Monday, April 11, 2011
Schooling in Malaysia
In Malaysia, there's several different cultures and communinities that live together in peace and work together. They are all different religions like Buddhist, Muslim and Hindu. They are relatively peaceful but from what I learned there's an inbalance when it comes to schooling. In Malaysia, there's Malay's, Hindus, and chinese to name a few. The kids start very young learning different languages like Malay Mandarin and English to name a few in the local schools. Kevin and Gabi's little girls is already in preschool at the age of three and learning to read. Wow you say to yourself, I didn't learn until I was five or six. and she's already practicing her letters and learning flashcards with words like girl, orange, queen and umbrella. She's even getting homework too!! It's also interesting to learn that the grading system fir each child is different depending on their race. At the age of 8 or 10(I can't remember exactly) they have to pass their exams that identify their future and possibly their careers! Wow can you imagine that all this is decided for you at this young age. It puts a tremendous amount of pressure on a little kid of that age...especially when you look at the grading scale. It's astonishing to find out that if you're Malay you need 75% to pass and exam and if you're Chinese you need 85%.The pressure that puts on a little kid to do well in enormous and this is an accepted part of the life of a child in Malaysia, everyone is aware of the inequality in the grading system and accpets this. In the US everyone complains about inequality and here it's openly displayed and accepted as part of general societal rules. Wow America...and other Western countries wouldn't stand for that ....:)
While in KL...some memories come back..intro to Asian food.
Well Kuala Lumpur is a booming metropolis and there's loads of business there. They have all the really nice shops like Gucci, Prada and Dior, that no one can afford unless you're a celebrity, but it's fun to walk by and oggle at the latest fashions. Gabi and I went into town one day with Rachel. Walking around the city doesn't happen too much unless you're inside a shopping mall due to the tropical rain and the humidity. One this day, we went into town to buy nice teas. Gabi is really into her teas...and she had found a great shop for it. Loose leaf jasmine tea...,green tea...odlong tea...and they were all fabulous. As part of what I took home from Czech was drinking tea all the time so finding good tea...is great! I was a little worried about coming into Australia with it...but I thought...let's give it a shot.
On this day sticky day...it's the kind of day where you step outside and instantly there's humidity between the your sandal and the bottom of your foot so you slip out of your sandal...so i guess you could say it was boiling hot. While we were at the tea shop, I found this rice tea...that Gabi said was really nice...so I got some to bring home. Later in the evening after I'd played with Rachel for about 3 hours, doing the letters, playing catch, having tea, playing play doh and yes playing dress-up..:) I tried some of the tea and what happened I didn't expect...a memory from my childhood. Something snapped back to play from when I was a kid, the tea tasted of a crispy fried rice soup...lol When I was younger, my aunt Mary-Jo used to babysit me..Me and my cousin Leah only 2 years younger were best friends and still are today. I used to stay over at theirs and hang out all the time as a kid, so naturally they'd take me out for dinners with them. Every week we used to go to a local Chinese/Japanese restaurant to eat, we would order sizzling rice roup which was bascially chicken or vegetable soup with sizzling rice on the top....and oh was it heaven. I can still remember the crunchyness of the soup and the rice in this tea had the same taste and texture to it. I had completely forgotten about it until that day and it was funny that I am on the other side of the world and drinking a tea that triggered this memory. It was probably my introduction to Asian food and a kid of 7 or 8 in rural Rock Island, IL at the local Chinese/Japanese place. it's funny how memories sometimes snap back into play...:)
On this day sticky day...it's the kind of day where you step outside and instantly there's humidity between the your sandal and the bottom of your foot so you slip out of your sandal...so i guess you could say it was boiling hot. While we were at the tea shop, I found this rice tea...that Gabi said was really nice...so I got some to bring home. Later in the evening after I'd played with Rachel for about 3 hours, doing the letters, playing catch, having tea, playing play doh and yes playing dress-up..:) I tried some of the tea and what happened I didn't expect...a memory from my childhood. Something snapped back to play from when I was a kid, the tea tasted of a crispy fried rice soup...lol When I was younger, my aunt Mary-Jo used to babysit me..Me and my cousin Leah only 2 years younger were best friends and still are today. I used to stay over at theirs and hang out all the time as a kid, so naturally they'd take me out for dinners with them. Every week we used to go to a local Chinese/Japanese restaurant to eat, we would order sizzling rice roup which was bascially chicken or vegetable soup with sizzling rice on the top....and oh was it heaven. I can still remember the crunchyness of the soup and the rice in this tea had the same taste and texture to it. I had completely forgotten about it until that day and it was funny that I am on the other side of the world and drinking a tea that triggered this memory. It was probably my introduction to Asian food and a kid of 7 or 8 in rural Rock Island, IL at the local Chinese/Japanese place. it's funny how memories sometimes snap back into play...:)
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