1) Malaysian govt can't do that cos there's no accountability and transparency. All the tax money masuk someone's pocket rather than going to the country and the people. Or we waste it on stupid schemes like making the world's biggest roti canai or making someone a space tourist.

2) Currency has nothing to do with taxes. To cut a long story short, a country's currency is just like any other good. It's price/value is subject to the market forces of supply a demand. If more people want to buy RM (eg more foreign investors) then the value of the currency will rise and vice versa. There are other factors of course, but that's the general idea.

If you can, do a course on macroeconomics and it will all become clear.

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Added on March 20, 2008, 8:54 pmDepends on which uni. Uni of Auckland has an online application system. For Otago, you just need to send the registration form with the necessary accompanying documents in.

This post has been edited by wornbook: Mar 20 2008, 08:54 PM

The Hurricanes are a Wellington-based rugby team. Since you're going to Palmy, they'll be your local Super 14 team.

As for moisturiser, you can buy it here lah. You're already going to have lots of stuff you need to bring over without adding something else.

It's Good Friday dear - that means it's a public holiday.

Your skin WILL be dry. Moisturiser is a must, especially for people like us whose skins are accustomed to hot and humid Malaysia.

Vic is in Wellington.

Easter is on Sunday, Haya. I sincerely hope that was a blooper otherwise...

And no, some people don't need to go to East Malaysia to know what Easter is. We Westies aren't all that dumb!

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Added on March 21, 2008, 5:14 pmIf you're going to play this game, let me ask - how many Malaysians know anything about New Zealand? Many people I know think NZ is part of Australia. Some others have no clue that the seasons are reversed in the Southern Hemisphere!

Btw on the global scale of things (and contrary to what Mahathir tried to have us believe), Malaysia is a pretty insignificant country. NZ is not.

To the first question - yes actually.

To the second - I didn't even understand what you said. How about some comprehensible English? You're in NZ after all.

Islam is a almost non-existent in NZ. I Kiwi could live his life without knowing a single Muslim.

Christianity and other religions are not insignificant in Malaysia. You'd be hard pressed to have never met/gone to school with a Christian or other non-Muslim in your life (and if you did, it's a total failure of our system to segregate our students like that). It's a common courtesy to know at least some of the most basic facts of your friends/classmates/neighbour's religion.

This is what happens when the authorities in a country treat other religions like anathema.

This post has been edited by wornbook: Mar 21 2008, 05:17 PM

Fantegero, I'm sorry if I was a bit harsh. I'm glad that you're willing to learn and I hope you'll take this chance you have in NZ to broaden you mind. Go out of your comfort zone and you'll be richly rewarded.

I have also experienced the school systems in both Malaysia and NZ. While we are superior in maths and science, we fall far behind in arts and social sciences. The problem with our system (whatever the subject) is that it teaches us to learn by rote and to regurgitate for exams. It doesn't encourage independent thought and questioning among the students.

I once tried to give my own opinion in BM literature analysis and got completely shot down by the teacher. Another time, I tried to question our history textbooks and the 'official' interpretation of events. At least the teacher was nice about it but it was made very clear that anything but the 'official' answer will get no marks in exams. I see these questions about how to score for BM, sejarah, whatever in this forum? The answer is really simple. Just get the textbook/reference book and memorise.

In science and maths, that's not so bad. At the basic school level, there's less room for independent thought, analysis and application. The best way to score in maths is to practice and do exercise after exercise - a good thing IMO cos the basics are really mastered. It is only at the higher levels that your own input become crucial. But for arts and social sciences, memorisation and 'accepted' answers are not the way to go. So we fall far behind. But I suppose it "doesn't matter" since only the dumb kids go the arts stream.

I did law and economics at uni (with some psychology and philosophy papers thrown in). Especially for law and philosophy - guess what my problem was? I had real difficulty scoring in exams and assignments cos my mind was constrained - a general inability to think outside the box. Ask me to tell you the law is, and I'd get it perfect. Ask me to apply it to a situation and I could do it with some adjustment. Ask me to give you a novel solution or to critique another person's analysis (necessary for an A) and I fell apart. It took me quite a while to learn to do something that came naturally to many Kiwis.

There's nothing wrong with making mistakes... that's how we learn. The key is to recognise it and move on. But people who are afraid to make mistakes will never progress. This is one of the greatest weakness of Asians, the fear of making mistakes and looking stupid/losing face.

"I am not discouraged , because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward" - Thomas Edison

As for their confidence, that was cultivated at school right from primary school level. They are encouraged to speak out and to explore, rather than being shot down and called kurang ajar. Natural curiosity is encouraged rather than suppressed. I see it in my young cousins now and compare it to what we have.

