Language & Cultural Week II: Closing Ceremony

After our French activities last Thursday, the winners were invited to attend the closing ceremony at Alor Gajah campus yesterday.

When I made a reservation for the transport, the person in charge told me that we would leave at 2pm. At 2.20pm only, some of my students came from their lunch and we were still waiting for the bus. At first, I thought it was our "Malaysian culture". Another fifteen minutes were over and there was still no sign of the bus at the departure point. One of them kindly found out the driver's contact number from the administration office and called him on my behalf. The driver had overlooked the schedule! At about 2.45pm, the bus appeared at last to bring us to the event which would start at 3pm and the venue was 35 minutes' driving distance away with all the traffic lights!

I had been told that the French team would perform at 4pm. Moreover, thinking of our "Malaysian culture" again, I was not really worried about not being punctual. My colleagues in Alor Gajah were more anxious about my late arrival, for they needed to coordinate with us who had not been there in the morning for the rehearsal.

We were the only degree group from the city campus. I was wearing a black shirt and grey slacks. When I saw that most of my colleagues were gorgeously dressed up in kebaya or baju kurung, I felt myself like a "gangster intruder" leading a group of 14 followers...

The programme started with readers' theatre in English,

news reading in English

and dikir barat in Arabic.

We had been allocated 10 minutes for performance. So I decided to send all my singing winner groups. The group which had won the third prize could not come. I had the pleasure to listen again to my runners-up's songs "ABC", "Exception" and "De Toi A Moi".

It was a pity that the sound system in that hall was quite bad. The girls' voices were less clear than last time without the microphones in the classroom.

This time, the boys did not exchange their guitars.

The champion group also attracted a lot of attention with their song "One, Deux, Trois, Quatre", choreography and guitar.

These were not only active as students in my French class. They were charismatic artists on the stage as well. Had I been holding a bouquet of flower, I would have run to them like an excited fan!

After their performance, there was another news reading in English and Arabic, and dikir barat in BM.

I had been instructed last minute to appoint a student as an emcee to make some announcements in French. The best candidate who had the "package" was the first-prize winner for the quiz who was also one of the top scorers in my subject last semester. I wrote a few sentences to pass to her and guided her in the pronunciation.

After seeing others receiving the prizes, it was finally her turn.

The Mandarin group all in red presented a Chinese New Year song. Mandarin oranges were given to us at the same time.

When I submitted the proposal two months ago, I followed my colleague's example to put cash as the prizes. The organisers bought hampers instead. I was glad that my students were allowed to join us for refreshments. So both their hands and stomachs were full when they left the campus.

My dear students, thank you for your willingness to participate in this event. Enjoy your feast with egg rolls and chocolate during the Chinese New Year semester break!

A Learning Session With Bro John D'Cruz

Last Sunday morning, Mrs Ee invited me to join her, Mr Ee, Sis Theresa and Sis Grace to meet John D'Cruz at Harap Learning Centre Bukit Baru later at 5pm.

I had heard about this name from Piek See a few times. I had assumed that John D'Cruz was a Westerner giving some training to preschooler teachers in Malaysia. When I saw him in person and learnt that he was actually from Melaka, I was no longer surprised to associate this brother in Christ's Eurasian face with his Malaysian identity.

Bro John gave a brief introduction of himself--He was a secondary school teacher and later 5 years of principal from 1965 to 1982. 17 years under the national education system, he realised that many boys and girls, especially those from the marginalised community, were not academic and could not catch up with their classmates. Hence, he started the La Salle Learning Centre in Penang in 1984 to help these students to learn how to learn.

"These students are not slow learners, but different learners. An American psychologist Gardner stated that if a child is not linguistic or mathematically/logically inclined, he or she may have stronger skills like musical, visual/senses, interpersonal, intrapersonal, naturalist and kinaesthetic..."

I immediately remembered this theory of multiple intelligences. To children who show poor academic performance, John D'Cruz suggests that facilitators should focus on life skills, namely talking, listening, remembering, spelling, reading, writing, comprehension, counting, doing/making, drawing, gardening, etc., rather than knowledge. Once the life values are imparted to them, these children will be able to cope with the school syllabus.

John D'Cruz asked me why I, having a comfortable full-time job, was helping in this Projek Harap. I answered, "Because I have the heart for the underprivileged children. Whoever is given up, I'll pick up." I told him that I am also involved in Calvary Care Home.

My work was just the beginning if compared to John D'Cruz's 25 years of experience of reaching out to underprivileged children. He invited five of us to go for the five training sessions within six months specially catered to the Harap Learning Centre which would be held this year.

I thank God for this opportunity to get myself connected with His faithful servants who give a hope to students from difficult backgrounds.

Sunday "Time With Jesus" At Calvary Care Home

This year, we continue with the programme at Calvary Care Home to align with the Home theme from 1 Timothy 4:12 "Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity."

