Learning The Malaysian History Again

This semester, my two hours between 3.30pm and 5.30pm on Thursdays are reserved for Johanan at Agape Care Centre, who needs a one-to-one assistance in his school work.

The past few weeks, I supervised him to do his workbooks in English language and mathematics. With my Chinese educational background, my English level was only slightly higher than this Form One boy who attended national schools and spoke English since small. But his mother Siew Hong was very glad that I was willing to spend time with her son who was easily distracted and thus could not learn much from a tuition class. She even tried to persuade me to spare another afternoon for him and give a real tuition by suggesting a love gift. Wanting to keep my cheerful heart to serve, I simply said no and explained to her my limits and other commitments. This understanding mother took it positively.

Yesterday after Johanan had finished a comprehension exercise, I asked him, "What is the most difficult subject to you? Maybe I can help you."

"History and geography. There are a lot of things to memorize."

"I felt the same when I was in school. Let's study together then!"

I used to get low marks in these two subjects, especially the latter. I never knew how to remember those dates and names. My history teacher who had taught all my elder brothers once even said to me in class, "Your family members are excellent in mathematics, but very weak in history." Before the Junior Unified Examinations at the end of Form Three, she told my class that only one student of hers from the first classes had failed this subject in the past. She further warned all of us, "In case you fail, don't let me see you in the street!"

Because of the fear to face her with a bad result, I studied hard without true understanding and amazingly scored an A2! The following three years of my secondary school, history was of minor importance in my science-stream syllabus. So I did not sit for it during the Senior Unified Examinations.

After so many years, I was sitting at a desk to study the history of my home country again. By reading the paragraphs written in Malay, I was able to narrate how Penang, along with Melaka and Singapore had became part of the Straits Settlements under the British administration in India. When we came across an unknown word, Johanan was in charge of checking its meaning in English with a dictionary.

A boring subject turned out interesting when we studied in partners. It was so far the best session where Johanan showed interest and concentration most.