My Library

Khalid Hoseini’s The Kite Runner

It is a best-seller in the year of 2003; “The Kite Runner” has effectively brings out the ideas of humanity in a story about two best friends, Amir and Hassan who live in the town of Kabul in Afghanistan. It is indeed a touching story that they “attached” to each other in the name of friendship until they are separated during war between the Taliban and the Russia Federation.

What is interesting in this story is that Amir is born in a race called Pashtun (a highly-respected race in Kabul) while Hassan is born to be a Hazaran (lower social status). Although they are living in the different worlds and though Hassan is illiterate but it does not make their friendship less in love and spirit of brotherhood. The story, although it is set during war and chaotic situation but Khalid Hoseini does provide us with some humour in many scenes like after both Amir and Hassan watching “The Maginificent Seven” in which Hassan is like having an enthusiasm to see Charles Bronson, his favourite actor that stars in the film.

Overall I love the story and it has become one of my best books collection besides Judith McNaught’s and Suzanne Tamara’s and several others. “The Kite Runner” inspires me a lot in terms of the spiritual and emotional strength portrayed through the characters of Amir and Hassan. There are many parts in this story that I just cannot help but trickling few tears. It is such a very fresh and brilliant story by this Afghanistan-born writer.


*get ready with piece of tissue at your hands...

My Research Paper

Another project work for EDU 3234 is research paper that requires us to select two texts from different authors or same author and in different genres or of the same genres. As for this project I choose Si Tenggang’s Homecoming and The Malay Commie by the National Laureate, Muhammad Haji Salleh for the former text and Che Husna Azhari for the latter. The Reason I choose these literary texts is because they have the similarities in the characters that both of the main characters go abroad and return home only to find themselves not less a Malaysian and the become more better and open-minded persons.

Nationalism is the issue that I want to highlight in the research paper. I think that our citizens nowadays have lacking the sense of loving the nation especially for younger generations that are more vulnerable to some bad influences of Western culture. It does not mean that we have to deter ourselves from those of what the West have done in developing their countries but we have to adopt and adapt what are some of the things that are suitable and appropriate for our culture.

My supervisor is Dr.Ghazali Mustaffa who has been very helpful in order for us to come out with good products. Although he demands something which is quite different from others but he says to us it is like a practice for us to write thesis for Masters and higher education levels. Whatever it is I have put a great effort in bringing out the major points that I want to convey to the readers of my research paper. I have done a lot of research and readings of articles, journals and magazines that are pertaining and relevant to the topic. What is important right now is to pray for the best mark that I can receive from the hard work for the research paper.


*so happy that I obtain 26 marks upon 30 for the position paper...

…Le Quattro Stagioni…

It is Italian language. When it is translated to English it means the four seasons; summer, winter, spring and autumn. The four seasons here are a set of four violin concertos by Antonio Vivaldi. It is a kind of baroque music and it is very famous and well-known since 1723. Why it is called the four seasons is because each concerto resembles each seasons. There is a different between all the four concertos that it distinguishes one season to another from the variety of instruments played in various notes.

If Dr.Edwin does not provide us the material I certain that I will probably not knowing about it at all. This kind of music is really not within youngsters’ interests but it is a piece of music that gives pleasure to anyone who listens to it. When listening to Vivaldi’s I can hear the rise and low of the notes that varied from the beginning to the middle of the concerto. There is also the sound of thunderstorm-like that I guess maybe describing one of the seasons.

It is some kind of stress-relieving session when we are to listen to the concertos. But when it comes to listen to the poems read by some speakers with background music, I feel quite tense. It is because it is hard for me to actually catch up the words the speakers read aloud and there are a few of poems being read that I can hear them quite well such as “Sonnets” and some others. In a nutshell i think that it is good to bring this kind of music into the literature classroom but when too overloaded with it, students may get stressful and bored out of the situation.

*Dr.Edwin admits that he has overdosed and overindulged us with that piece of Baroque music ^-^

…my thought on limericks…

Limerick is made up of couplet with same rhymes and another couplet with different rhymes to the former and it ends with a line that applies the same rhyme to the first two. Usually it contains humour and the “punch line” or “the heart of the joke” is at the end of the limerick.

Limerick can be used for pre-reading for students with some and high English level proficiency because it requires students to play with words. Therefore they have to have language and vocabulary in order to come out with limericks. For low level of proficiency students, if teacher wants them to write a limerick perhaps the teacher can provide some of the words that can be used for creating limericks.

We have an opportunity to write limericks in one of the EDU 3234 classes. The different thing here is we are given the task in groups of three or four; unlike the usual writings of journals that require us to write it individually. “Two heads are better than one” puts pressure on us to come out with a good limerick. It is not only a piece of writing but it requires us to think of a joke that can be understood and at the same time can tickle everyone’s hearts. I team up with Sheila and Izzatie this time and it takes us quite a few times to actually able to create a limerick because we have to keep the same rhymes and the beats of the limerick. Nevertheless Izzatie has such a cool idea that at the end of the class, we manage to write the limerick on the board in front of the class.

After writing it down, we have to chorally reading it. Our turn is the last one and when it is nearly to it I can feel my adrenaline rushes. It is not like I never speak in front of others (it is sometimes even more than that) but this time the excitement to read something which is new to us is what makes me feel nervous and at the same time I want it to be good and smoothly flowed. While reading the limerick, I feel myself satisfied for what we have done that day and I feel some sort of happiness that it helps in reducing our stress and tension that come when we worry a lot about our examination. Overall I just love the activity and I do enjoy myself a lot.


