Journal Entry – B.Ed TESOL no.1
Date : 23rd March 2005
I would like to begin my journal entry with something that I used to hear from my beloved mother, Faridah:
“The journey of a thousand miles has to start with the first step”.
And this is the first part of my journey of pursuing new knowledge in Auckland, the City of Sails. Thanks to Lord The Almighty, by His Grace and Mercy, I managed to go through a month of living in an alien place without my family successfully and I must say that I enjoyed every part and parcel of it.
Followed are descriptions of 5 aspects of life that I encountered through 30 days of living in Auckland. The aspects are categorized as linguistic, academic, social, cultural, and affective.
First of all is the linguistic aspect, in other words, language. As a new comer, I did faced some difficulties in understanding words uttered by New Zealanders for the first few weeks. The way they pronounced certain words was quite different from the Queen’s English, the one that I learned in my hometown. From my observation, I discovered that many of them tend to speak without opening their mouth widely. It looked as if they were mumbling those words inside their mouth. Hence, in order to understand messages they tried to convey to me, I had to pay full concentration not only to their facial expressions but also their lips’ movements. This technique was also applied in understanding first few lectures and tutorials in campus.
The second aspect is academic. For this semester, I have to cover three courses which are Advanced Academic Writing (ESOL 201A), Educational Psychology (EDUC 223) and Curriculum Assessment and Evaluation (EDUC 225). Out of the three courses, I noticed that ESOL 201A is more relaxing . It is a course where everybody let their hair down and had some fun. The lecturers involved not only expert in the language field but also in the classroom management. They managed to control their class successfully with their motherly way of delivering knowledge to their learners, consequently, made everybody enjoyed the course very much. Next, the EDUC 223; in terms of content, it is more like a continuation episode of “Human Development” and “Learning and The Learner”, both courses that I studied while completing my first year of degree in Malaysia. Thanks God! My latent knowledge of the subject helped a lot in enabling myself to understand it. Last but no least is the EDUC 225, the toughest course among the previous three courses. It is a hard core course, packed with loads of must-have information. The lectures and tutors of this course wore serious faces almost all of the time. I could feel the tense was up on the air as everybody busily tried their best not to miss any single words uttered by the respective lecturer. The language used in this course really challenged oneself to heighten their linguistic ceiling.
The third aspect is social. I realized that guys and girl are freely talking and poking each other here. In contrast, back in Malaysia, I am bound to certain norms of society. As a girl or a lady, I must well-behaved myself; being polite and genteel. I must restrict myself from being over socialized with people of the opposite sex. I can set conversation with guys but just towards a certain extent; no touches such as patting and poking should take place. Speaking about socialization; in term of making new friends with society, thanks to Lord of all The Worlds, I managed to tie new bonds of friendship with other international students at University of Auckland and also at my residential area, The Railway Campus. Majority of them are Americans and Asians. They were all out-going people or in other words they are the extroverts. I love to befriend them.
Fourth, is the cultural aspect. Interestingly, I came across a new culture of New Zealand’s residents; they keen to hold morning tea sessions to their guest or new comers. During such session, it was obviously seen that there were smiles on everybody’s faces and some of them also had dimples dancing on their cheeks. This warm sensation helped me a lot in filling the emptiness of love in my heart. Only God knows how much I longed for my beloved ones in my hometown. Next, when it came to climate, it was a bit strange for me as a newcomer to this City of Sails; though the sun shined blazingly in the sky, but the blowing wind of Auckland, silently blanketed myself with coldness. In other words it managed to make me felt chilled. Only than I knew that, this country had dried but cold air circling around the place. Besides, I discovered that Auckland’s sun ray was a dangerous one. Espousing oneself outdoor without perfect moisturizer and sunscreen protection may risk her to suffer sunburns, bad rashes, and the worst of all , skin cancer. Hence, just a few days after arrival, I darted into University Of Auckland’s pharmacy to get a sunblock with an assured SPF-grade for better skin protection.
Finally, the last aspect of the five is affective. Truly, just after I reached Auckland International Airport, I broke into tears. I still could not believe my eyes that after twelve hours of journey via Malaysia Airline; I arrived safely at a new destination of learning where another chapter is going to be tinted in my diary of life. I spotted people smiled broadly and waved excitedly to their loved ones and also foreigners. Indirectly, such spirit of friendliness of the New Zealanders warmed the hearts of those who saw it. I got homesick on the 21st of February, the fourth day of my arrival in Auckland. The number
21 meant a lot to me this year as I turned up 21 on that day itself. The moment that I had been waiting for such a long time, significant pairs; being 21 on the 21st of February. Celebrating it alone in an alien place was something that I would not forget for the rest of my life. Tears kept running through my cheeks as I recalled it back. I prayed to God, the Supporter of the one who need support, to showers me with chains of strength and patience. May He bless my humble effort of seeking new knowledge in a new land named New Zealand today and the days to come.
The End.
