Amusing Disgrace

I found this guy named Khoo Gay Kay Kim on news. He is currently well known, not as a co-author of Rukunegara, but the person who insults Chinese primary schools. He states that Chinese primary schools produce “copycats”, and the syllabus used (particularly maths and science) is worthless. He points out that Chinese schools do not produce an outstanding number of famous scientist or inventors in Malaysia.

Mathematics and science are all about how the knowledge is applied in daily life. This historian just failed to understand that fact. I guess he thought mathematics and science are just like history, and apparently his mind is just like the a fossil which can never be modified into another object. He does not understand the fact that scientists or inventors need not to be famous. I doubt if he knows that today’s technology is a result of many anonymous scientists’ hard work.

Khoo Kay Kim also states that education involving mother tongue causes trouble in a country’s development. He says that countries such as Japan and United States of America uses only one language in education, and that’s why they are well-developed. Can anyone please remind him that citizens in those countries now are willing to pay for Chinese lessons? Besides that, he should be aware that Malaysian Chinese has the ability to speak multiple languages, and that makes communication with people from foreign countries easier. Japanese people may have successfully developed their country however, there are many of them fail to communicate in English, which is the international language. Please be noted that Japanese students do study English so, this proves that Khoo Kay Kim made a false statement. Japanese people do not study many languages because there are not many ethnic groups. In Malaysia however, many languages are practiced because this is a multi-racial country.

Khoo Kay Kim says that non-Malay people should realise that their population is not as high as the Malays’ and should abandon their mother tongues. He might be a professor but he failed to realise that language creation is our ancestors’ hard effort. He is rude, but I understand why. It is because he has never receive Chinese education, and does not understand Confucian ideology. He may not know why should he appreciate Chinese education, but that does not mean that he has the rights to insult it.

I have a message for all the readers: Be polite even if you disagree with something. If you have made a mistake, it is never too late for you to apologize, and realise that you were wrong. Do not make judgement only from what you have seen because there are much more that you have to know. Last but not least, appreciate whatever that is given to you and try making use of it.

Teachings to be Facilitated with Technology?

Do you think that teachings in school should be facilitated with technology? Have you ever been a “guinea pig” of the “experiment”?

Nowadays, there are people who think that it is necessary to use computer in teachings. They suggested that computers are the world of today’s students and teachers must get into the “world” in order to be close to their students. Well, what I can say is that there is no way in hell I am going to agree with those words.

First of all, computers are not the world of students. Computer belongs to everyone. It is an invention which benefits mankind. Nobody can say that this invention of the era is only for the youths. Age is not a factor of determining whether one is a computer user. Those who have computing knowledge got the priority using the machine.

Teachings facilitated with technology may sound good but does not guarantee a great efficiency. Besides showing video clips of dangerous experiments, the educational CD’s do not seem to be helpful in teaching. Slides of text with monotone-like sound clips make the students think that learning is boring. In contrast, skilled teachers can teach with humor, thus causing the students to pay full attention during the lessons.

Things should be done in the right ways. Existence of technology is not necessary in some cases. The failure of educational CD’s in making classes more interesting has already shown that teaching in traditional way is better. Remember this, do not hesitate to investigate before making decisions. Even good intentions may cause things to go wrong.

Terminal Disease of Education

Off-topic: My time is quite occupied. So, this blog may not be updated frequently.

The government has decided to scrap the policy of teaching science and mathematics in English. This is indeed a sad news. I could not imagine that they took years to think about an easy question, and made a bullshit dissatisfying decision.

A few “reasons” were stated to backup the decision. One of them was that the villagers would lose up if science and mathematics were taught in English. I do not see how that is a problem. The problem is that they do not put effort to improve the villagers’ English. Scrapping the policy does not help the villagers. The problem is not solved, they just ignore it. They did not notice that the decision may doom many Malaysians to poor English mastery.

Another “reason” which I know is that teachers are facing difficulties while teaching the subjects in English. I guess the dedicated teachers would not mind to take challenges for the students’ good. Teachers are not bots. They may not be able to adapt in new condition immediately. However, if training courses were provided, teachers who have the will to help their students would try hard.

The two “reasons” above have already shown that the government’s decision is wrong. They should have known that we are living in the 21st century, and it is important to build relationship with other countries. English is the international language and nobody can deny it. Learning only official language of own country would cause one to be isolated.

The education of Malaysia now is like a terminally ill patient. There is no remedy to cure the sickness, but only Brompton cocktails which kills pain. I hereby wish the juniors good luck. Will there be a miracle, or shall the wise men mourn Malaysia’s education in another few years’ time? Let’s just hope for the best.

