Topic 7: Be a Journalist

UGADI OPEN HOUSE CELEBRATION 2018

MARCH 31, 2018 – 10 AM

BY DAIM NAZREEN BIN RAMLI

KUALA LUMPUR : More than 10,000 Telugu people attended the celebration of the Ugadi Open House 2018 including myself and one of my Telugu friend to celebrate the arrival of the new year for the Indian second ethnic group according to Tamil calendar. The event was officiated by Federal Territories Deputy Minister Datuk Dr. M. Loga Bala and it was also attended by the President of Telugu Malaysia Association, Datuk Dr. Achaiah Kumar Rao.

Photo 1: Happy Ugadi 2018!

The fifth anniversary of its organizing held at Dataran Merdeka was also celebrated with various cultural and religious events in accordance with the customs of the Telugu community. Telugu ethnic traditions includes ponggadalu, ariselu and burullu (traditional cakes based from rice flour) also became the focus of the crowd during the celebration.

Photo 2: People who attend Ugadi Celebration (Source by: Utusan Online)

It was my first time attending that particular celebration. Along the way, I can say that I really enjoy the celebration as it really different from my own celebration. This celebration also attract tourists, and this means we have the opportunity to celebrate the fun in a wider fraternity environment. There were some foreigners and local Malaysian people attending the celebration. A lot of good foods were provided during the celebration. As we enjoy those delicious foods, one thing we need to note is that although the method of preparation of sweets and cakes were different, the ingredients used for the delicacies still same and commonly used by the other ethnics.

Photo 3: Some of the scrumptious foods during Ugadi Celebration

Topic 6: Loanwords in English Language

English has gone through many periods in which large numbers of words from a particular language were borrowed. These periods coincide with times of major cultural contact between English speakers and those speaking other languages. The waves of borrowing during periods of especially strong cultural contacts are not sharply delimited, and can overlap. For example, the Norse influence on English began already in the 8th century A.D. and continued strongly well after the Norman Conquest brought a large influx of Norman French to the language. It is part of the cultural history of English speakers that they have always adopted loanwords from the languages of whatever cultures they have come in contact with. There have been few periods when borrowing became unfashionable, and there has never been a national academy in Britain, the U.S., or other English-speaking countries to attempt to restrict new loanwords, as there has been in many continental European countries. There are some of the loanwords that came into English in different periods and from different languages. It was started by Germanic period or Pre-Old English, followed by Old English Period, Middle English Period, Early Modern English Period and ended with Present-Day English which is what we are using. There are three loanwords will be listed down below and which country it derives from.

First of all is Malay language. The Malay language is part of the Austronesian language family and it is widely used in Singapore, Indonesia, Brunei and Malaysia with its own variation. Malay has borrowed words from Sanskrit, Tamil, Portuguese, English, Dutch, Chinese and Arabic. As an example, “Abjad” which means alphabet in Arabic, “Agama” which means religion in Sanskrit/Dharma, “Almari” which means cupboard that has been borrowed from Portuguese (almário) and “Kongsi” which means share in Chinese-Hokkien (Kong-si). Some of the Malay words that are spelled correctly with English words such as hospitals, formats, transit, etc. Some Malay words have also been borrowed in English.

Photo 1: Malay loanwords

Second, Indonesian language. It has absorbed many loanwords from other languages, including Sanskrit, Tamil, Hindi, Arabic, Persian, Portuguese, Dutch, Chinese and other Austronesian languages. For an example, “Angkasa” which means sky in Sanskrit (ākāśa), “Amoi” which means girl/sister in Chinese-Hakka, “Acar” which means pickles in Hindi (achaar), “Medan” which means field in Persian (meidan), “Nahkoda” which means captain of a ship in Persian (nākhodā), “Ilusi” which means illusion from Dutch (ilusie), “Buku” which means book in Dutch (boek) and “Bulat” which means round in French (boulette).