Every Sunday after we are back from the church service, we sit together to have a "Time With Jesus". When there is no guest speaker, Albert P and I resume our teaching job. The book we are currently using is "ABC's Of Character" written by Ps Albert Kok to "build character and to reinforce the basic values and principles in all of us with a message 'This is the right way to live and behave'".

Albert started the first session two weeks ago with A--Attitude, a topic on which I had been taught during one of the MLM classes. The key point was that to have a positive attitude, we need to form a habit of thinking positive thoughts, reading positive oriented books, saying positive words and being with positive people. I could not agree more since I had been selecting positive thoughts, utterances and friends and thus seeing changes in myself.

The second letter B stands for Bible, God's Book which tells of His love and wonderful plan for man. As a Chinese educated person, I used to think that not reading certain famous Chinese classical literature at least once would be something regrettable. Now I am convinced that if I were to choose only one book to read for the rest of my life, I would immediately and happily pick the Bible which provides me with spiritual bread every day and has transformed my life.

Yesterday, it was about C-Church. And there are 23 more letters to go. It is indeed a more meaningful way than A for apple, B for boy and C for cat to learn the alphabet.

Language & Cultural Week I: French Activities

The Modern Language Society organises a language week every semester. Previously, only English language was involved. From this year onwards, all the third languages will be parts of the event.

As I am the only one teaching French, I alone came up with two activities on 20th January--quiz for individuals and singing contest for groups.

Two weeks ago, I started to prepare the quiz. I wanted my students to learn about France, its culture, history, etc which the French are so proud of. At first, I simply copied most of the 40 multiple-choice and true/false questions from the Internet and saved in my office desktop. I did not print the document out, nor kept a backup. Last Thursday, my computer suddenly broke down for the first time and to date it is still not yet repaired. I had no more access to the document! Thinking positively while resetting the questions, I decided to add my own ideas more while still referring to the ready ones from some websites.

As a result, there were questions like these:

AirAsia lands at which airport in France?
A. Charles de Gaulle, B. Orly, C. Neuhof, D. Mandelieu

Which one is a French hypermarket?
A. Tesco, B. Giant, C. Carrefour, D. Mydin

In summer, when it is 1pm in France, it is 6pm in Malaysia. (True/False)

Among 30 students who had signed up for the quiz, 22 turned up.

One hour after the quiz would be the group singing contest. The participants were having rehearsal at different corners around the city campus.

6 groups were in the list. Fifteen minutes before I went to the classroom, a student from his group informed me of their withdrawal due to no practice. Later at 6.45pm, only 4 groups were present.

The event was held in a very casual atmosphere with free seating. I myself was the emcee. I let the contestants decide who performed first. The 3 girls and 2 boys had long waited for this moment to show their talents in

playing the guitar,

singing and dancing. When they suddenly stood up and moved around the chairs, I had the impression that they were playing the musical chairs!

The audience definitely enjoyed their choreography, though they were not joining their peers to grab the empty chairs...

The second group was a girl band.

The singers were all dressed in red and black, which made them stand out visually.

The guitarists created special sound effects by knocking on the instruments with their fingers.

The third group consisted of two "sopranos". One and a half hour before the contest only they were consulting me about the pronunciation of the lyrics in French. They would have gained more marks had they been better prepared. Nevertheless, I believe that all of us admired their courage and the volume of their voice.

The final group was also an interesting composition with two male guitarists and two female singers who performed three songs. The two boys who sometimes amused the whole class with their happy-go-lucky demeanour during my teaching hours did not miss to insert an entertaining element by exchanging their guitars after each song. The two sweet girls especially impressed me with their rap in which they articulated the words very well.

My colleague Naga had accepted my invitation to be in the panel of judges. She required all the groups to introduce the background of their songs. She was judging on creativity, stage presence and overall performance while I was giving marks for the singing abilities and pronunciation.

It only took us few minutes to decide on which groups won the prizes. I also announced the results of the quiz which I had already finished marking. All the winners are invited to the closing ceremony of the language week next Thursday.

The following activity was no longer French, but Indian! I was going to give Naga a dinner treat. She brought me to Saravanna restaurant in town where she often settles her meals. I had never been there before. It was crowded with Indian, Chinese and Western customers!

Naga's office is very near to mine but we only had short conversations in the corridor and in front of the campus building when we happened to meet. I was very glad to spend one hour chatting with this friendly colleague while eating the tasty masala tosei.

Since I am talking about a restaurant, let me ask you another question from my quiz--
Places where homeless people can get food during winter in France are called
A. Restos du coeur, B. Restos d'hiver, C. Restos à la carte, D. Restos de pauvres

Now you should understand why merely 8 of the 22 contestants were able to score the passing mark.

My Birthday VI: Another Pizza Treat

My yam cha partner, thanks for your pizza treat at US Pizza yesterday as my belated birthday celebration. The pizza and side dishes were as yummy as the ones I had tasted at Pizza Hut with my CCH gang last month.

Let's increase in exercise and reduce the intake of fattening food... Do you think we'll have the determination?