Fortune Tellers? Liars?

On 25 June 2009, a tragic news has been told to the world. The King of Pop, Michael Jackson, died at 50.

Many tributes have been made after the icon’s death. The best example would be more than 1500 prisoners in Philippines doing Thriller dance. All these tributes to Michael Jackson showed how much do people in the world respect him. The talented artist’s departure perhaps has became one of the biggest tragedies. However, there are some people who actually think his death amusing.

I accidentally read the frontpage of a journal, and what came into my mind was a few fortune tellers who commented on Michael Jackson’s short-lived life. They claimed that the entertainer’s appearance after several surgeries has shortened his life. Do you believe what the fortune tellers said?

Do you not think that it is ridiculous? Fortune tellers telling the public how is Michael Jackson’s appearance related to his death, after his is gone. If those “masters” were truly that damn good, they could have mentioned about it in the past decades. I wonder if they were mocking the big pop star, or catching opportunity to make some profits.

If I were to consult a fortune teller, I would not see them. I not only doubt their abilities, but feel displeased with their disrespectful attitude. They do not respect the dead, and that would make it difficult for them to earn respect. In order to be respected, you must first respect the others, no matter they are dead or alive.

Vandalism

“What was supposed to be a simple and harmless voter registration exercise in Malacca turned unruly last night thanks to some Umno Youth members who allegedly kicked and damaged a table.”

The sentence above is adapted from a topic in malaysiakini.com, entitled “Pakatan Reps Bullied By Umno ‘Thugs’”.

Reason of the incident is currently unknown, but damaging a table is lame not nice. Committing vandalism shows one’s rude behaviour. Only those who are retarded did not go through moral education will commit such a shameful act.

See? Just because of a few members’ rudeness, UMNO once again made their “debut of the day”. Although known as Malaysia’s largest political party, there have been lots of negative news about them. It is sad to hear that the founder of ruling party have such uneducated members.

Besides this vandalism case, we have heard news such as minister making lewd hand gesture in Parliament. There are also people who describe the Parliament as zoo. I have seen the scenes of Taiwan’s Parliament brawl, and realised that it is embarassing to have such news exposed worldwide. Does our government learn lessons from bad examples?

There have been programmes such as Rakan Muda which are meant to promote youths who are capable to lead the nation. Apparently all these activities have failed. I took part in one of these programmes and I did not learn anything. The programme was broadcasted live on TV1 due to presence of a few dreadful young singers. What happening at the back was people who behaved like monkeys, throwing water bottles with cap removed towards each other. Fortunately, the broadcasting crews knew that those were shameful acts and decided not to show them to the public.

With this vandalism case as one of the latest negative news, I hope that everyone would think twice before doing something. Every single action can affect the country’s fame. Please be a considerate person and do not make the others suffer consequences of what you have done.

Problem With Politician

A politician told the whole nation that the public security in our country is not considered severe. He gave us an excuse a reason, that we do not have to worry about being blown into pieces while sleeping. I somehow disagree with his statement.

We may not have to worry about explosions in the night. However, we do have to worry about being robbed or murdered in days and nights. The public safety of Malaysia may be better than certain countries but please do keep in mind that it is still worse than many other countries.

Why would he compare our country with the worse ones? Is he a degenerate wannabe? Politicians should serve the country by suggesting solutions to solve the people’s problems. His statement did not make me feel better and I do not appreciate it. What he said proved that he does not have what it takes to be a politician.

Although there is nothing can be done, I just want to let you, the readers know that I am not happy with people like him. He could just remain silent and I would have forgotten he exists. Politicians are not entertainers. Their job is to serve, not to amuse.

Traffic Report Done Badly

I was on the way back from Seremban and was listening to the radio as I could do nothing else. It was my father’s favourite channel: A channel commonly known as ’988′. I have absolutely no idea why does he like it a lot. I personally think that the disc jockeys suck. They gave me another bad impression. Why would I say that? Well, I was very disappointed with the two persons who were announcing traffic report.

How are traffic reports supposed to be done? They should be straight and simple so that message can be sent to everyone, especially the drivers who have to pay extra attention on the road. However, these two pathetic disc jockeys, treated traffic report as a joke. They failed to pronounce the place names and did not apologize. They even thought those failures were funny and laughed.

Failures in pronouncing place names are not funny. Both of them should be ashamed of themselves. They are Malaysians and yet they could not pronounce the place names properly. Besides that, laughing while delivering important message to the public is a disrespectful act. My suggestion would be retraining the disc jockeys. They may not have to play turntables or remix songs but they must be fluent in languages.