Photo 2: Indonesian loanwords

Third, Hawaiian language. Many loanwords in Hawaiian Pidgin (or Hawaiian Creole English) derive from the Japanese language. The linguistic influences of the Japanese in Hawaii began with the first immigrants from Japan in 1868 and continues with the large Japanese American population in Hawaiʻi today. For an example, “Furikake’ which defines a seaweed and sesame seed based condiment commonly used to season rice, “Hanakuso” which means fried nasal mucus. Hana (nose) and kuso (waste). It typically refers to human excrement, “Bocha” which means take a bath (bocha-bocha), “Skosh” which means a little (sukoshi) and “Hanabuddah/ hanabata” which defines The fluid version of hanakuso. Bata is from English "butter". The term in Japanese is usually hanamizu ("nose water").

Photo 3: Hawaiian loanwords

Furthermore, as to why I think loandwords are important in English language is because by borrowing words from other languages, it will reveal what was previously not in the culture of any race or religion. It is also one of the most important things in communication. Language is always used by a group of people to communicate, collaborate, and perform daily activities. It is not only defines about the information of communication or any weather issues, language also maintains relationships with one another and has its own ability to acquire and use complex systems of ommunication, especially the human ability to do it, and it is one of the specific examples of the system of huge variety of  languages in this world.

As a solid conlusion, The story of English loanwords is one of the elements which must be taken into consideration, because it supplies specific and significant material. It is necessary to examine cultural, political and economic factors in order to obtain a clear picture of the linguistic influence involved.

Topic 5 : Penny Pincher (The Benefit)

“Penny pincher” defines a people who would spend less on their money when it comes to buy their needs or their own basic necessity items. This habit actually is a noble attitude and should be fully practiced by the Malaysian community considering on the rising of market’s prices. Wasteful attitude while shopping should be handled properly to avoid the waste of money. Hence, appropriate measures need to be taken to instil austerity in society. In addition, there are some benefits that we can gain in our daily basis by being one of the “Penny Pincher”.

Picture 1: A basic illustration of money pincher.

First of all, it can prevent us from being bound by a prolonged debt burden. We would spend our money to buy something based on our own capabilities. If the debt is inevitable, make sure the debt does not affect the family's monthly expenses to buy food, clothing and clarify the applicable bills. This indirectly contributes on how careful planning should be done first. We should list down all the items that we want to buy. This prudent expenditure should be practiced in order to avoid any wastage of money and we must buy items according to our own needs instead of lust. In addition, credit card usage should also be avoided while shopping as it will increase the burden of debt obligations and over time consumers will have financial problems.

Picture 2: Debt burden

Next, for a college student like myself, this trait can educate all of the students to not spend our money arbitrarily but to save the balance for the future use. This is mentioned due to the cost of education for tertiary institutions has increased with the development of today's technology. In the meantime, frugal students will have the money to finance their studies in the future as well as depend on the education loan. With that being said, this habit will certainly create a sophisticated and progressive society as students have enough financial resources and of course for the brighter future guarantees.

Picture 3: Make a list on how to spend money.

Furhtermore, it can also foster self-reliance and increase our savings. This point is mentioned because we will not depend on one source to support our life. When we save on expenses, money that we saved and raised in financial institutions will increase. This savings is very useful when dealing with emergency situations. Strictly speaking, not just our fund raises money but the enjoyment of life is preserved. Also, we could use the money for travelling. The usage of money with brain could help us to travel to some of the places that we wanted to go when we were a little. It also enables us to make timely investments when opportunity knocks. We will not have any issues if we do have our own spare cash. In fact, we need to use our money wisely to be able to afford good things for ourselves. It helps us to live a better life without having to stress out when money runs out. This habit consequentially creates a sense of emotional and mental security that is essential in today's world. We need that assurance that we are safe financially to enable us to lead a normal life. Many people today suffer from tremendous stress if they have financial insecurity. It is one of the cause of rift between siblings and extended family when we are unable to meet our financial obligations.

Picture 4: Positive message about self reliance.

Finally, in the long run, I can conclude that “Penny Pincher” is one of the greatest attitude to be practiced as individuals. This habit is essential for each and every person to make their life a lot happier and healthier. We must always strive to make the habits of knowing how to use money wisely as our culture. Therefore, we have to be assured that this habit will certainly bring privilege to ourselves.

Topic 4 : Write about the scariest moment in your life.

            I believe that every human being in this world has experienced unforgettable experiences.  Bitter experience is an experience that we can not forget about. It does not matter eventhough the memories are only dropped from the seat while sitting down. I also had my own experience about falling off my chair. My back felt numb and I cannot even barely move my body. But, that is not the most scariest moment I have ever experienced. At least that is how I feel.