*big applause for everyone…^-^

An Afternoon with Kee Thuan Chye

Taking this course has provided me with many opportunities that I find will be very hard and difficult to experience and achieve if not through this course. The opportunity like meeting prolific writers like Kee Thuan Chye is one of them. Although I am not really familiar with his works and involvements in the world of art and literature (I have watched him as the guest star for Malay TV series, “Gold and Gincu”) but when it comes to see a famous writer cum playwright cum actor, the gold opportunity must be sought.

My opinions on KEE THUAN CHYE:

1) He is independent writer who has a very good political sense. He is aware of the political situations in our country ever since he was younger until the current years of our country.

2) He is a smart actor that has a good commercial voice (I think I have seen him acting in one of the theatres I watched in KLPAC---only to mention that I have forgotten the names and the title of the actors and the play).

3) Very optimistic towards the opinions and the points of view given by some of the students during the meeting.

4) I have a right to disagree on him about some of his political views. Like when he straightaway mentions about the UMNO propaganda which is what the students learn in the History text book for Form 4 and 5. I think the government has put great effort in order to reserve the sensitivity among races towards some vents that have happened in our country.

5) I respect his views on the political situation when he transforms his views to the piece of writings like in “The Swordfish then the Concubine”. I am trying hard to learn to be a more sensitive person in order to come with good and critical ideas to become a writer.

Frankly speaking this meeting has given me some insights and points to consider especially in becoming a better person in this high-tech and full-of-influences world.

*really hopes to meet productive female writers like Dina Zaman, Adibah Amin and others…

Teacher is….

To describe teacher metaphorically is not an easy task to do. It is because I think that we have to find something which is very significant towards the profession of a teacher, the responsibility and to describe the passion of them in teaching and educating. Like in Malay, there is a metaphor that currently has been debated about its accuracy and appropriateness as to portray teachers. The metaphor is “candle” in which it is like it burns itself for the lights of others; meaning that the sacrifice the teacher has done for the success of the students. Why it is debatable because it is nowadays not anymore relevant to teachers because many people say that teachers receive high payment for their jobs. The word “sacrifice” is no longer applicable in this situation.

This time we are assigned to give a metaphor to teachers. I can come out with a metaphor but I think this is more like my expectation of myself as a teacher and describing me in the future.

I choose “berry bush” to describe myself as a teacher. First and foremost berry bush has many twigs and branches that I imagine as the knowledge I have for my students, and the knowledge are something they should know either it is within the syllabus or something in the outside world to be applicable to their lives. In this era, we do not only have to provide students with something that can ensure them to pass examination but we also must offer them with knowledge that will be very useful and relevance to their lives.

Next is the fruits or the berries. The fruits resemble the responsibilities of me as a teacher to my students in which I have to be productive in order to enhance the quality of teaching that in turns results in the excellence of students in learning. The “fruits” must be fresh and quality for the achievement of greater result for people that “eat” them.

The next point is berry bush, although it is small in size can still be a place for hiding. This time, the responsibility of the bush to hide kids from any danger is like myself giving protection to my students. As we know, in this high-tech era students tend to be very vulnerable to the outer influences and threats from any sources. Therefore I have to ensure that although they are given much freedom and rights for themselves but there must be a limit to all that.

In a nutshell, the profession of teacher cannot be seen with only one-eye-opens. We must not take the role of a teacher as very limited to the teaching of students and not more than that. Besides that we have to respect teachers as the responsibilities are somehow much more difficult and challenging than doctors, lawyers and others.

Movies Critics (cont’d)

Freedom Writers

This is another motivating movie for teacher trainees like us. Stars Hillary Swank and Patrick Dempsey, this movie is based on the true story of a teacher, Erin Gruwell who manages to work it out for students who come from different cultural backgrounds, principles and beliefs in which they become rebellious and dangerous to others in the school. The racial segregation in the school has led to the students become wild and unmanageable by teachers. Therefore Erin Gruwell puts a great effort to overcome the problem by encouraging her students to step-by-step changing their attitudes and their principles of ethnocentrisms by having them speak up via writing journals.

Overall we can conclude that the students are lacking of attention and affection they deserve from their families besides having experienced tragedies that killed their family members or someone close to them.

The teacher, Ms.Gruwell has been discouraged by the principal herself because the school’s administrators do not see any effective ways to change the students into better persons. However she manages to conquer the problem although she ends up being at stake when she and her husband are on the verge of divorce.

This story provides us with something which is very enlightening especially for someone like me who is going to be a teacher in the future. The character tells us how to tackle such problem, how to keep faith to ourselves, how to remain passion towards the profession as a teacher despite all the challenges and many others.

Nevertheless in my opinion, although what has been done by Erin Gruwell is something sanity but not all teachers can actually follow her steps as different teachers have different approaches in overcoming the problems regarding students. Sometimes in the middle of the story, it crosses my mind that this story is like too-good-to-be-true. It does happen in the real world (of course it does---this is based on true story) but it could be something which is one-in-a-million. Overall this story does motivate us a lot in terms of the main character’s passion of teaching and the benefits of writing journals as a medium to speak your mind.

*there are some parts in the story bring laughter to us…I do not know why…