Kalau anda bosan

Kalau anda bosan, atau sudah bosan dengan hidup, sila baca buku ini:

Le Petit Prince
oleh Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Buku ini orang Perancis yang tulis. Dalam bahasa Perancis. Ini buku kanak-kanak. Tapi sesuai untuk semua peringkat umur. Kalau tak mahu baca yang asal, anda boleh baca terjemahannya.

Kalau tak mahu beli, boleh baca di sini: The Little Prince. Kalau tak suka melihat lama-lama latar belakang warna biru seperti ini, baca di sini* . Kalau anda tak suka bahasa Inggeris, sila baca versi asal, Le Petit Prince. Kalau tak suka membaca, sila cari sendiri versi audio buku tersebut.

Dia tiada mood (mood dalam bahasa Melayu apa?) untuk menulis book review sekarang, tapi cerita ini memang bermanfaat. Sila baca sendiri.

*(yang ini lebih mudah dibaca. Klik terus pada nombor I di bawah Contents yang diletakkan betul-betul selepas dedikasi "To Léon Werth when he was a little boy")


P.S.: Kinokuniya only has the English versions. Whoever buys me the French one, I'll remember you for the rest of my life. My children'll remember you, too, because I'm going to read them this book (and the name of the person who gave me the book will be on the inside of that book).

Heh.

Dia sudah bergerak lebih dekat ke arah menjadi “blogger tegar”, tetapi…

…please excuse my sudden lapses into English. You must allow me some English occasionally.

5 perkara yang dia rindu /5 things I miss terribly:

#1:

KL. The people, the places, the happenings (however strange), the diversity.

#2:

Learning in Arabic. Now I’m learning everything in the English Language. It feels a bit unnatural sometimes, especially for the IRK subjects.

Before this, I’d never have thought that I actually could/would miss having my lessons in Arabic. Never.

Now I realize that poring over words in the Mawrid Dictionary is something that I actually enjoy doing. Also, being deprived of Arabic after having learned various subjects in Arabic for the past 15-16 years is a bit of a shock.

#3:

Learning French at Alliance Française.

M. Lopez laughing at my first attempts of pronouncing “l’oeil”.

M. Raufino: ‘“Beaucoup des?” Since when did I teach you to use “beaucoup des*?”’

The teachers unconsciously addressing me as Miriam instead of Maryam.

Staring closely at artwork that they’d hung all around the place during art festivals/the annual French Film Festival, etc.

Having to solat on the stage or at the upstairs gallery in front the paintings (and in full view of everyone who happens to be walking or sitting around in the main hall), or at the back of the café.

Talking with the Indian caretaker while waiting to go home.

Being one step closer to understanding the French people and culture.

The whole experience, basically.

*The correct form is “beaucoup de”.

#4:

Painting. Pastels and acrylic and solid coloured poster paints and large blank white sheets of paper. Taking days or weeks to finish one painting – those hours and hours of solitude and calming-down-and-sorting-out-my-thoughts time. Now I simply don’t have the time or space for this.

#5:

The NST-NIE Literature in English class of 2005 [the lessons themselves, the teachers, Puan Iris and Mrs. Merina Hew [now Datin, I think] especially; and the friends. Michelle, Nuri, Fern, Chiew Yi, Andrew, Jee Ian, Warren, Anastassia, and all the rest of you.

In acting out Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest [Act I]:

Sandesh (as Gwendolen Fairfax): What wonderfully blue eyes you’ve got, Ernest! [tilts Shameez’s (as Ernest) head none too gently to have a better look at his “blue” eyes]

Hahahaa.

And the teacher’s comment at the end: “Oscar Wilde would be turning in his grave!”]

You should all read that play, seriously. And George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion, too – they’re both hilarious and very clever. The other drama we studied was Romeo and Juliet, but personally I don’t think Shakespeare is at all suitable for casual reading. Plus, both Romeo and his wife died in the end. HAHAHA don’t like tragic endings, do we?

And the conversation this morning in Psych class:

About five to six BENL students who were sitting next to me were talking:

Student 1: Antonio yang jahat kan?

Student 2: Siapa? Antonio?

Student 3: Ha ah, Antonio, the brother. Dia memang jahat sejak azali.

