… swirl around in my mind. they consume my idle thoughts. they confound, yet fascinate me.
i know it’s confusing for the boy, switching from English to Malay rules in spelling/reading, especially where vowels are concerned. (for example, “clown”, “mountain”, and “hijau” – you can’t really explain to a young reader why there are so many ways to spell one dipthong other than “that’s just the way it is, my child”, shaking your head apologetically at the inexplicable mysteries of life.)
but i keep telling him: “Malay vowels are like, the EASIEST, EVER!” (note how many different ‘e’ sounds there are in these 2 English words alone? and don’t forget the ones that don’t even make a sound! how can one not get exasperated?!)
whereas the vowel ‘e’ in Malay only has two sounds. the other Malay vowels don’t even vary, or change as and when they like with different words…
Malay vowels,
they’re straightforward.
they’re uncomplicated.
they’re consistent.
they’re faithful.
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Oh yes! But must teach Aniq to understand the context while reading too…bela, for example, uses the different e sounds depending on the context of the text :)
I’m sorry.im a malay teacher.cant help wondering why it’s so difficult for the students to understand malay? When our time, we can read, spell, write & understand malay with one eye closed.
i think we started out learning malay first, and english later… but it’s the other way now. and there seems to be a problem with this sequence, somehow.
plus, ‘cool’/interesting malay books (picture books, early readers) aren’t as easily available as english ones. i mean, there are lots of “children’s classics” in english, but i can’t think of one in malay that’s a ‘must-read’. (or maybe i’m just unaware?)
in any case, i guess it is partly our fault for speaking mainly english to them, even their grandparents, and then most of the tv they watch is in english, and the emphasis since pre-school is also english… so….
hello! i’m not sure if this came a little late, but you might wanna check out Persama Enterprise for interesting, colourful malay books for the kids. the website’s still in the works but we’ve got some books up already: http://www.persama.net
we’ve even got malay assessment books and a picture dictionary which is useful for primary 1 students
Hey Diana, thanks for the info! :)