A Lecturer from Japan Speaks At SMK Katibas

-
Dr Kumiko Date in action. This quiet, gentle & humble lady is hiding a big & generous heart inside.
During this session, she shared about the Japanese language & culture.

In July, Dr Kumiko Date from Tokyo, a lecturer of the Japanese language at the University of Malaya, visited SMK Katibas to meet & deliver a talk for the wonderful children at my beloved jungle school. She had only been in Malaysia for 3 months when she embarked on this adventure to the hinterland of Borneo. All because a colleague showed her this which moved her.

She wanted to meet me & my students. I found a perfect speaker to inspire my students. We exchanged emails & she agreed to visit my school & deliver a talk to all the students. In turn, we provided her with food, lodging & a once in a lifetime experience.

She came at little to NO COST to the school. Not only did she pay for her own return flights from KL to Sibu (during the peak-priced Raya season), she actually bought Pilot pens, super cute erasers & origami paper from Japan & had it shipped to Malaysia for each of my 350+ students! What an unbelievably generous soul!

She also left us books about the Japanese language & culture, a Japanese fan & flag as well as a deep impression in the hearts of my students. I could tell that she really loved the children in the way that she interacted with them. It was all heartfelt. Her love was so great that it humbled me.

My students were mind-blown & overjoyed that someone from Japan would come all this way to visit them! They experienced Japanese fever in the days after Kumiko sensei's talk. Often speaking to me in Japanese & bowing. Cute.

Check out the pictures of what she did during her visit!

We took Kumiko sensei to visit TR Jala Ng Miau, a longhouse near the school.
She met with the longhouse folk, examined their traditional Iban tattoos & had her first glass of Tuak!

Before Kumiko sensei took the stage, we entertained her with a Ngajat dance by students fully-dressed in the Iban Ngepan.
She was impressed & delighted with the dance was coordinated by Miss Polin Nerampoh.

The next morning, the first thing Kumiko sensei did was visit every single one of our 17 classrooms.
Accompanied by the leaders of the English Language Society, she paid attention to the effort the students put into decorating their classrooms &, like a loving mother, praised how beautiful it all was.

With Mr Wesley Naing as the interpreter, Kumiko sensei shared a famous Japanese poem by Misuzu Kaneko before having a Q&A session.
She reminded the students that they were unique & should not give up in pursuing their dreams.

Kumiko sensei taught the students how to fold origami with special origami paper she brought from Japan!
The students had a whale of a time!

Kumiko sensei gave the students pens, erasers & origami paper. She also gave our school several books on the Japanese language & culture, a Japanese flag, & a Japanese fan.
We presented to her a certificate & a personalised bead keychain handmade by our students.
At the end, the students presented to sensei a customary SMK Katibas love clap & lined up to personally thank her.

Have you ever held something made from Japan? I'm not sure if I have. The Japanese stuff that I have came from local 100 Yen shops &, somehow, I have an inkling that they're made in China. Think about the Jap stuff you think you have... You've probably got doubts too & yet you live in a big city!
MY KIDS IN THE JUNGLE NOW HAVE POSSESSIONS THAT ACTUALLY CAME ALL THE WAY FROM JAPAN!!! CARRIED BY A JAPANESE PERSON!!! How amazing is that?!!!

I will never in my lifetime be able to repay what Kumiko sensei has done for my students. She is truly a kindred spirit. I just hope that we gave her a just representation of Sarawak & the Iban culture as well as many stories & memories to share with loved ones & colleagues. I'm looking forward to building greater ties between rural Sarawak & the Japanese community in Malaysia & beyond!

ありがとうございます、伊達先生！またあうまで。

View all the pictures here:
In July, Dr Kumiko Date, a Japanese lectuer at the University of Malaya visited SMK Katibas & delivered a talk to the...
Posted by Mr Yong (Jarod Yong) on Saturday, 18 July 2015

Photo Credit: Andreavucci Photography, a teacher at my school & an amateur photographer who does events & wedding photography.