And they went on describing the sequence of events from The Tempest. [“Ish susah betul ah nak faham.” “Jap jap, biar aku ulang balik cerita dia…”]

[Mind flyyyyyying over to the Lit classes, pangs of remembrance stabbing at my heart. HAHAHAA]. I chuckled and asked them, “Shakespeare?”

The girl next to me swiveled around: Ha aaaaahhh… BENL ke?

Me: Tak, dulu pernah belajar Literature. Which is that: A Midsummer Night’s Dream? [Wild guess, because I wasn’t sure which one had Antonio, Ariel and Prospero in it.]

Her: The Tempest…[groans]

Me: Ahh The Tempest*. Miranda.

Her: Tu lah. Susah nak fahaaamm! Chaucer is actually better, sebab bila tak faham, terus tak faham semua. But with Shakespeare it’s like you understand at some places, and then kat tempat lain, langsung tak faham!”

Moments like that. [Abusing Shakespeare, comparing works, trying to get to the meaning behind words…]. Pangs of remembrance.

*[Actually, I’d “studied” The Tempest in IIC. Junior 3 or 4, I think. This was after finishing with The Merchant of Venice. But back then we didn’t study the original texts of course.

It was only during Form 5 that I got acquainted with Shakespeare’s wherefores and “Is this a dagger which I see before me?” and the incomprehensible-at-times language.]

All five things/places have made my life richer, lent me new ways of looking at people and the world, and forced me into appreciating my faith and religion more.

Ya Fattāh, I pray You lend those five things back to me someday.

You’ll never miss the water until the well dries up.

How not to prepare for (your first) open-book test

A few weeks ago I had an open-book test for Introduction to History and Civilisation [HIST 1000].

The test starts at 2:00 pm.

10:40, HS Cafe 3 hours 20 minutes to go

After finishing with PSYC 1000 and Revelation as a Source of Knowledge classes, I go to the cafe with intentions of "studying for the History Test [which will take place at 2pm that afternoon]".

#1: What to do before you begin studying:

I switch my on laptop, go online at Meebo [visible!]. Riffle through my notes, extract the History ones. Arrange them chronologically.

I read a bit. Wonder what it'd feel like to be in an open book test. Wonder how exactly one should study for an open book test. Flip through the course reader, wonder some more, and finally...

#2: What to do if you suddenly realise that you actually don't know how to study:

...search "how to prepare for an open book test" on Google. I find some good answers (I think), mostly advice on marking/highlighting/noting important keywords in the text [you have no idea just HOW MANY keywords there are. Considering history is, "in its broadest sense, everything that ever happened" on earth, practically every other word in the book/my notes is a keyword.

For your information, by the way: the HIST 1000 Course Reader is the worst possible book that can be used as a reference in any open book test [let's just call it OBT for short]. It has no page numbers, tiny type (even tinier text than the ones you normally see in newspapers), the most eclectic collection of articles ever compiled, no particular system of categorisation, and generally too much information. This is especially hazardous for situations like OBTs.

#3: The basic principles of distracting yourself from studying:

10:55, HS Cafe 3 hours 5 minutes to go

I begin a) writing draft of this post*. [What test?]

Laptop still open, but with the notes resting on its keyboard. Go through one mind map:

Evolution & Development of History as a Discipline I.

b) I think of** walking back to my room, fast, get the HIST 1000 Course Outline ("kalau ikut Course Outline, masuk sampai No. 9," said one classmate). And those narrow fluorescent stickers that I'd stashed somewhere in that box under my bed [so I can "mark important keywords using Post-It notes" or whatever in my textbook, as advised by those study-help sites].

*open your Internet Browser. It's a very effective distracting tool.
**think of just about anything that is not the notes in front of you.

11:01, HS Cafe 2 hours 59 minutes to go

I am definitely going back to my room to get that course outline.

11:15 2 hours 45 minutes to go Already at my room

11:45 2 hours 15 minutes to go Leave room, with afore-mentioned course outline and translucent-fluorescent stickers. I think my eyes ran through a few branches of the Evolution & Development of History as a Discipline I mind map while walking towards the library. I think.

#4: Find a suitable place for studying. [I decided on the library]:

12:00 Library 2 hours to go

Put books in pigeonhole in bag room. I'm ready for one to one-and-a-half-hours of crash note-reviewing (not to mention trying to make sense of the textbook).

