Today was the 2nd last week of class. Attendance was very poor as it was the beginning of revision class. There were only 6 of us. I feel that our lecturer is not as strict today compared to other days, perhaps due to the small amount of people in the class today. The class was conducted in a more laid-back approach. At the end of the class, the lecturer had a short session with us to ease our stress and tension with the arrival of our "doomsday" in exactly 2 more week's. It was a session that exposed me to all sort of new knowledge that I've never thought of. There was this certain part that caught my attention.
According to him, most of the time, the Chinese students are able to score for the calculation part, but they don't provide sufficient answer for theory part (perhaps due to limitation in language). He added that this might not be the case for Malaysians like us. However, an examiner is able to differentiate the writing between a Chinese student (he is unsure whether it's just applicable to Mainland Chinese or all the Chinese) and a local student. To my surprise, he mentioned that my writing is the most Chinese among peers (they do have Chinese style of writing too, based on my beloved lecturer). I was stunned for a second. A lot of thoughts came into my mind. Is my English that poor? What have I done for the past 22 years? Was every single writing I've done (including my blog) a garbage? Although it was such a simple and innocent sounding statement, I could feel my hope was all crushed and broken. Apparently, that wasn't the end of his sentence. By writing, he actually meant handwriting instead of style of writing. It might be due to our art of caligraphy which in turn, affects the way we write our alphabets. Being a drama papa, my emotions took a turning of 360 degrees. I felt better. There isn't critical problem with my current level of English. It's just my handwriting.
On the way home, I reflected on what he mentioned. Being a non-Chinese educated kid, my "Chinese" inspired handwriting (round and neatly separated alphabets) couldn't have been due to my caligraphy skills since I've never embraced the graceful art in my entire life, so far. Perhaps it was due our education system that emphasises a lot on neat handwriting, compared to the British way of writing which is more cursive and italic. This can be seen in the elder generation in Malaysia who is purely English educated (a time when English education was purely English, during the post Independence Day). They share the similar style of handwriting with the British.
My conclusion is, the "Chinese" (or more specifically "Malaysian") inspired handwriting is not the matter of race or religion. Aside from individual's trait, it might be influenced by the education system of different countries. Of course, whatever my lecturer mentioned was just a matter of discussion and he emphasised that it was not a form of racism or an attempt of trying to be rude. It's good as it makes things clear and I sincerely accepted his viewpoint. Meanwhile, I do not think there's anything to be ashamed of as it shows our unique culture and self in its way. It is what made me as a person, much like the variance between British accent or French accent. Both accents might be different but each is unique on its own way. However, I will continue to do my best to adapt myself to the different culture, hoping that I'll be able to master the accent some day (in terms of handwriting, it is kind of impossible since I was brought up that way). =D
