KUALA LUMPUR, July 2 — For most Malaysian children, English is their second language after their mother tongue.
A majority of the children were from the Temiar indigenous group, with their parents mostly working at pineapple farms and rubber plantations linked to the Federal Land Development Authority and Rubber Industry Smallholders Development Authority ."During one lesson, I taught them about different parts of the coconut tree and the various products that can be processed from coconut.
As a Teach for Malaysia fellow, Michael spent two years teaching English to Primary Four, Five and Six students at SK RPS Dala between 2022 and 2024. To him, the slow-paced life at Gerik town was a relatively more advanced version of his hometown, Telupid.The local community endured internet connectivity woes until the middle of 2023 and still grapples with frequent blackouts - another reason why Michael tapped into natural resources for lessons.Initially, teachers-cum-wardens would light up fires along the fences surrounding the school and hostel grounds to ward off the tigers.
He had also trained 11-year-old Arwin - the school’s first representative in 38 years to an English story-telling competition at the state-level Karnival Pendidikan Sekolah-Sekolah Murid Orang Asli."He also remembered the self-regulating techniques which I taught him to calm himself whenever he got nervous and forgot the sentences,” he said, recalling how Arwin often became frustrated repeating the same sentences.