Malim-Cheng Cell Fellowship At Newton Foodcourt

During the first Sunday service this year, Ps James announced to the congregation the new monthly church programme. The cell meetings are held on the first two Friday evenings of each month instead of almost every Friday previously.

My Malim-Cheng cell leader Jeremiah's family wanted to start the year by hosting a pot bless as suggested by Ps James. Due to a piping problem which occurred in their house, they were not going to have water supply for a few days. As a result, we had a food gathering at Newton foodcourt at Bandar Hilir last Friday at 8pm.

In 2008, I was a member of the Young Adults cell in the beginning. For some reasons, especially my reluctance to drive alone to unfamiliar areas at night, I transferred to Cheng home cell which was later merged with Malim cell. Since, I got to know other old-timer Calvarites who lived at Malim.

My attendance to cell meetings, especially during the second half of last year, was so poor that Auntie Sally could not recognize me immediately and was wondering who I was when I arrived at their table at about 8.10pm.

I had not seen Sis Cassy for a very long time. She was attending another church. Besides my job, she was very interested to know when I was going to get married, a typical question that the married people like to ask the singles.

I answered, "I'm happy to be single. If God sends me someone, I'll be a happy married person."

Phebe commented, "You'll be happier."

I replied, "Not necessarily happier, but happy in a different way."

She nodded her head. Sis Cassy added, "True, not necessarily happier. You'll have more problems when you are married." She was sitting next to her husband Bro Steven who was savouring one dish after another. I simply concluded that where there are people, there are conflicts.

Auntie Sally, who had come with her daughter, son-in-law and grandson, also participated in our "forum". "Don't rush to get married! If you can't find a good one, it's better to stay single. After all, you're independent." I wished Mum had also told me the same thing when I telephoned her on my birthday last December to remind her that I was one year older.

"Yes! Auntie Sally. It's wiser to open my eyes big big to observe now than to open my mouth big big to nag after the marriage." I was citing my own statement I had once left on Facebook after hearing a colleague's marital problem.

Patricia smiled with a consent, while the men remained silent and preferred to open their mouths only to swallow the delicious food.

Our youngest single cell member Jaden also completely ignored the adults' boring conversations. The only concern this five-year-old boy had there and then was the big bowl of his favorite fish porridge.

My presence brought out another topic which was about Calvary Care Home (CCH). Uncle Kok who used to be a CCH committee member in the past recalled how thin Isaac and Joseph were when they were small. He emphasised that at the age of 77, he was already old. I mentioned Uncle Seelan who had reached 85 this year to assure Uncle Kok that he was still young.

That evening, I was not keen to taste the specialities there because my stomach was still very full with a piece of David's birthday chocolate cake and some dhal curry I had eaten at CCH just before I went to the foodcourt. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the gathering very much. On my way home, I had a chance to chat with Sis Alice to whom I gave a lift.

In this year of increase, let's increase our fellowship!

A Brief Visit At The Harap Learning Centre Bukit Baru

On 3 January, Harap Learning Centre (HLC) received the first batch of preschoolers. Dr Wong invited us to drop by there. As I was busy with my new semester which had started on the same date, my commitment to help Calvary Care Home (CCH) boys with their homework and other matters, I only phoned up Dr Wong once to find out how the response was.

This Wednesday, I decided to allocate a small slot of time to visit HLC before going to CCH. When I quit the campus, it was drizzling. I settled a bill at Melaka Sentral first. The rain became much heavier. I did not want to change my plan, so I sent an SMS to Dr Wong to inform him of my visit in 15 minutes and drove to Bukit Baru.

Walking towards the centre from the parking, I saw Sajar's children in the playground. I still remembered their names after the party one month ago. My immediate reaction was to call and ask them why they were not in the centre. I had forgot that the daycare service of the centre only caters to children below six years old and that these three siblings who were already studying in the lower primary school were disqualified.

Sis Theresa unlocked the grill for me. Since the opening of the centre, underprivileged children aged between 3 and 6 from Seri Siantan flat have a place where they are well taken care of from 9am to 5pm. All their food and learning materials in the centre are sponsored.

Thus, their parents who are working to make ends meet do not need to worry about these children during the weekdays.

Sis Theresa is also a Seri Siantan resident. A mother of three and a former kindergarten teacher, she is no doubt a very ideal person to handle her little neighbours in the centre. She is looking forward to the professional training which will be provided soon.

She told me there were eight boys and five girls enrolled in the centre. Some parents had already taken their children back after lunch time. She invited me to come in the morning another time so that I can see all the children and more activities.

I did not intend to stay long. I was leaving when another lady entered the centre. Sis Theresa introduced to me Sis Grace who helps in the preparation of meals. I was very glad to have met these two loving sisters in Christ.

Nurul, Fikri and Syukri seemed to have fun under the rain.

I reminded them to do their homework and study hard. While saying goodbye to them, I prayed in my heart that the Lord would send workers to reach out to them.