            My scariest experience was falling into the drain during our Teacher's Day Celebration at my school. Basically, this happened to me when I was 12 years old. As the day came, the teachers and I were happy in the classroom. After we were done giving our gift to the teachers, I went straight ahead to the canteen to eat the banquet. As soon as I reached there, I can see a lot of scrumptious and tasty foods on top of the table. Then, my friends and I took the food and sat down to eat the meal that was prepared. While eating, I was talking with one of my friends. His name is Faiz. After we were done eating our meals, I asked Faiz to play one game. Which was the chase game. He agreed and he has invited some of his other friends.

Picture 1 : A random picture from internet about a boy falling into the drain.

            Then, while we were enjoying the game, little that I knew, I accidently stepped onto the roots of hairy fruit’s tree and slipped. My body fell and my head hit the drain. I immediately got up but I did not feel any pain at that particular time when I was stucked in the drain. Then, I wiped my dirty clothes and pants. Suddenly, Faiz screamed on top of his lungs for help.

            Next, I started to feel dizzy. My body kept falling down. After that, I passed out. As soon as I opened my eyes, I felt like dreaming. I think I had seen the area around me. I stared at the walls, ceilings, fans, lamps for a good 5 minutes. I did not quite sure where was I. But, one thing that I remembered, I was surrounded with a lot of friends and teachers. They were quite grateful when I opened my eyes from unconciusness. One of the teachers called my parents. My dad fetched me and brought me home. On our way home, he asked me a lot of questions and asked me if I have any severe pain or wounds. One thing I know, I did not respond to his question that well as I cannot barely move my head.

Picture 2 : The same situation on how I fainted.

            Finally, after I reached home, my parents asked me about the incident. I told them it was an accident. I told them we were chasing each other during that time and I indeliberately stepped onto the roots and slipped. They brought me to the clinic and then I ate the medicines. I drank a lot of water to avoid my body from dehyrating. I got some bruises on top of my forehead. My mom gave me a traditional medicine and I used it religiously and almost every night until the bruises gone. After 4 days, I was fully recovered and went back to normal.

Picture 3 : Forehead bruise.

            As a conclusion, I thanked God because I am still alive. Since then, I did not play any chasing game ever again. I refused myself to play near the drainage. I was afraid that I will be experienced the same thing again. When it comes to Teacher’s Day Celebration, this memory will definitely fall deep into my head. This is one of they scariest and yet, terrible memories I have ever experienced in my whole life.

Picture 4 : Feeling young, wild and free as I am still alive.

Topic 3: Choose a social media website and describe what you like about it. How it is benefical to you.

        Social media is the collective of online communications channels dedicated to community-based input, interaction, content-sharing and collaboration. Websites and applications dedicated to forums, microblogging, social networking, social bookmarking and social curation. For me, Facebook is one of my favourite social media that I have ever come across. Facebook is a popular free social networking website that allows registered users to create profiles, upload photos and video, send messages and keep in touch with friends, family and colleagues.

Photo 1 : Facebook Logo

First of all, Facebook has helped me to create a connection with other people. It is also a major source of entertainment for me. Since Facebook is a global social networking site available in various parts of the world, location is not a barrier. The most interesting thing is I can use their translation feature and get easily connect with Facebook users from different countries and with people who speak a variety of different languages.

Photo 2 : Connection of people using Facebook

Second, Facebook can also be used as video chat tool. Recently, Facebook implemented their video chat feature in partnership with Skype. By upgrading this feature, I can surely make video calls to my friends using Facebook’s inbuilt video chat service with ease. This is a great move for them to attract more people to use their application. In fact, this feature is splendid for colleague students like myself  to do a quick discussion by inviting each other into the video. Instead of doing non-verbal communication, I can now communicate with people verbally using this feature.

