iii)

To be honest, I actually have a very bad habit of not turning off the light even when I sleep at night. It made me looked back to the time when I started to develop this weird habit. It was when I was in my early secondary school. There was a teacher who has passed down his habit to his students. If I am not forgotten, it was during an assembly when he gave some tips that will make us become good learners. He told that it is good to memorize the notes and do the reading early in the morning (1-2 a.m. until dawn). In order to do so, he suggested that we put the books besides the pillow when we sleep at night and do not turn off the light. So, when we wake up, we can easily do the reading as the light is still on. He stated that the practice was proved to be successful when he had tried the method himself.

Unfortunately, it didn’t really work perfectly on me. I had succeeded the turning on the light part, but not really attained the waking up at the middle of the night part. I only ended up tearing my books or at least crumpling them because these poor books would faithfully accompany me when I was sleeping. My mother would turn the light off if she woke up at the middle of the night but if not, it would be like that until the next morning. Although I got a lot of scolded or lectures from my parents, I could not really get rid of this habit. It was llike the schema that is being glued with the elephant glu (gam gajah) in my brain. Starting from that point, it has become my habit.

___________________________________

iv)

In IPBA, Kuala Lumpur, I slept a lot. I suffered a sleep disorder. ‘Suffer’ is probably not the right word, maybe ‘enjoyed’ is the correct one. I could sleep whether it is bright or dark, day or night, quiet or noisy, clear or haze air, just name it. Perhaps that was because of the training that I had before. In the first stage, sleeping in light, i crawled to the other higher stages. From sight, to the hearing, and to the smell, it was quite tough though. huhuhu.. It could be said that the life of my hostel started at night. The majority of the activities took place at night; from the educational stuff to the uncivilised activities. In this case, we can see that the large amount of electricity was consumed as least the lights turns on until the morning or even the afternoon.

___________________________________

v)

Back in Marjon, I am still with the habit. I again, don’t really turn off the light when I go to the bed. One of my neighbours even once asked me when do I usually sleep at night. It is because she always sees my room bright. When I told her that I did turn the light off when I go to sleep, she asked me: ‘Kenapa? takut hantu ke? (Why? Are afraid of ghost?)’. It made me laugh, if I am afraid of ghost, I would turn off the light, because we can’t see anything in the dark, even the bright ghost. And the other way around, I can see everything if it is bright. It is obvious. huhuhu

Even this ghost needs a torchlight to make others see her..
credit to Kenira

___________________________________

vi)

Just a few weeks ago, I received a link via Yahoo Messenger from a friend of mine.

Oggy : http://www.earthhour.org/ see the different you can make – be part of it
Paih : apekah?
Oggy : check it out
Paih : I cant see the pic
Oggy : what picture?
Oggy : just a website
Paih : the flash?
Oggy : Owh u dun have it..never mind that mind this – Created to take a stand against the greatest threat our planet has ever faced, Earth Hour uses the simple action of turning off the lights for one hour to deliver a powerful message about the need for action on global warming. This simple act has captured the hearts and minds of people all over the world. As a result, at 8pm on the 29 March, 2008 millions of people in some of the world’s major capital cities, including Copenhagen, Toronto, Chicago, Melbourne, Brisbane and Tel Aviv will unite and switch off for Earth Hour.
Paih : but I cant see the pic above it
Oggy : what browser do u use?
Oggy : firefox?
Oggy : switch to IE or Opera or Avant
Paih : is it worth it?
Oggy : worth it if you want to prevent the global warming
Paih : hmm
Oggy : never mind that…the point is already said
Paih : huhuhu
Paih : i’ll try then..

__________________________________

to be continued…

6 Comments

Everyone can talk in Malay Language..

February 12, 2008 at 11:58 am (Bahasa Melayu, education)

Pertandingan Akhir Pidato Bahasa Melayu Antarabangsa 2007
(The Final International Malay Language Debate Competition 2007)

credit to Abe Je

Leave a Comment

Another year to go.. and still counting..