I'm not saying everything about our system is bad in comparison. In general, our syllabus are excellent (as you said). I just think it has been abused and twisted into what it is now. The focus is on As, As, and more As. Who cares if you know what the capital of Germany is or what is going on in Tibet now? How many students even read the newspapers? Gossip and sports pages don't count. How many read non-school books? As long as you get 21 As, nothing else matters. Don't even get me started on the grade inflation syndrome...

We have created a generation of students who know nothing beyond their textbooks, tuition, exam techniques and whatever movies/pop stars that happen to interest them. In short, we created a shallow generation.

Btw I won't say the quality of teachers in Malaysia is higher. Maybe you went to one of the better schools and never had English teachers who couldn't speak English, PE teachers who didn't know the difference between netball and basketball or simply teachers who never bothered to show up for class did you? I taught myself physics and and Form 4 biology. If you count that as learning experience, it did a world of good for me since it taught me to be independent. Then again, I won't take anything away from certain excellent teachers I had in Malaysia. I have utmost respect for them.

To summarise, my problem with the Malaysian system is:
1) next to no emphasis on arts and social sciences;
2) suppressing natural curiosity and independent thought; and
3) exams, exams and exams and grade inflation.
Note that I didn't complain about the syllabus.

This post has been edited by wornbook: Mar 23 2008, 10:46 AM

There is no direct flight to Palmerston North. Coming from Malaysia, EdLiNa will have to transit in either Auckland or Christchurch (plus Singapore). It makes more sense to fly direct from KL to Auckland, and then transit to Palmy. Instead of going KL-S'pore-Christchurch-Palmy, especially since Palmy is in the North Island and Chch is in the South.

But of course, a lot depends on ticket/airline prices.

2) Having things like KBKK doesn't mean anything when it's not being properly implemented. Berfikir secara kritis dan kreatif, my foot! It's just a stupid policy to point to to 'prove' that things are ok. Just like how the govt loves to point to the non-independent ACA to 'prove' that they're doing something about corruption. It means NOTHING!

3) Exams are not intrinsically bad. The problem is that in Malaysia, exams are the be-all and end-all of everything. Let's not even talk about school. Look at all the middle-class kids being forced to take piano lessons and pass Grade 8. How many of them are real musicians? How many of them love music? Most just do it to get their Grade 8 cert and that's it. Never have to touch the piano again in their lives. Their parents are happy cos they can brag about how their kids have Grade 8. How was that Grade 8 achieved? Just practice the exam pieces until they're perfected. That's not education. That's just perfecting exam techniques.

And like I said earlier, what does 21 A's actually prove? We need to recognise that there's more to education than scoring A's in exams.

This post has been edited by wornbook: Mar 23 2008, 06:50 PM

2) I'm not saying ALL Kiwis are creative and can think critically or that they're all superior to Malaysian students. One of my main gripes with the NZ system is how easy it is to enter university... don't even get me started on NCEA. What I'm saying is that they're far more likely to express their opinions. We Malaysians sit meekly in class and let people tell us the 'right' answer. That's cos if we were inclined to strike out independently, it was struck down at an early age. If we were not so inclined, no training or encouragement was ever provided. The fact is that our school system produces robots - excellent at memorising and regurgitating 'correct' answers. Ask some student why certain nilai moral can be extracted from an SPM BM novel and they'll probably tell you "Cos the reference book says so".

The Kiwis are also more aware of current affairs and the world around them. Maybe not what is occurring in small countries like Malaysia, but at least the major global issues - eg the US Presidential Elections, the possible coming economic crisis, the Tibet/China matter. They may not know the details but at least they have an idea of what's going on. Though I'll readily admit that they have quite a large blindspot when it comes to non-Western matters in general. At least they generally all know what's going on in their own country. I have Malaysian friends who ask me "Who's Khairy?"

3) But many kids want Grade 8 because of the prestige they perceive it gives them (thanks to parental and societal influence). When I was in Malaysia, I thought Grade 8 was really amazing... if you had it you must be a great musician. As for a Diploma, ATCL or Performance Cert etc you must really be a musical genius.

It took me less than 6 months of exposure to the ang mo way of teaching, learning and playing music to change my mind radically. I was already lucky to have a teacher in Malaysia who encouraged me to explore other areas of music and parents who didn't really care about whether I reached Grade whatever. But NZ was an eye-opener.