Photo 3 : Video call feature from Facebook

Furthermore, with a network that is so widespread and fast, Facebook is best used to share knowledge with other people. This way, I can exchange my views and ideas as well as enhance my knowledge and create a healthy learning environment through discussions, forums or sharing interesting content that can be discussed with my friends. In addition, I can also set up groups to share my interests with my fellow friends like setting up a "Karate-Do" group. From that group, I will be able to find a variety of interesting information about martial arts techniques as a result of the discussion and sharing of the members of the group. I also can share my own knowledge and serve as a channel for a discussion or academic-related forum. In addition, Facebook provides me to chat with my friends that are from overseas. From my past experience using Facebook for over 9 years, I have several friends from Russia and Middle East. Basically, by using this application to communicate with them, I can share about my culture and getting to know more about their culture at the same time. This is not only good for my knowledge, but without knowing I am attracting them to visit a beautiful country of Malaysia that are known for its multicultural society.

Photo 4 : A group development from Facebook

Finally, Facebook is a great application for me to deal with my anxiety, stress and self-depression. For me, social media platform such as Facebook has allowed me to be honest and truthful with how I feel. Being free to share my inner thoughts without fear of judgement or ridicule is vital. The openness can leave me feeling bare and vulnerable as well-meaning followers share their own stories, give me some advices and tell me it is alright when they feel totally opposite. For me, balancing depression with social media, I believe, is positive on the whole, as the conversation is blown wide open. This way I feel more supported and motivated.

Photo 5 : A picture of stress

To sum up the whole topic, I think social media is not always an online distraction or procrastination platform. It is indeed, one of the best ways to stay informed and has become an indicator for every people to deliver messages to the masses.

Topic 2 : If you had a chance to be born again, in which country would you like to be born?

Every country has their own unique side. Like Malaysia, it is known for its diversity of races, religions, multicultural and many places of interests. It is not that I am feeling ungreatful to be born in a significant country of Malaysia, but if I had a chance to be born again, I would like to be born at Japan. There is something quintessential about this country that caught my interest. I chose Japan because Japan has a variety of uniqueness compared to other Asian countries. Japan is a country with a mix of traditional and modern. Among the major reasons many Malaysian students choose to pursue their studies in Japan is due to the latest technology, futuristic pop culture and business development. In addition, there are various aspects of Japanese beauty such as their cultural tea, country's environment, strong discipline strength and well-organized behaviour amongst the society. There are several reasons as to why I would like to be born in this country.

Speaking of Japan, of course I have to talk about Geisha and Kimono. This is my favourite part to talk about this country. Basically, “Gei” means Art, and “Sha” means the person who’s doing the performance. In Japanese, Geisha is classified as an artist who possess a high level Japanese art skills such as calligraphy and tea ceremony. Their costumes are specifically made and sewn by hand which for me is quite overwhelming. Also, Kimono is a traditional costume worn by a Japanese woman during the wedding ceremony. This costume also worn by Geisha sometimes, but not too frequently.

Picture 1: Kimono and Geisha

Next, the thing that pops in my head while I am thinking about Japan is the famous Sakura tree. Sakura flowers are symbolic to Japanese society. The cherry blossoms illustrate the beauty, extreme and rapid death associated with mortality. It is also frequently used in Japanese painting, Japanese animation, film and music. I remembered when I was a little kid, there has a tree in my backyard that looked fairly similar to Sakura tree. So, my brother and I, we were fooled ourselves by visioning that we were in Japan. We would chase each other under the shady tree until we run out of energy.

Picture 2: Sakura tree

  

Furthermore, Japanese are known for mantaining their cleanliness. Public toilets there are very clean. It's very different compared to Malaysia. Although there are employees who clean it up religiously and almost everyday, but in my opinion this is impossible without the cooperation of the people. This is because the people are so educated. In terms of rubbish disposal, they will provide a different types of container and plastic. Each bags will be classified for their own disposal such as wet residues, bottles, plastics and papers. In addition, there are certain days and ways to release electrical and furniture items. It would be nice if Malaysian people were educated to always keep everything neat and clean.

Moreover, of course I have to talk about Fuji’s mountain. This mountain is one of the highest mountains in Japan. It symbolize the history of eruption to the country. This particular mountaion has a snow at the tip which adds up to its own beauty. It is also an inspiration for many people who will be immortalized for photographs, painting inspiration, or even for writing materials such as novels.The scenery is super splendid and breathtaking. But, I don’t know if I am brave enough to hike this mountain as I am scared of heights.