February 12, 2008 at 12:30 am (education, Event)

Today is my first anniversary, not with a fiance or something like that, but with the life that i have in my college, Marjon. That means, I’ve been here in the UK for exactly a year. I have only got another year before I went back to my beloved country.

Is there any changes so far? Let’s have a look..

  • in term of my performance, i can say that I have got just about the same result (although some of them were not really good consistent). Shame on me.. huhuhu..I need to work harder.. (?) A part from the formal education, I have also involved in the Jitsu club. So far so good, but there is still a lot of room for improvement and to learn something new and interesting. Hopefully, by relating Jitsu with my previous experience, it can be the meaningful learning for me.
Quite consistent on the surface..
…
But it is actually like this if it is seen in detail
  • in term of my social life, I am still the same person. Maybe because I am a bit afraid of changes (?). My appearance is just the same. This is according to my own observation. Maybe people would argue about this point. Perhaps there are some sort of inner changes in my understanding and perception towards the world which evolves around me. Hopefully, these would be the positive changes that can make me a better person.
Learning Jitsu in a way has improved my well being..
  • in term of my income, there is no doubt that my income has increased. Thanks to the Malaysian government for the generosity towards the overseas students. I’ve heard that some of the local students has got their allowance increased as well. The government has played their part in this area very well especially for our welfare.Thanks again.
  • in term of physical appearance, I think I do not change at all very much. My weight is still the same as before. The only thing that concern me is that my eye power has increased. This is just my hypothesis that I make based on my sight ability. I have not got my eyes checked properly yet. Maybe I’ll get the heart attack once I go and check my eyes at the optometrist.

and still..

  • There are a lot more bad habits need to be thrown far away from my heart.
  • There are a lot more things that I need to learn for my professional development.
  • I have no idea about what I am going to write for my dissertation.
  • There are a lot of places that I haven’t go in Europe and the UK. I need to save some cash for this.
  • I don’t really bother about reading books. I really3 need to make some time for reading. sigh..
  • There are a lot more things to learn, experience and discover.

Another year to go.. and still counting

Leave a Comment

One more reason

February 8, 2008 at 7:39 pm (Uncategorized)

In this term, one of the modules that I have to take is the Multimedia Software in an Educational Setting. Based on the first impression that I have gone through in the first session, this long title doesn’t really give the right picture on what I am going learn. Basically all of what I am going to have for the next 11 weeks sessions are about designing my own websites.

Starting from now on, what I will mostly look at when I am surfing the Internet is not the content of the websites, but more towards the design and layout of the page. It doesn’t need to be very complicated, full with the gadget and all. But, you should know what I am talking about (Boston 2008). Mike (Boston)has suggested us to look through the websites that suck page to find out what is important and crucial aspect in designing my own sites. Quite irony..

By having this blog, I will be able to look at the basic HTML codes that the page provides. I can modify them the way I want (not now, maybe in the future). At the end of the day, we need to hand in our own websites to the judges (lecturer) as our assignment. Hopefully, I will be able to design something stunning which will shut the mouth of the critics especially my lecturer. huhuhu..

 

 

 

2 Comments

The Big Art Day 2008

February 6, 2008 at 7:51 pm (education, Event)
Tags:

Yesterday, the international students from Marjon had involved in the Big Art Day event as the stewards. This event included students performances, art workshops and exhibitions. Basically our task was to take care of the schools that we were in charge in. We, including the Japanese students were divided into groups of two or three.Each group was given one or two schools to look after.

Warid, Tatsumi and I

There were about 20 schools performing. The children were just fantastic and amazing. My group was asked to take care of two schools, the Woodfield and St Paul’s. They performed the mixed group dance and dance/ movement – ‘Dinosaur and all that rubbish’. Their performances were full of energy as though the whole Plymouth Pavilion’s arena was theirs.

