My ‘not so wonderful’ English Class

Reflection on today’s class


I am quite frustrated with my DDC students. I was hoping that they would study and memorise the basic grammar rules that I gave them ( because there are just 6 rules, not 20 or 50!) but sad to say only a handful of them did- most of them didn’t. It was obvious when they couldn’t answer the questions that I asked, meaning that they didn’t study –it seems like they don’t see the importance of those basic rules that can help them to speak and write grammatically correct English. They really made me sad. ..I feel like a failure ….


No, I cannot be emotional on this – I’ve got to do something , I’ve got to come up with some new interesting approaches to cultivate their interest in English and make them aware that English is important to them in their profession later on - where they can go ‘far’ in their career if they are good in English. Yes, I really got to think of something…I shouldn’t put all the blame on the students , I should find my blunder as well. I think I’ll seek advice from my colleagues – perhaps my roommate, Ayu or Kamaziz can help me. I also think that I need to go the library or bookstore and get myself a book on how to teach grammar – the effective and interesting way. Yes, I’ll do that.

Today’s Vocab

1. Albeit means although (when you want to introduce a fact or comment which contras with something that you have just said)
• It continues to publish, albeit irregularly, two journals.
2. Succinctly means expressing fact or ideas clearly in a few words (concisely)
• Keep your answers as succinct as possible.
• Speaking clearly, succinctly and persuasively is crucial to many jobs including sales jobs.

My opinion on the word ‘love’


For me, love has something to do with reciprocity whereby if we love someone, we will be loved back. Love is very subjective – it’s not just between human beings but we also love our environment – our world – try imagine what would happen if we don’t love our environment - we would live in a filthy, unhealthy and harmful place. Love can be also towards animals – there are so many pet lovers nowadays. Love is everywhere. We start off with loving our own parents, our siblings and relatives then as we grow older our love will be towards our friends then towards our spouse and it’ll keep on increasing and increasing in numbers. But we need to bear in mind one thing – this love towards other humans is just temporary… it’ll fade away or die . Only our love to the Almighty Allah will last forever. Think about it… what have we done in showing Allah that we love him? As He is the greatest lover to those who love him.

My Magnificent English Class

What I learnt in class ...



Today, when I told my DDC sem 1 students that they need to create a blog for this English course, I vividly remember the look on their face. Some looked very excited, very thrilled – well, I thought perhaps they already had a blog before and felt eager to continue with what they have or maybe perhaps these are the challenger lovers –who dare to try something new, something that they have never tried before- I just love this type of look on my students’ face.
Yet, There is another look which sort of worries me a bit – the anxiety look which the face sort of saying inside them “Wow! What’s this? Can I do it... it looks like something big... to start with –my English is not good to understand the instruction on how to create a blog ..wow, I feel like quitting the course”.
I’m glad that I didn’t get the uninterested and ‘bored to death’ look from both classes. Thank God. From my experience, dealing with uninterested students was difficult and traumatic.
The students asked questions on what to write, I could see that they were still puzzled , even though I have told and written on the board on journal writing , I also used the word ‘dairy’ which they are more familiar with. Ok here I learnt one thing – I need to be more specific next time, I should write it down (instead of just saying it verbally), perhaps on transparency, the specific things or sub topics that the students should include in their journal writing so that they will be on the right track. I shouldn’t confuse them and make them feel unhappy for not knowing what to write. I guess better still, I do one example in my own blog of what I want them to write in their blog. Yeah, I think the students will be clearer this way and save me from getting angry seeing the students’ work /blog not being done the way I want it.

Vocabularies of today
1.Accelerate means
(i)to increase speed
•She accelerated and passed the bus in front.
(ii)to cause something to occur faster or happen earlier
•Fertilizers accelerate the growth of plants

2.Absurd means unreasonable, foolish, ridiculous.
• What an absurd suggestion!
• Don’t be absurd!

My Opinion on current issue – Coupling
I’m against coupling among students because it is wrong in our religion. Islam forbids one from going out with an opposite gender because it will bring about more harm than good – the Satan or devil will be there where the couples are, whispering to them to do things that they are not supposed to do.
Nowadays, if you read the daily newspaper or watch the news bulletin on TV, there are so many news on new born babies being dumped by the parent. Why didn’t the parent love the baby ? You and I knew the answer. They were unfortunate, unwanted babies born out of wedlock. So to prevent this thing from happening, and not to regret over spill milk, don’t get involved in coupling.

Those aren't mine......but the dreams are!

There are many things that fascinate me, one of which is luxury cars –Buggati (like the one owned by The Sultan of Johor), Ferrari, Lamborghini, Lotus and many more. Every time I came across these wonderful cars, I always wished they were mine but being what I am now-just an educator, I couldn’t afford to own one. ...even if I choose to be on diet for the rest of my life plus sell my house, my asset, I still couldn’t afford it. But frankly I have no regrets on my destiny... I’m always grateful for what the Almighty Allah has given me. True enough, an educator like me couldn’t afford a Lamborghini ,which cost millions of Ringgit but I might help my students to own one. How? By being an effective educator who can manage to educate and motivate the students to excel in their studies and thus be great people in the future – successful entrepreneurs and CEOs of their own company. Insha’Allah, I will always pray for their success . It will definitely make me happy if one day I see my ex-student driving a Lotus sports in front of me. Perhaps that time, they don’t remember me anymore but that’s ok with me... deep inside me, they’ve made me feel proud. My students can actually own what I can only dream of.
Even though it’s not a Lamborghini that I own but I’m still grateful that at least I have a car which takes me everywhere without worrying where is the safest place to park, worrying about being stolen, being scratched... ..Owning a Perodua VIVA, I have no worries.