Popular posts from this blog

Understanding The New SPM (2021) English 1119 Paper Format

-
Image
This outline & those of other SPM language papers were made publicly available on the Lembaga Peperiksaan Malaysia (LPM) website . I'm sure you've seen the above being circulated on the internet. But, what does it mean? How does this paper compare to the current SPM paper for English? Do we have to change our testing practices in Form 4? At this moment, information is sparse despite great public interest. As the head of the English panel at my school, my Form 4 colleagues will come to me for what to do & parents will ask me what this is about. Until we have very specific instructions from the ministry, this is what I will be telling my colleagues & parents based on the limited amount of information available to me from my intimate experience with the current SPM paper & second-hand information about the PT3 English paper. Let me know if I got anything wrong or if you have more detailed information.
Open Full Post »

What To Do When Your Unifi Service Suddenly Drops

-
Image
After finally putting my kid to sleep, I was about to settle into the couch with my wife & stream a movie, when my Unifi fiber optic internet connection suddenly dropped. When it didn't come back after 1 hour, I realized that I had to do something. Considering that I pay my bills promptly every month, it must be a technical issue. Here's what I did to fix the problem. It look me less than 20 minutes. 1. First, I checked my modem (the white machine). I checked the lights on the modem. When the modem is functioning properly, lights will be on for POWER, PON, LAN1 & TEL1. If the red light for LOS lights up, call 100 to resolve the issue. Also, I made sure that all the wire connections were tight. 2. Next, I checked my router (the black machine). Again, I checked the lights. When the router is functioning properly, lights will be on for POWER, GLOBE, WIFI, LAN1. My POWER light was blinking, so that means that there was no internet connection. Again, I made sure th...
Open Full Post »

How To Fix Logitech Options Not Loading

-
Image
I use a Logitech K380 bluetooth keyboard at home & love it to bits. Very quiet & the tactile response is just perfect. Also, it's super small so easy to put away when I need to pile exam papers on my desk. Still, there's one small problem though... It is a compact keyboard so the multimedia buttons double as function keys. I use the function keys A LOT & it's really cumbersome for me to have to hold the "fn" button every time I want to use them. I.e., try pressing alt+fn+f4 with one hand. Thankfully, with the Logitech Options software, I can default to the function keys. A few months ago, I was chagrined to learn that my keyboard had spontaneously returned to factory settings. "No problem", I thought. "I'll just change the settings in Logitech Options." Only to find that the app wouldn't load on my Windows 10 machine, resulting in the blank window you see screen-captured above. "Let me try reinstalling." Uni...
Open Full Post »

A Review of Mosquito Coils In The Market

-
Image
Mosquito coils = The first line of defence against savage jungle mosquitoes. Remember when there was completely no electricity at my school ? It happened during the dry season so the nights were really really warm & hard to sleep with the windows closed. Why close the windows you ask? Because if you don't close the windows, the savages from the jungle will climb in & suck your blood! Literally! I'm talking about swarms of mosquitoes gang-banging your skin & leaving you with clusters of chickenpox-like bumps on your skin in the morning! These guys even bite through clothing!! The itchiness that ensues will practically ensure that you never have a good night sleep. In order to keep those monsters at bay, I had to go really low-tech. I eventually experimented with mosquito coils. There are so many in the market & I thought that all of them worked the same since they had the same basic ingredients. I was wrong. They had different effects on the mosquitoes ...
Open Full Post »

Exotic Fruit: Buah Isu

-
Image
I've been teaching in the Iban motherland for more than 1 year now & I have tasted many exotic fruits exclusively available only within these quiet secluded timber forests. Now, don't you smirk at me! You perverted baskets I call friends are thinking about a different 'fruit'! There are no innuendos here. The exotic fruits that I'm talking about are REAL fruits. First, let me introduce you to the cousin of the king of fruits... Buah Isu Buah Isu resembles it's cousin, the Durian , but I was told that it is NOT in the Durian family. The spikes are longer & they are sharper. They are also very much smaller than the Durians. It's about the size of a man's palm. It has a pleasantly sweet fragrance which is not pungent like the Durian's. Because of it's size, it is easily opened with a cleaver. After opening my first Isu, I couldn't help but bounce off the walls in gay laughter. It was all too amusing to me! I though...
Open Full Post »