Btw kids who choose guitar and drum lessons tend to be a different group. Those are doing it tend to do so cos they're interested and enjoy it. It's entirely different from the piano (sometimes violin, flute and organ too) paper chase where parents start their kids on music lessons at age 5 and pressure teachers to let them skip grades, all with the aim of finishing Grade 8 as young as possible. Imagine it - the achievement of finishing Grade 8 with Distinction at only 13! Must be very good right?

As for getting A's - has it occurred to you that it is far too easy to get A's these days? Of course the top students will always get A's. But when people who consistently score 50-60% in school/trial exams suddenly end up with A's at the real thing, something is wrong.
Still, let's not go down that track for now. From what I understand, it's happening all around the world anyway.

Btw Emperor Meng, if you and your friends get good results and enjoy other broad-ranging activities, good on you. For me, I just find it disappointing when my straight A friends (who no doubt have their own interests eg anime, sports, computer games) look at me blankly when I mention the Berlin Wall. And then proceed to say I store up lots of "useless knowledge".

Sorry for the lengthy post. Guess I got a bit carried away.

This post has been edited by wornbook: Mar 23 2008, 07:26 PM

1) Whoa! You're a product of NCEA? I didn't realise you're that young. There I was thinking Haya is a couple of years older than me.

I did Bursary, the second last batch to do so. I haven't experienced A'levels so it's no point of comparison for me. My biggest problems with NCEA (my brother was in the first batch) is that it doesn't distinguish the very good from there merely good and average. It recognises the extremely good through the Scholarship papers and Excellance grades (extremely difficult to get) but the Merit grade category is far too wide. The lack of percentage grades means that it's difficult to distinguish who is the best among the top students - a real problem when you consider the huge monetary awards given to the best.

It's also ridiculous that you can get all the Excellence questions and Merit questions right (or at least enough to get those grades) but get an overall Not Achieve because you messed up on one Achieve question too many. It's also far to easy to get an Achieve. Just finish the Achieve questions (less than 50% of the paper) and leave the other questions blank and you'll pass. Sorry, I mean Achieve.

Also, lately the matter of 'cheating' has been raised - how schools selectively remark papers to raise results and all that. Some teachers were telling me that their recommendation for guidelines on the remarking/resitting of papers has yet to be taken on board.

The other issue is that it doesn't show "failures". If you fail a paper (Not Achieve), it won't show in your final results. The logic - employers and unis don't need to know what was Not Achieved, all they need to know is what was Achieved. No matter if 70% was Not Achieve.

2) Agreed that staying in is a problem for some people. Poeple who shouldn't be in in the first place. Passing courses and graduating with a degree is actually ridiculously easy. It only take a certain amount of work - attending lectures, tutorials and doing a little revision. Admittedly, getting good grades isn't but then it's not easy anywhere. I'll grant that it does depend on the course, there's a certain truth in the fact that Arts and Commerce degrees tend to be easier, at least to pass.

As for the merits and disadvantages, I'll only say one thing - is it truly a good use of resources to subsidise so many students who'll never graduate in the first place? It's costing the govt millions to pay for kids who don't know what to do with their lives, sign up for a random course, have a good time and flunk out.

3) Agreed. Then again, having newspapers is one thing. Actually reading them is another.

I guess it depends. It's good to adapt and assimilate to a certain extent. But I draw a line at those who become white-washed and look down on their fellow Malaysians/Asians. You do not need to become pseudo white to settle down and become a successful and contributing member of the community.

Chinese have been in NZ for more than a century. Most maintain culture and their Chinese identity. That doesn't make them any less Kiwi (though I suppose to certain sections of society, anybody not Maori and Pakeha should "go home").

It's funny how those whose families have been here for generations, those born here or those who came here very young (pre-school) are the most comfortable with who they are and their Asian roots. It's the later and older migrants who seem to feel they have to behave 'white' to fit in and look cool. Of course, this doesn't not include the ones who stick to their own communities and refuse to learn more than a few words of English.

Unfortunately I didn't catch the show. What was interesting about it?

You have a point about assimilation and defending the new identity.
I should "The Malay Dilemma" sometime. Never managed to get past the first few pages.

However in some cases, it's merely childish behaviour trying to fit in and look cool. Case in point, my cousins. They don't seem to realise you can have Kiwis friends, be successful and well-adjusted without having to speak with a stupid fake accent and dissing everything Asian as backward and stupid. It's nothing to do with protecting the new identity. All this time of projecting the cool, white image and their Kiwi friends are poking fun at them behind their backs for pretending to be something they're not.

What I find most interesting is that the Kiwi Asians, the once who've been here the longest and are the most Kiwi, are just in touch with their Asianess as people in Asia. Sure they might not speak Chinese (most are Chinese) but they're proud of who they are. Not in the narrow-minded Azn Power type but in being self-assured and comfortable in their own skin. They just don't see a need to be whiter than white.