My dear Viva, let’s us just be small and together we make ways for those big people in those big cars-hopefully those big people are my students.In sha Allah!

Golden Jubilee Reunion

Last night- the 18th of June, 2011 -was a terrific night- a night to remember. Last night, about 100 alumni of Ahmad Primary School gathered after years of not meeting one another, we met last night at Swiss Garden Hotel. Some of us had met in a smaller reunion last year. But last night was different - the reunion was organised at a larger skill - more 'lost & found' friends, more budget, more foods - it was great, it was wonderful. Imagine meeting your friends whom you havent met some 40 years ago.
I really gave a huge hug to Mano (now, Dr. Manorema Kunjapan), Mazariah Osman, Siti Ainun, Khatijah (we used to call her 'fatty bum-bum'), Musalmah and Lim Nuanget. And among the old boys who were there last night were Mahayudin'roti', ramli hassan, jalil jamil ( who still looks young),Zaharudin saleh, iskandar, Zakaria (now known as 'Dato Dr. Zakaria), Solah (also known as 'Dato Dr.'), Zaimi, Yahuda and many others. many of the boys have either grey hair or no hair left on the head! Some dont change alot but some are totally different.
I was accompanied by my husband last night to the reunion and all the way from and back to our house in Pekan,I was talking non stopped about my friends. I got so carried away with my intense feeling of happiness.

You'll always be in my heart......my darling Selamat and Thaksin

What a sad Sunday for me and hubby because today our dearest pet, Selamat whom had been with us since 2002 had passed away. He was very ill. He didnt eat for 2 days and was very weak. He died at 2.30 a.m in our bed room. We saw him struggling and fighting for his life. He made a noise -similar to a baby crying before he died. I really couldnt stop myself from crying while my husband tried to 'calm' Selamat down as he stroke lightly on its chest to release his pain.
We really love him so much. He was our first pet and he was a wild cat when he came every night to our house to sleep in our porch and ran like hell upon seeing us in the morning some 9 years ago. My husband named him Selamat because one day my husband saw a similar coloured cat was knocked down by a car near our house, my husband thought it was him, the cat that spent nights in our porch but to our surprise he came to our porch 2 night after the incident so we decided to name him 'Selamat' because apparently he was save. And from that day onwards we put something for him to eat near his sleeping area and ultimately we managed to tame him and our home become his too.
Lucky for Selamat because there was 2 other rather small cats who always come to our house too. They were sibling- the male(a siamese cat) we called him Taksin and the other one, a female cat we called Kajoi because she was rather dark. Selamat was rather founds of her and the two had babies together who were born and bred in our house - First there were Kiki and Lala (both didnt survive long) and Charlie & Combi. Not long after Charlie and Combi were born, Kajoi disappeared. My husband searched everywhere in the neigbourhood for her but to no avail. Selamat and Thasin were the ones who were responsible for the upbringing and saveguarding Charlie and Combi. They are both grown up now. And we now have another 'walk-in' cat called Kris.
Thaksin had passed away in November 2010 at Jawahar Clinic in Kuantan. He was diagnosed as having luekimia ands aids. Selamat and Thaksin were such a good cat. My husband buried them side by side.We will always cheerish,remember and love them even though they are no longer with us because they used to be part of our life, our happiness....

Happy 77th Birthday beloved mother

On 8th January, my most respected, beloved mother turned 77. For all the loves that she has given us, the caring, the nurturing (from when our feet were just 2 inches long until size 6 shoes that most of my sibblings are wearing), so for all these we threw an unforgetable birthday celebration for her.
8 January happened to be on Saturday so we took the weekend opportunity to celebrate the birthday away from home - to a resort at Batu Hitam, Kuantan. We rented a villa, owns by Black Stone Resort and spent a wonderful night there. We had BBQ there, swimming on saturday & Sunday morning at the resort swimming pool, strolling, looking for shells (& small fish) hiding between the stone (or small rock?) and playing 'Galah panjang' on the beach. We also had fun competitions like who could stand not breathing under water the longest time,(Harraz won this) the fastest swimmer (It was a draw at first between Pak Nyang (Abang Man)and Fadzil but Fazdil won it after a rematch). Despite the raining, it was a real fun. Happy birthday Mak - we hope you were happy on your birthday and will always be happy because we love you so much.

Hopping for a prosperous Happy New Year -2011

Well - another year has gone and a great new one to look forward too.

I just'd like to share a thought - When I look back over the year just gone, and all the years before that, the greatest moments of happeniness thatI recall have nothing to do with money and everything to do with experiences.

Some of those experiences cost me a lot of money (travelling for instance)but just as many cost me almost nothing, and regardless of the cost the result is the same, awesome feelings of happiness, joy and love.

My wish for this coming year is to have all the joy, love and happiness of all the years past rolled into this one new year.

Happy New Year,