The most interesting and touching part of the event was when students from the Woodlands school performed. They sang songs which one of them were about the dreams that they have. They mentioned that they want to do everything in their dreams as they cannot do many things in their real life. This is because they are the disable students. Although they seemed to enjoy their show, only God knew what were in their mind when they sang the song…

At the same time, there were also some art workshop taking place at the other part of the arena. This included the drawing, doing 2ds and 3ds art. The students with the helps of teachers were doing great job. Some of the art works were very creatively done and in fact, I have not seen some of these designs before.

Students drew their own body.

An art workshop by the St Park Primary School

Another part of the event was the art exibition. The exibition was on the photographer, fabric art and 3d paper art (origami?). It was a great oppertunity to see things in different ways in which I may not often seen or may just because of my ignorance?

All in all it was a great event except for … (please refer to the note below). We have had a great day with a lot of new experience dealing with the schools and enjoying the performances, workshops and exibitions. Why don’t we organize such event back in our place? One big art event can be organized in each district. The contents of the events can be modified to suit the culture and values that the particular society holds.

Note: We were not allowed to take pictures of children because of the lousy law. Only the schools’ photographer’ and the host photographer are allowed to do so. It was just a waste of lots of great memories and the ability of high tech cameras as well. sigh..

Forr more photos, click here

 

Leave a Comment

My first entry

February 3, 2008 at 3:47 pm (Uncategorized)
Tags:

Assalamualaikum

Alhamdulillah.. I has been given the strenght to create a blog which will be the place for me to express anything that catches my senses.

Why do I blog?

  1. The environmental influences? A lot of people around me have their own blog/s. Ayah Su, Ciksu, friends and even my 5 years old cousin has her own blog. Amazing isn’t it?
  2. 70% of my life evolve around the Internet. For your info, my computer is just a few inches from my bed, either I look at it or the computer itself looks at me. So, why don’t I start blogging? Some might say that I should get a ‘real life’! (meaning mix with others, involve in outdoors activities ect). Yeah, my other life is the remaining 30%. It is more than enough, I guess.. huhuhu..
  3. Some of my friends gave special request upon me on writing something beneficial to others. Actually, I’ve been thinking about this idea for quite a long time. How can I give benefits to others if I can’t even mind my own business. Then, I came out with this idea, writing about my own monologue (see my blog’s title) and at the same time giving knowledge input to others..
  4. I can do the dakwah in my own way. Narrated ‘Abdullah bin ‘Amr: The Prophet said, “Convey (my teachings) to the people even if it were a single sentence,and tell others the stories of Bani Israel (which have been taught to you), for it is not sinful to do so. And whoever tells a lie on me intentionally, will surely take his place in the (Hell) Fire.”(Sahih bukhari. Volume 4, Book 56, Number 667:).
  5. Practise my skills (inter/intrapersonel, language, writing, ect.). Hopefully.. If you find anything which may be wrong, ambiguous, and ect. in term of facts, ideas, grammar, language used.. feel free to give the positive and negative comment(s). Hopefully, I can become competence improve myself from time to time.
  6. Sharing is caring.
  7. Make friends. Why not?

As for the remembrance of this big event, I’ve bought a nice badik names ‘Badik ketandaan patat siput kemuning hitam’ see here.

Badik bersarung
Badik bersarung
Badik tanpa bersarung
Badik tanpa sarung

Actually, it should be the other way around. I bought the badik first (02/02/08) and then I started my blog (03/02/08). huhuhu..

Lastly, with Bismillahirrahmanirrahim.. In the name of Allah, most gracious, most merciful, I hereby ‘merasmikan’ my own website (clapping hands for background sound).. Subhanallah, Alhamdulillah, Walaailaahaillallah, wAllahuakbar, walahaulawala quwwata illa billahil’aliyyil’azim..

My monologue,
Mohd Faiz Mohd Lazim
25 Muharram 1429 @ 3rd Feb 2008.

3 Comments