Malay Language
One of the things I regret not paying much attention to is the learning and speaking of Malay at home.When we were living with my in-laws, it was easier as they spoke Malay to Ihsan but on our own, I spoke mainly English to my children that has left them handicapped in their own language.
For the past year, I have consciously been trying to speak more Malay with them and have been trying to be consistent with my Malay lessons even if it's just reading the textbook and doing workbook exercises for school.
My current worry is in their 'Karangan', which is a challenge for them; sentence structure and all,not even talking about story flow and synthesis here. My first reaction is to panic and grab as many books as I can, but from experience I know that is not going to help and as near as 1.5 years to PSLE Ihsan is, I have to start from scratch.
I did however grab some books, starting with a Malay-English dictionary; we now have the Dewan Bahasa and Pustaka English-Malay and Oxford English-Malay, Malay-English. After purchasing the former in KL, I realised my children are going to need to refer more Malay words to English and ended up buying the latter from Popular. Aisyh...now my $40 dictionary is being used less than the $10 one.
On a trip up North to visit my in-laws recently, I got some gems to help me teach Malay. A tatabahasa book, a peribahasa book and a model karangan book. I also got some storybooks for the children. They were resistant at first but Sofiyya ended up buying two English/Malay books of 5 princesses and Umayr bought a comic book about soccer. Ihsan did not want any but Ummi is going to impose a compulsory reading session for Malay : )
Those of you interested we bought them at 'Badan' on level 3 of Angsana Plaza.
Insyaallah, with persistence and consistency, I hope I will not fail my children in learning their mother tongue. Hubby also offered to purchase the Malay daily for them to read.
So, for those of you out there; start early. While language can always be learned later, the window for proficiency for most is early in life. As for us, we now have to continue making the language a part of our life while learning the technical aspects of it through formal lessons, just like learning a foreign language.
For the past year, I have consciously been trying to speak more Malay with them and have been trying to be consistent with my Malay lessons even if it's just reading the textbook and doing workbook exercises for school.
My current worry is in their 'Karangan', which is a challenge for them; sentence structure and all,not even talking about story flow and synthesis here. My first reaction is to panic and grab as many books as I can, but from experience I know that is not going to help and as near as 1.5 years to PSLE Ihsan is, I have to start from scratch.
I did however grab some books, starting with a Malay-English dictionary; we now have the Dewan Bahasa and Pustaka English-Malay and Oxford English-Malay, Malay-English. After purchasing the former in KL, I realised my children are going to need to refer more Malay words to English and ended up buying the latter from Popular. Aisyh...now my $40 dictionary is being used less than the $10 one.
On a trip up North to visit my in-laws recently, I got some gems to help me teach Malay. A tatabahasa book, a peribahasa book and a model karangan book. I also got some storybooks for the children. They were resistant at first but Sofiyya ended up buying two English/Malay books of 5 princesses and Umayr bought a comic book about soccer. Ihsan did not want any but Ummi is going to impose a compulsory reading session for Malay : )
Those of you interested we bought them at 'Badan' on level 3 of Angsana Plaza.
Insyaallah, with persistence and consistency, I hope I will not fail my children in learning their mother tongue. Hubby also offered to purchase the Malay daily for them to read.
So, for those of you out there; start early. While language can always be learned later, the window for proficiency for most is early in life. As for us, we now have to continue making the language a part of our life while learning the technical aspects of it through formal lessons, just like learning a foreign language.
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