James Morrison

I love James Morrison's voice. He has a unique voice.

According to him, when he was little, a bad cough disease was upon him that almost cost him his life. But thanks to that, his voice turned to be one of the sweetest in town.

His latest song Broken Strings, a duet with Nelly Furtado is just stunning. Find it and hear it for yourself.

PPSMI

(1) It was declared yesterday by our DPM Tan Sri Muhyidin that government will halt PPSMI starting on 2012, and they current batch will be the last batch using PPSMI. After 2012, all teachings of science and mathematic in primary and secondary school will be change back to Bahasa Malaysia in Sekolah Kebangsaan and Menengah Kebangsaan and other mother tongue language in SJK (C) and SJK (T) respectively.

(2) There were many pros and cons brought to the public by media regarding this issue. Some of them agree PPSMI but be continued while the others didn't. For me, I would like to see PPSMI to be continued. I was quite dissapointed when hearing the declaration.

(3) For me, PPSMI can be a good medium to increase our children competencies in English and improve their understanding in science and technology in the early beginning. The situation that made this programme failed was there were not many supports that should be moved parallelly with this programme.

(4) From my point of view, the lack of understanding on how to ensure this programme works was not in the mind of our educationist and those inside the ministry. In order to make anything work, basically you have to do the PDCA (Plan, Do, Check, Action); it's basic of management. In this case, there were only Plan and Do, there were no Check and Action. Things became more complicated when the founder of this programme, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad leave Malaysian administration.

(5) PPSMI was a very daring and ambitious project. However, it was achievable. Nothing is imposible in this world. Imposible is not a fact; it's an opinion.

(6) When Muslim Arabs merge as a knowledge superpower last 1500 years ago, what happened was they translated many books and knowledges from other races, such as Romans, Greeks, Hindus and Chinese..and with them the knowledge transfer happened until they were able to publish knowledges in Arabic. We should be able to understand the first place that in order to translate, they must first learn other races languge.

(7) This is the point why we must emphasized English as Science and Mathematics as a learning medium. People might say the last system has no problem; we were able to generate many engineers, doctors and professionals without problem. Yes, but what if we can generate them even earlier. Children are like sponge, they easily absorb knowledges better than us. What if we can make them been able to read for example current form 5 physic lesson when they're only on form 1. Would it be nice to have such a young fella with a great amount of knowledges, just like a resemblance on what happened 1500 years ago?. Isn't the way to built great empire is to have great minds inside it? Imagine if these smart children continue to pursue mathematic, science and technology knowledges until someday they can questioned the fundamentals of science and maybe develop new enigma in science, just like Albert Einstein did.

(8) To be continued...

PTD assessment programme (3rd July 09)

(1) I received an invitation to join this programme, an assessment that being done to choose the right candidate for this position's last interview session. It was at INTAN Wilayah Timur in Kemaman, Terengganu.

(2) Luckily I was there with 2 of my collegues in NEC, so the awkard feeling could be left aside. We arrived and registered there at 8.15 a.m. There were already many other candidates arrived. We took turn to register. Then, weighing and height measuring session took place. I was 167 cm, with 70Kgs (slightly over my supposal BMI). After my picture being taken, they gave me a breakfast pack.

(3) First activity was a briefing by a fellow PTD officer. Basically, she briefed us what a PTD job is all about. She was a bit grumpy, and I didn't like her much. My friend and I also thought few words from her mouth were unappropriate to use while briefing us. Maybe she had problem back at her house, we will never know.

(4) After briefing, the real activity started. We were given groups to form to, and straight away went to dedicated rooms. This activity needed us to discuss an issue: economic crisis. There were about 10 people in my group, and most of them had no problem to converse in good English. Some of them even opened my perspective in the current economic crisis, since my understanding was lack for this issue. However, I did gave some of my ideas, and they accepted them, so I'm quite happy.

(5) Second activity was a debate; and the title for debate was komunikasi maya merosakkan bahasa. Coordinator seperated us into two groups, boys and girls. In this mini parliamental debate session, boys were the opposition. We had great time debating and showing our thoughts, plus this session seeemed non formal. A great relaxing time.

(6) After lunch and Friday prayer, we undergo 2 tests. It took us about 1 hour. Then came the physical test. After forming a group of 15 person, coordinator gave us ten platic pans. They asked us to make ten lines using those pans, with one line using only 3 pans. We failed to settle this riddle, and only one group succeeded. After riddle solving, we needed to design a dance move according to the song played. The song was about 10 minutes, consist of 3 songs that been mixed; the jaiho by pussycat dolls, basikal tua by sudirman and a siti nurhaliza song (sorry I couldn't remember the title). This was very fun.

(7) We then have to do pumping (30 pumps), star jump (20 jumps) and fly jump (2o jumps). I almost didn't feel my legs after these activity. Last physical test was sprint. I did well, I'm the fastest in my group.

(8) Eventhough tiring, I would be sure to join this activity again if they invite me again.