To My EG1471 Classmates

Well, I bet almost all of us enjoyed the module very much, right? I do enjoyed the time* spent in the class throughout the semester. English learning has never been this fun and interactive before. The class size is just perfect to carry out all kinds of discussions. Yeah. All kinds. Basically, we can group ourselves into three groups based on our nationality. Three is good enough so that we can stay focused in just three countries when comes to discussion. Well... actually is FOUR. I've forgotten our Sensei. Hey, he himself is a one-man group, representing himself as an American, Russian, Japanese, Malaysian, Singaporean... but what, since he is IN our class, so he should be considered as one of our classmates as well.

(*excluding the time spent in doing the pain-in-the-ass text editing)

Indeed, what have made our classes so fun are actually all the discussion topics.

INTERESTING topics + Discussion = lots of talking = fun

As you can see from the equation, the interestingness plays an important role. The class itself is just like a closed door discussion that we can discuss all sorts of topics, including those sensitive ones =X Hope that nobody recorded anything from the class.

Here are some of my feelings from the class. Since Malaysia is so good in practicing discrimination, I am going to DISCRIMINATE you all based on your nationality!

The (one and only) American
"Smoke a cigarette and drink some beer!" Well, I will appreciate that if you practice that in class... Nah, just joking! Thank you for making this class being a so interactive and interesting one. ありがとうございます! Without you, it would not be possible to provide a platform to practice "freedom of speech" in the class. I really appreciate that.

The Chinese (from China)
Frankly speaking, you all have changed some of my (not so positive) thoughts towards students who came from China. You all are more friendlier than I thought. Thank you for sharing your experiences and informations from China. I have learnt a lot from them. To Li Hui, Xue Jie, and Guo Cheng, I had a great time mixing with you all as a group. It is also interesting to mix around with the rest of you.

The 'Locals' (Singaporeans)
Strange but true, the smallest group in class. If any of you ever felt humiliated (the word sounds too serious) because you have failed the QET, think again. Perhaps you are the lucky ones who get the chance to mix with all the classmates and also Sensei. Living 18 years across the Straits of Johor (Malaysians call it Selat Tebrau), I consider myself as a 'half local'. Perhaps my understandings of Singapore might be a little bit better in certain aspects, but you all still, have provided me much insights of Singapore. Nice one!

The Malaysians
I have the most to talk about in this part. Thank you all for making Malaysians proud. We have seen the event, which can change the future of our home, from our neighbor. Channel News Asia does provide better coverage during and after the election than the sum of all mainstream medias in Malaysia. To Uwa: I am glad that the Indians are able to stand up against the discrimination, congratulations. Makkal Sakti! To Saw, don't be afraid of whatsoever Islamic Law to be implemented in the state or the country. PAS had enough of lesson, and it is almost impossible to it without the support of ALL allies. To Johorians, look at the condition in Johor Bahru. It's time to give some chance for opposition in Johor. Recover the balance is the current priority.

The current success in Malaysia's democracy couldn't be achieved without these 'alternative medias'. Here's the list of some important sites:

• Malaysiakini [English] [BM] [中文版] [தமிழ]
• Malaysia Today [The Corridors of Power] [No Holds Barred]
• 独立新闻在线

Okay, enough of politics. Got digressed. Back to EG1471.

So, how about the future of this blog? Actually I haven't decide yet. Maybe I should leave this remained as the EG1471 blog because I really like the "Blogging for EG1471" title and the image. We'll see how it goes!



Finally, I wish that all of us can do our best in our exam!

Time for an End, EG1471!

Again, another semester is coming to an end, so is EG1471. In other words, it's time to make a conclusion for this a-lot-of-work-but-no-MC module! Any future students can try to make this as an advice, but no responsibility will be taken (by me) for any consequences. LOL. As for Sensei, maybe you can consider this as part of my course evaluation.

So...

What are the pros?
You get the chance to start to learn writing all over again. It is something like the case when your physics lecturer asks you to forget about all the classical physics, so you can learn modern physics. Somehow it works, and it is quite efficient. To digress a little bit, this is the point where I doubt more whether the English classes back in Malaysia really works, no offense against the teachers. The education system in Malaysia ... too political oriented I guess. I can talk more about that in pages, but that is not the point here.

Back to the pros. This course is mainly focused on rebuilding and fortifying the foundation of students who are not so good in writing. Of course, this requires a lot of hard work, but no pain, no gain, right? Everyone should be glad that the efforts paid off, instead of being turned into dust. To add on, it is quite hard to find courses like this, which comes together with the 'professionalized' tutor(s) you cannot easily get one personally, outside the school, not to mention the cost if you are joining one outside. In some sense, these reason has made me feel lucky to fail my QET last year.

What are the cons?
To be exact, this course is quite fine tuned to suit the exact purpose of the course. There is not much to talk about the cons of this course. Yeah, not much.

The followings are not really related to the course academically. Later on I found out those are not really the 'cons' of the module, but rather some minor technical problems. First, pushing another 4hours/week (but 0MC/hour) into your timetable is not an easy job, especially when you have another 5 more modules to consider while planning for your almost-full timetable. The timing almost drove me mad when all the modules that I wanted clashed with the timing of this module. To make the problem worse, the one and only briefing lecture occupied the time in my CORS timetable, and made me unable to bid for certain module (I think the coordinator has changed the lecture period to Sunday right, Sensei?)

Well... another issue is about the MC (again). Seriously no one can help much about it. To be fair with the school, I tried to think about this. There are really serious consequences if the school allows MC allocation for EG1471. First, students will purposely fail their QET just to get into this course and get some easy points for their CAPS. Second, students might just take this as some kinda FREE English improvement class since the school is not going to put the fees in the bill. These actually vary with individuals, but I believe that there are people thinking about these out there isn't it?

What topic to recommend for the next term?
'2008 Beijing Olympic Games'
Please do feel hatred/grateful to me IF this really turns out to be the topic :p . There are really a lot of issues we can talk about this. The preparations (stadiums, airport, environmental regulations etc.), cultural and economic impact, so on so forth. This is a worldwide event so I think the geography should not be the limiting factor for this topic from being used.

Any last words?
Hope the things I have talk about really helps, either as an evaluation or providing a rough idea as a student.

(... and a devilish grin to all the future students)

:]

(this emoticon looks just too friendly, can't make it more devilish, so imagine it yourself)