Picture 3: Fuji Mountain

 Finally, I chose Japan because of the obscurencess and lowliness. Their way of respecting other people interest me the most. I remembered my teacher told me once. When she first went to Japan, the envoirenment was slightly different from Malaysia. Each people there are so warm and kind. They will bow down and approach people without being disrespectful. They treat everyone equally as they welcome everyone to their country with gracious. Japanese people are known for having a high respect to the older people. Likewise, their corteous attitude towards foreign workers. Besides, Japanese people are not easily surprised. For example, when a precious object suddenly drops from their hand and then splinters, they just take it back and throw them away. 

As a solid conclusion, I would like to say Japan is one of the country that I am most attracted to travel. Not only they are so andvanced in technology, but the richness in their culture makes the country is more extrodinary to explore.

Topic 1 : Difficulties In Learning Mandarin

        I have always been fascinated to learn more than one language. For me, learning more than one language is really helpful in terms of communicating with other people from all over the world. Mandarin is one of the languages that I am most attracted to learn. I do not really know how and why, but if I were happened to speak more than one language, Mandarin would be it. I found it hard to learn this particular language since it is not my native language. Clearly, I was born in a Malay family that did not know much about this language.

                              

           I had a hard time learning the language since it is not my first tongue and I rarely have friends who can speak Mandarin. This language also is quite hard to learn due to the complicated writing system and the confusing intonation sounds. But that does not keep me from learning this language. From my understanding, this language has so many similar words during the conversation. But it has different meaning in each words, so in writing, the characters will be different from one another. For me, the focus is to master the tones well, so that I can pronounce each words accurately. In fact, learning new language is not something that can be done overnight, I have to go through each and every process by reading all of the books that I could possibly find. But, I did not collect and put them on my shelf as I am not a good reader. I would probably borrow it from the library and jot down some of the words that I am curious to know. When I am pretty satisfied with the words that have been writing on a piece of paper, I then move on to the next process which is doing some researches on the internet. It really helps me to boost up my knowledge about this language by finding a meaning, watching videos, learn how to write and talk using this language as well as how to master it over time.

            I will not deny that I did face a few of challenges in learning this language. One of them is the amount of time that I spent to learn Mandarin. Since I am a college student, a college environment's freedom and flexibility can derail me sometimes to master my own time-management skills. Having left high school's rigidly structured schedules behind, I often struggle to balance academic, personal and other commitments after arriving on campus. I faced with so many competing demands on my time, sometimes I simply gave up and let the situation take its course. In addition, I have been dealing with a lot of assignments, until it comes to the point of procrastination. Usually, during weekend, I would spend my time for around 30 minutes to do research about this language because on the other hand, I could not keep myself away from socializing with my friend. So, time distraction happens to me most of the time.

               Next, there are so much of memorizations and ambiguities about this specific language. Each words involves memorizing the meaning, pronunciation, tone, and characters. The process of learning to read, write, listen, and speak a character is exhausting. And there are so many of them that needs to be remembered. But in spite of having difficulties to memorize the words, I actually quite interested about one thing. Basically, during my TITAS class for my previous semester, I have been taught that if the character has a water split symbol to it, it actually symbolizes the elements of water such as river, sea, raindrop and so on. Furthermore, speaking about ambiguity aspect, Chinese language is famous for having tons of homonyms and lack of grammar structures. For me, this makes it easy to get started but fairly hard to get a good outcome especially in spoken conversations where characters do not clarify the meaning.

Photo 1 : A video about learning Mandarin from Facebook.

        Moreover, as we all clearly stated, after we are facing with a lot of obstacles, then comes the solution. Basically, I overcome this difficulty by building my relationship with someone who is familiar with Mandarin language. I am lucky enough to have one of my roommates who has the ability to speak Mandarin well. It is not that hard to merge ourselves together to share the information about this specific language since we have already known each other for around 4 months now. He is also quite helpful and since he went to a Chinese primary school, things get easier than I expected. He also teaches me how to use each words properly and pronounce them correctly as to keep myself away from doing mistakes.

        Finally, I would like to wrap up the whole topic by saying it is undeniable that learning more than one language is wholly positive and such a privilege for me. If people were multilingual, the world would ultimately be a happier and more prosperous place.