The way I remember it
A local tabloid reported that there is division among the local and foreign in the International Islamic University Malaysia (“IIU”). The rector Prof. Dr. Mohd Kamal Hassan was quoted to say that the local did not interact with the foreigners because they are not fluent in English, or they fear that they will loose their “malay” identity and they feel inferior or embarrassed to converse with the foreigners.
I spent 6 years there in IIU reading law. Two years in the matriculation center (what a waste of time) and another four years completing my degree. I’d like to underline here that there is no such things as the local are embarrassed or feel inferior or the local are afraid to loose their “malay” identity (do we have one after all?). We interact as usual. No divisions as reported and yes some of the times we do go by the nationality but most of the times we are together. We live together in one dormitory and we are in the same class.
If he says we are lacking in our English, then it is quite weird because the medium of instruction in IIU is English. It is impossible to say that the students didn’t know at least how to have a decent conversation with the foreign students. May be the way they speak not as good as the rector’s English (it’s Queen’s English by the way) but we know how to crack jokes and tell people how we feel. That’s enough I supposed.
We feel inferior? I mean what the “heck” the rector’s talking about? We never feel inferior around them nor we were embarrassed to talk and be with them. May be he’s the one who feel that way and generalizing that all students are like that. May be there are some who are not open to others (mostly from the same state as he is who have their own “nationality” and sorry if this is a little insulting to certain quarters but rally they have their own community and most of them to me are retarded group of people) and have some of those types of students who refuse to interacting but most of us are good to each other.
As I remember it correctly, we played football together on one field and we eat together in one canteen and we watched EPL together. I have friends from Gambia, Djibouti, Ghana, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Aceh, Germany, China, USA, Afghanistan, Iraq, Turkey and Sudan. I learn how to converse in their language (mostly Arab, a little French, Mandarin, and German etc. Not much but enough to greet then in the morning) and they are eager to learn our language and our culture. I had brunch at the Albanian stall (you should taste the lamb stew and the freshly baked bread). I remember Hassan (he’s from Djibouti and staying in the room next to mine) asking me what bee is in malay because he saw a swarm of bees behind his room. I told him bee in malay is cucork kodok (jemput-jemput pisang). So he went all day saying he saw cucork kodok behind his room. I corrected him at the end of the day but it was fun. But the point is that they are eager and they want to know how we speak and how we live here in our country.
Not only that, for us locals, we participated in most of the programs organized by the foreign students and most of the time we didn’t even understand some of the things done there. But in the spirit of having a multi-national community we did it anyway. Not only that, one of my friends from Germany is married to a local girl now. A Sarawakian. If the rector is saying that we don’t interact with each other and there’s division among the student, how on earth this people even get together what more getting married? But they are happily married now and I met Muqasim couple of months ago at KLIA. He told me he’s staying in France now with his wife and kids.
So, the rector’s word in this matter can be rejected (not totally becuase may be there’s some truth in it) and if there is such division, may be IIU can work towards bringing their local students and foreign students together from now on and in the future. If there were such local students in IIU now, I’d rather make friends with the foreigners. Enough with the division between local. I mean between one state to another. Why? because a person from the rest of the states in Malaysia can't understand what are the Kelantanese is saying or other people don't understand what I say most of the time (I am from Kedah and I have very "heavy" Kedah slang, so most of the time I would speak in English).
Furthermore, I think the rector and the staff should spend more time with the students and then they’ll know what is really happening in IIU.
I spent 6 years there in IIU reading law. Two years in the matriculation center (what a waste of time) and another four years completing my degree. I’d like to underline here that there is no such things as the local are embarrassed or feel inferior or the local are afraid to loose their “malay” identity (do we have one after all?). We interact as usual. No divisions as reported and yes some of the times we do go by the nationality but most of the times we are together. We live together in one dormitory and we are in the same class.
If he says we are lacking in our English, then it is quite weird because the medium of instruction in IIU is English. It is impossible to say that the students didn’t know at least how to have a decent conversation with the foreign students. May be the way they speak not as good as the rector’s English (it’s Queen’s English by the way) but we know how to crack jokes and tell people how we feel. That’s enough I supposed.
We feel inferior? I mean what the “heck” the rector’s talking about? We never feel inferior around them nor we were embarrassed to talk and be with them. May be he’s the one who feel that way and generalizing that all students are like that. May be there are some who are not open to others (mostly from the same state as he is who have their own “nationality” and sorry if this is a little insulting to certain quarters but rally they have their own community and most of them to me are retarded group of people) and have some of those types of students who refuse to interacting but most of us are good to each other.
As I remember it correctly, we played football together on one field and we eat together in one canteen and we watched EPL together. I have friends from Gambia, Djibouti, Ghana, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Aceh, Germany, China, USA, Afghanistan, Iraq, Turkey and Sudan. I learn how to converse in their language (mostly Arab, a little French, Mandarin, and German etc. Not much but enough to greet then in the morning) and they are eager to learn our language and our culture. I had brunch at the Albanian stall (you should taste the lamb stew and the freshly baked bread). I remember Hassan (he’s from Djibouti and staying in the room next to mine) asking me what bee is in malay because he saw a swarm of bees behind his room. I told him bee in malay is cucork kodok (jemput-jemput pisang). So he went all day saying he saw cucork kodok behind his room. I corrected him at the end of the day but it was fun. But the point is that they are eager and they want to know how we speak and how we live here in our country.
Not only that, for us locals, we participated in most of the programs organized by the foreign students and most of the time we didn’t even understand some of the things done there. But in the spirit of having a multi-national community we did it anyway. Not only that, one of my friends from Germany is married to a local girl now. A Sarawakian. If the rector is saying that we don’t interact with each other and there’s division among the student, how on earth this people even get together what more getting married? But they are happily married now and I met Muqasim couple of months ago at KLIA. He told me he’s staying in France now with his wife and kids.
So, the rector’s word in this matter can be rejected (not totally becuase may be there’s some truth in it) and if there is such division, may be IIU can work towards bringing their local students and foreign students together from now on and in the future. If there were such local students in IIU now, I’d rather make friends with the foreigners. Enough with the division between local. I mean between one state to another. Why? because a person from the rest of the states in Malaysia can't understand what are the Kelantanese is saying or other people don't understand what I say most of the time (I am from Kedah and I have very "heavy" Kedah slang, so most of the time I would speak in English).
Furthermore, I think the rector and the staff should spend more time with the students and then they’ll know what is really happening in IIU.
posted by Kampong_Boy at
10:41 am
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