Ok don't flame me here... this is just my take on it.

The problem here is that it's next to impossible to leave Islam in many countries. If you were Buddhist but no longer subscribe to the beliefs, you can leave Buddhism. If you were Christian and decided it's not for you, you can choose to turn your back on it. So the problem of 'Buddhists' and 'Christians' who do things completely against their religions is not so common, simple because those who don't like it just leave and are no longer associated with it. Same for other religions. I know there are exceptions and cultural 'Buddhists' and 'Christians' (those who profess to be so thanks to family etc without actually practicing it) but it's not so much of an issue.

Whereas with Muslims, those who don't believe can't just leave. So they're forced to comply and act Islamic while in Saudi etc but the first chance they get, they're off doing whatever they want. So they're not Muslims at heart, but in name only (cos they have no choice about it).

Sorry, I didn't realise there was already a thread on this in RWI. You're right, this is not the place to discuss this.

Back to studying in NZ.

In Kiwi-speak, they're 'jandals' aye?.

Jandals are actually the Japanese slippers type of sandals. You know, short for Japanese sandals.

Ya, shoes are cheaper in Malaysia. Unless you're buying chiplak brand (price comparable to Power or cheaper) or buying on a really good discount. I got my Addidas running shoes for $50 last year.

There's seafood and vegetarian pizzas.

That probably applies to the whole of NZ. Doesn't leave much for people who simply don't enjoy clubbing.

Be warned that some Kiwis have different ideas about halal from you guys. The hall of residence I stayed in claimed its food was halal and genuinely thought it was halal - all meat came from halal suppliers. The catch is, they also served pork. So if you have a problem about utensils etc...

My Malay friends back then were philosophical about it. It's either starve or eat so it was "pingan mangkuk never mind lah".

Other than issues with shared utensils, NZ unis/colleges really pretty good about catering to most dietary needs. Vegetarians get veggie food, people with allergies to gluten get gluten free food, there are signs in place warning about nuts, seafood etc for people who are allergic, options for Hindus who don't eat beef and pork, and halal meat for Muslims.

You'll never get the same consideration in Malaysia.

Also, no consideration for people of other religions in Malaysia. We take care to ensure no pork is served, but what about beef? Hindu's don't eat beef. What about vegetarians? They might as well not exist. A shame since we're a multi-racial, multi-religious society.

Excuse my ignorance but what's samak and rukhsah?

Ya when overseas you do what you can. Have you thought about the difficulties when it comes to puasa? Ramadan is in summer/late autumn now, ie very long daylight hours (not so bad in NZ compared to some places). And if you're in a hall or residence/hostel, you can't get them to serve you breakfast before sunrise and dinner after sunset. Actually dinner might be possible since many places do late dinners for those who have classes/sports. But breakfast is an issue.

My friends - they just did 12 hours puasa. 7am-7pm or something like that. To them, the important thing is between themselves and God, their hearts are sincere... no need to worry about what others think. Some other I know did the full sunrise to sunset thing... but they were flatting and handled their own meals.

Each to his own I guess.

This post has been edited by wornbook: Mar 31 2008, 05:29 PM

Longer by a few hours cos of the longer daylight hours. But this year should be easier since Ramadan is earlier... September/October? The worst period was December/January...

Vegetarianism is not common here either. It's just that Western societies tend to make all sorts of accommodations for minorities.

In Malaysia, asking for vege only when you're out eating with friends doesn't always work. Unless you go to a vege restaurant. Too often, the veges are mixed with meat or cooked with animal oils. I know it isn't a perfect world... these problems exist in NZ as well. Bear in mind that my main reference was to schools/unis/colleges/hostels - probably hospitals and the like too - not to general society.

My reference to Hindus was mainly cos schools don't seem to bother. They ban pork from schools... fair enough... but don't care if school canteens serve beef. It would be nice to see similar consideration/acknowledgments for the minority here.
Btw a lot of Hindus in NZ don't eat pork as well.

Shrug, I'm not about to tell Muslims how to practice their religion. Was just giving examples of how some of my friends do it. Like I said, each to its own. I just find observing differing practices interesting.

Btw, for the sake of discussion - what would you do if you're in Greenland or something during summer, where the sun doesn't set for months? Assume that Ramadan coincides with that period? After all, the date moves around so it's not like it never happens.


Question is, why do we have to go overseas for that? Why can't we have interfaith discussions in Malaysia as well?

Shouldn't be surprising. Pakistan was once part of India.