How the kids adjusted to life in Malaysia

Many people ask me about how my kids are adjusting to life in Malaysia. My answer is "surprisingly well".

A few weeks into school life and they seem pretty adjusted. My older two are in primary school, year 5 and year 1. They tell me how much they love the school. On the second day, I took them to school and asked the children there where my kids should go to. One of the girls took Fajar's hand and just led her off. Then, I went to find Malik's class and another little girl (smaller than Malik) took his hand and even carried his bag for him. Emmmm....

The only thing they moan about is having to wake up at 5.45 to get ready for school but they are now used to it. They get up, have a wash, change into their school uniform, have breakfast and walk down to the guard house to be picked up by the school bus. In the afternoon, they walk up from the guard house and although they complained about it in the beginning but now, they just get on with it and have become fitter and healthier. School ends at 1.15pm. They get home, have lunch and then, do their homework and study for another 2 hours before they are allowed to play, watch TV or go swimming. Oh yes...and they have text books here, so heavy bag to school everyday.

They are used to the weather now except on very hot days when all of us will complain.

The thing they find most difficult is learning Malay. I'm not sure what it is but there's some switch in their brain that says...we can only speak English. It has taken a long time for them to even attempt to learn Malay. Fajar is doing slightly better because she has to...but the others are not very interested to learn. I don't know...there's like some kind of 'colonial' mentality that everyone else can speak English so we won't bother. In fact, hubby is picking up Malay much better than the kids. Well done hubby! He could at least have a conversation on what he wants to eat at the restaurant. So, this week is school holiday and I borrowed lots of P Ramlee CDs from my mom that we're going to watch.

Otherwise, they seem pretty happy. I'm glad Science and Maths are still in English so, Malik is doing well in those subjects although Fajar is complaining that she can't understand the English here due to 'incorrect' use of grammar. Yup! Fajar is the one who often corrects my grammar even when I'm trying to tell her off! They talk to me about how they miss 'our old home in UK', they miss their old school and friends but that's understandable.

There are some good things about the kids being raised in UK for e.g. they have no clue about Malay cultural issues and the 'kampung mentality' versus 'bandar mentality'; to them something is either Islamic or un-islamic. Also, they have been trained to think for themselves (sometimes too much) and to understand things rather than just to memorize and accept.

On the other hand, there are many other things they could learn from the attitudes of people here like having a lot of sabr, bertolak-ansur, bertimbang-rasa, berdisiplin (sorry, won't attempt to find English translations); things that aren't so emphasized in British society due to promotion of freedom and individualism.

For e.g. I was reading Fajar sivik text book and it was talking about developing self-discipline such as keeping time, fulfilling responsibility, fulfilling one's promise, setting a task and completing it etc...I'd like to see them teach that in Britain ehmmm...how would they teach that in the context of freedom err..."You must make sure if you promise your friend you're going to give them something, you have to fulfil your promise but...you're free to do whatever you want." See the contradiction??? or one of the questions in Fajar's test is "good thing you should do during your free-time." Answer: study and do revision. Okay...wouldn't go too well in a 'free' society whose answer is more like...watch TV and play Playstation. Unfortunately, the sivik paper was in Malay and Fajar couldn't understand a word of it so, guess which answer she chose...emmm..."melepak".