I thought I wrote about this, but apparently I’ve forgotten. Few months ago, when I explained to Ian what is ‘Indian’ (he asked), I tried to explain to him the concept of race, which I have been trying to delay (why teach them to differentiate people when we are all the same - Malaysian?).
Then, I gave him examples like the neighbour Sasa is an Indian, her brother Justine is an Indian, etc. And I told him that he is a Chinese, there he suddenly cried in protest. He said, “NO! I AM ENGLISH, NOT CHINESE!”
Hahaha! He thought of it as in the language spoken.
There you go, I have to explain to him what is an English. To make it simple, I say they have blond hair with green or blue eyes (seriously I don’t know the difference!). :p
Then yesterday, when I mentioned again that we are Chinese, he then corrected us, “No, you are wrong! My teacher said we are Malaysian!”
Whew! That is what I like. Yes, we are Malaysians!
On Tuesday morning, before leaving the house, Ian begged me to write down the lyrice of our national anthem, Negaraku, on a piece of paper.
After which, he begged me to do the same for Tanggal 31.
Then, he held the paper, sang the 2 songs without errors (though a bit out of tune)!!! Yes, he could read them off the paper, and with the written lyrics he learnt them right! I didn’t know this is something great until I told my colleague about it yesterday.
Also, on Thursday after marching in the school, the principal told me in a surprising tone, that Ian could sing the whole song of Tanngal 31. According to her, it is quite rare. She only expected the 5 & 6 years students to do that, that’s the reason she didn’t give the lyrics to all the 4 years students (no wonder he asked me to write for him, the 5 & 6 years have!).
Actually not only reading the lyrics, Ian can read most of the countries on a world map. He could figure out roughly how to pronounce them. Even with a few that he can’t pronounce, after telling him once he can remember them.
He also starts to remember the flags as well. Watching Beijing Olympics, he could tell the countries just from the flags, like Finland, England, Japan, etc. Smart or not?
Yes, at my age of 35, I can’t believe I am asked to sing the National Anthem 5 to 10 times everyday. And the person made it mandatory for me is my 4 years old son, Ian. Hahahaha!
Okay, Merdeka (Independence Day) is just around the corner. Thanks to his school, Ian has brought back patriotism in the family. He suddenly became very interested in Negaraku. He kept asking me how to sing it, so I have to keep singing to let him learn! It is so funny that he also insists that we stand straight (of course!). Worst of it, not singing it 10 years after leaving school, I actually forgot the lyrics! :p
Not only that, he also learnt the patriotic song Tanggal 31 Ogos, which I have never learnt how to sing in the past 35 years of my life! Because of him, I had to search the web for lyrics, download the mp3 and learn the song myself. I suddenly become patriotic in a way. Hahaha!
We are going to do marching around the school tomorrow. Just hope it can be completed before my telecon. We have Jalur Gemilang (Malaysian Flag) everywhere in the house and Ian keeps drawing more and more of it.
Just now after picking Ian from my mom’s place, on the way home, Ian suddenly said to me, “Mama, awas is you!”
For a moment, I was confused, “Huh?! What do you mean?”
But almost immediately I realized what he meant and answered, “Oh, actually it should be ‘awak’ is ‘you’. It is ‘awak’ not ‘awas’. ‘Awas’ is actually ‘beware’ in Malay.”
Ian; What is ‘beware’?
Suz: Be careful loh!
Ian: Oh, okay.
He paused for a while, then suddenly asked again, “Why?”
Suz: Huh?! What ‘why’?
Ian: Why ‘awak’ is ‘you’?
I stucked there! Hey there! Can anyone tell me how should I reply then??!! Kids’ questions can never end! And Isabel too, she likes to ask ‘why’ on everything!!
But then I do like them to ask, that means they are thinking and learning.
The other day, Ian was asking me to 