I would like to begin my journal entry with something that I used to hear from my beloved mother, Faridah:
“The journey of a thousand miles has to start with the first step”.
And this is the first part of my journey of pursuing new knowledge in Auckland, the City of Sails. Thanks to Lord The Almighty, by His Grace and Mercy, I managed to go through a month of living in an alien place without my family successfully and I must say that I enjoyed every part and parcel of it.
Followed are descriptions of 5 aspects of life that I encountered through 30 days of living in Auckland. The aspects are categorized as linguistic, academic, social, cultural, and affective.
First of all is the linguistic aspect, in other words, language. As a new comer, I did faced some difficulties in understanding words uttered by New Zealanders for the first few weeks. The way they pronounced certain words was quite different from the Queen’s English, the one that I learned in my hometown. From my observation, I discovered that many of them tend to speak without opening their mouth widely. It looked as if they were mumbling those words inside their mouth. Hence, in order to understand messages they tried to convey to me, I had to pay full concentration not only to their facial expressions but also their lips’ movements. This technique was also applied in understanding first few lectures and tutorials in campus.
The second aspect is academic. For this semester, I have to cover three courses which are Advanced Academic Writing (ESOL 201A), Educational Psychology (EDUC 223) and Curriculum Assessment and Evaluation (EDUC 225). Out of the three courses, I noticed that ESOL 201A is more relaxing . It is a course where everybody let their hair down and had some fun. The lecturers involved not only expert in the language field but also in the classroom management. They managed to control their class successfully with their motherly way of delivering knowledge to their learners, consequently, made everybody enjoyed the course very much. Next, the EDUC 223; in terms of content, it is more like a continuation episode of “Human Development” and “Learning and The Learner”, both courses that I studied while completing my first year of degree in Malaysia. Thanks God! My latent knowledge of the subject helped a lot in enabling myself to understand it. Last but no least is the EDUC 225, the toughest course among the previous three courses. It is a hard core course, packed with loads of must-have information. The lectures and tutors of this course wore serious faces almost all of the time. I could feel the tense was up on the air as everybody busily tried their best not to miss any single words uttered by the respective lecturer. The language used in this course really challenged oneself to heighten their linguistic ceiling.
The third aspect is social. I realized that guys and girl are freely talking and poking each other here. In contrast, back in Malaysia, I am bound to certain norms of society. As a girl or a lady, I must well-behaved myself; being polite and genteel. I must restrict myself from being over socialized with people of the opposite sex. I can set conversation with guys but just towards a certain extent; no touches such as patting and poking should take place. Speaking about socialization; in term of making new friends with society, thanks to Lord of all The Worlds, I managed to tie new bonds of friendship with other international students at University of Auckland and also at my residential area, The Railway Campus. Majority of them are Americans and Asians. They were all out-going people or in other words they are the extroverts. I love to befriend them.
Fourth, is the cultural aspect. Interestingly, I came across a new culture of New Zealand’s residents; they keen to hold morning tea sessions to their guest or new comers. During such session, it was obviously seen that there were smiles on everybody’s faces and some of them also had dimples dancing on their cheeks. This warm sensation helped me a lot in filling the emptiness of love in my heart. Only God knows how much I longed for my beloved ones in my hometown. Next, when it came to climate, it was a bit strange for me as a newcomer to this City of Sails; though the sun shined blazingly in the sky, but the blowing wind of Auckland, silently blanketed myself with coldness. In other words it managed to make me felt chilled. Only than I knew that, this country had dried but cold air circling around the place. Besides, I discovered that Auckland’s sun ray was a dangerous one. Espousing oneself outdoor without perfect moisturizer and sunscreen protection may risk her to suffer sunburns, bad rashes, and the worst of all , skin cancer. Hence, just a few days after arrival, I darted into University Of Auckland’s pharmacy to get a sunblock with an assured SPF-grade for better skin protection.
Finally, the last aspect of the five is affective. Truly, just after I reached Auckland International Airport, I broke into tears. I still could not believe my eyes that after twelve hours of journey via Malaysia Airline; I arrived safely at a new destination of learning where another chapter is going to be tinted in my diary of life. I spotted people smiled broadly and waved excitedly to their loved ones and also foreigners. Indirectly, such spirit of friendliness of the New Zealanders warmed the hearts of those who saw it. I got homesick on the 21st of February, the fourth day of my arrival in Auckland. The number
21 meant a lot to me this year as I turned up 21 on that day itself. The moment that I had been waiting for such a long time, significant pairs; being 21 on the 21st of February. Celebrating it alone in an alien place was something that I would not forget for the rest of my life. Tears kept running through my cheeks as I recalled it back. I prayed to God, the Supporter of the one who need support, to showers me with chains of strength and patience. May He bless my humble effort of seeking new knowledge in a new land named New Zealand today and the days to come.
The End.
posted by Bint Haji Yusof @ Bint ul Islam @ 6/09/2005 02:26:00 AM
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