Jarod Yong

Kepada Semua Warganegara Malaysia... Selamat Menyambut Hari Kemerdekaan! To all Malaysians, happy Independence Day! I look upon this year's Independence Day with great patriotic fervour. I am grateful that every Malaysian citizen still has some say in how the country is to be run & I am glad that Malaysia is currently experiencing the teething struggles of a truly democratic country. I used to be a neutral I-don't-mess-with-you you-don't-mess-with-me jaded indifferent uninterested inhabitant of this country. As long as I can make a living & enjoy life, I don't care who wins the elections. The only politicians I could name were merely Mahathir, Badawi & (recently) Najib. Heck, I wouldn't even bother to register to vote. Neither would I read about current events.. I'd just go straight to the comics or football news! But all that has changed since my nationalistic awakening. I would prefer not to comment much on the current political s...

I have recently received an email from a prospective Malaysian student of Victoria University of Wellington , New Zealand. In this email were relevant questions that any student should ask to better prepare themselves before flying all the way there. I have decided to share my reply here because I think that there are many other people in the world who may be seeking similar information... This is written specifically for middle-class students from Malaysia who will study on Victoria University of Wellington's Kelburn campus. Any past or present student of VUW are welcome to comment & add to this post! The University On the satelite map from google maps, I've highlighted Kelburn campus in blue & Wellington CBD in red. Ask you can see, the university is very close to the city centre so you dont have to worry about transportation or food when you get hungry. They are about 10-15 mins walk from each other. Be aware however, that it is a steep uphill walk f...

It's the holidays! Since it's the holidays, there will be unquestionably more people travelling on planes, buses, boats, taxies, trains as well as spaceships. Just like it was today when I took a ride on the bus back home to Kuching. The Air Bus station was full of domestic & international travellers who (just like me) can't wait to get the hell out of this H1N1 sharing heaven! adapted from here Being the well-read highly-educated quality citizen I am... actually, it's because I am kia-si (takut mati / scared of death) la ok... I read up on the precautions I should take before I embark on this brave journey through virus land. Besides referring to the website of the Malaysian Ministry of Health , I studied other websites on H1N1. For example, websites from the CDC & Wikipedia . I wanted a more complete picture of what to do & what not to do during my adventure. As I was waiting impatiently for the far from punctual Airasia plane to unload...

HOLIDAYS!!!!!!!!! Holidays! Holidays! Holidays! Futsal! Sleeping! Chilling! Movies! Shopping! Lazing! No students! No duties! No cooking! No cleaning! I can't wait for this week to be over! All my life, I've looked forward to the holidays. OMG! From childhood until adulthood I'm still in school ! Should I be ashamed of myself for not moving on to an office or courtroom? That's a question for another blog post. Right now, I'm all for the holidays! It's the joy of doing whatever you want whenever you want. The sweetness of freedom. The freedom of choice. It's all just a few days away! I can't wait for this week to be over! It's even more awesome that this 1 week holiday is adjacent to Merdeka day. I get one extra day off! WOO! I can foresee many teachers happily celebrating Merdeka day this year. Everybody celebrates it in their own way. As for me, I will celebrate it sleeping in bed. After living on my own for half a year, I f...

Today, as I was marking Form 2 exam papers, I noticed that this particular girl had written something different on her answer sheet. Everything else was written with a blue pen but one particular sentence at the bottom of the first page was written with a pencil. " I'm sorry teacher because I cannot write this letter. " I couldn't help but imagine the look on this adorable adolescent girl's smooth face as she was writing this. She was probably hiding her face in bashful embarrassment! awwwww~~~ At that moment, I couldn't help but adore her & wish that I could hug her. At the end of the day, I wrote an encouraging reply. " At least you tried! " When I evaluated her letter, I wanted to give her extra marks to further encourage her. Then, I realised that I should actually be a cold professional... So I gave her the measly 7 out of 30 marks that she deserved for a letter with the correct format but little substance. For all the hard work I put in try...

Today, I gave my students some exercises. They were quite restless & were pretty chatty. After several individual rebukes & prompts for silence, I resorted to addressing the whole class... Can you not be quiet?!! To my surprise, they answered... YES, TEACHER!! And then the whole class went on to obediently do their work in complete silence. I stood there for a moment... dazed & utterly confused at their rude answer. .................................. It took me a moment to realise that they did not understand the rhetoric of my question. All they probably heard was... CAN YOU #@*&$% BE QUIET?!!! I love my students... They're just so adorable! =)

***LOW BANDWIDTH WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS A LOT OF PICTURES*** Urban met Rural this weekend... And they fell in love. Top Form 5 students & senior teachers from SMB Tiong Hin visited SMK Katibas last weekend. They were very fortunate to arrive at a time when rain was scarce so the water was shallow. Besides getting to ride an express boat & a long boat for the first time, they also had the opportunity of getting off the longboat boat at shallow places to continue on foot until the water gets deeper. Some of them had to push the longboats when it got too shallow. Upon arrival, they were given the Katibas trademark welcome. Who wouldn't feel welcome when every member of the school was lined up to greet you? The principal of SMB Tiong Hin, Stephen Tan, gave the academic staff of SMK Katibas an in-house training on the attitudes of a teacher & he encouraging us to go the extra mile with our students. The students from SMB Tiong Hin spoke to our prefec...