On the way to the staircase, the References section at my left suddenly came into my field of vision (I have peripheral vision, can't help it), and all at once I think, "Dictionaries!" [Remember the basic principles of distracting yourself? Well, most of the time it takes no effort at all. The distractions just come to you.]

Slow down and head for the References section (instead of Level 3 where I had intended to "study" for the test, which starts in less than two hours).

Aim: find the definition(s) of secularism.

Walk between shelves, eyes searching randomly for the Oxford English Dictionary. Before finding that volume, I find and pick out two other books first: A Concise Dictionary of Theology and New Dictionary of the History of Ideas.

Photocopy relevant pages.

#5: Why being hungry is not good for studying (or plans to study):

12:30 Library 1 hour 30 minutes to go

Finish with the definitions. Suddenly I feel terribly hungry so I head to HS Cafe (again).

12:45 HS Cafe 1 hour 15 minutes to go

Buy two chocolate éclairs, one slice pepperoni pizza (it had more onion slices than pepperoni) from bakery. Go down to drinks stall for orange juice. A girl in black hijab picks out a packet of cubed sengkuang from the cooler, looks at it tentatively and asks the man at the cashier, "what fruit?"

He says, "It's...uhhh..." Looks at me inquiringly.

Me, "Sengkuang eh? Uhh..."

"Ha ah sengkuang. Panggil apa ah."

Him to the girl, "In Malay it's called sengkuang. Very nice."

The girl starts sniffing at the fruit under her face veil. The cashier, "you can smell it."

I pay for my drink and leave. Not sure if the girl bought the sengkuang or not, but I kept on looking for the translation of sengkuang as I walk to one of the tables.

(Finally) start reviewing notes while eating éclair. And orange juice.

Look at éclair in hand, inspect the custard filling, take a bite. Read The Evolution and Development of History as a Discipline I, II from the first branch to the next, clockwise. Nibble a bit more into the pastry, trying hard to lose myself in the notes, but failing miserably because:

Have you any idea just how hard it is to concentrate on what Herodotus said when part of yourself is scrambling around in the brain looking for the English equivalent of sengkuang*?

*[I'd just Googled it. Sengkuang = sweet turnip/Chinese turnip/yam bean. Hmm no wonder I didn't find it anywhere in my head. It simply wasn't there.

After this if anyone else sniffs at the packets of sengkuang at that shop, I'll know what to tell them. But even then, would they actually know what sweet turnip is? Do they eat sengkuang in the Middle East? Or in the Balkans?]

13:30 HS Lecture Room 2 30 minutes to go

I arrive at the lecture room. Already, two other girls have arrived.

I flip through the notes a bit more, begin identifying where some points are located in the course reader.

14:10 HS Lecture Room 2 The moment

Dr. Arshad [Assoc. Prof. Dr. Arshad Islam, to give his full name] comes in a bit late (he'd never done this before), and displays the questions to us (via Powerpoint slide, no less):

Discuss the meaning of "history is a storehouse of knowledge"

or

Discuss the meaning of "history is an unending dialogue between the present and the past".

Choose either one, answer, and then he'll give us whatever marks he likes out of 10 after evaluating our answers. [10 marks out of 100 for this course! Make dua for me, please.]

He takes down our attendance (he never fails to do this at the beginning of each class), retrieves his thumb drive from the computer, tells us that we have until the end of the class to answer the questions, and that someone will come in later to collect our papers, then leaves the class.

#6: How to answer the test:

I ponder a bit on both questions, quickly outlined answers for each in my mind.

I choose the first question and begin answering.

* * *

Doakan dia dapat markah yang gempak.

What I've discovered:

1) I am still vague about the concept of "studying".

2) My attention span is terrible.

3) It is not a good idea to try to understand the HIST 1000 course reader a few hours before any test.

4) Hunger is a powerful motivator (or distractor).

5) Linear notes are tiring to take, hard to read, difficult to retain. Mind maps, on the other hand, rock.

6) My mind maps rock even more (primarily because it's written out entirely in black ink).

7) Doodling rocks the most (OK this is a bit out of topic).

8) Numbers bore (this is typed out out of spite for tiresome chemical engineers hahahaaa).

9) I should spend some time re-creating my mind maps. Neater, more pictures or drawings, perhaps a little bit of colour here and there.

10) The Last Minute and The Very Moment of a Test are the only times that have seen me looking at words (questions) in full concentration.