How to teach English effectively.

Why is that Sarawakian writers find it too difficult to get their books published? 

Dear THE MAN-MADE GODS,

            Good morning Prof. Allow me to share with you some thoughts regarding some of the contents of the talk. I feel that I must not keep this to myself as I do not want to leave the room empty minded.

1. Writing Book

·         I read a book entitled A Journey to Malaysia a few years ago. One of the most critical points in the book that I chose not to forget is how the Malayans treat the Sarawakians in terms of opportunities. I came to this school in 2003. From 2003 until 2008, I had been collecting all the common and critical errors done by my students as I thought of producing my first grammar book on grammatical errors. I love research so much especially action research as I did action research when I took my first degree. I wrote the book because I wanted to help the weak ones to understand more about the grammatical errors that they did particularly in writing. I really hoped that I could produce my first grammar book. However, all the printing companies in Malaya that I approached denied my proposal. Some just stole my scripts. Because of this, I have lost the interest to write book due to the unfair treatment. I love writing but the setting is just not right. I wish somebody from the federal could provide at least one printing company which is meant for Sarawakian writers. I hope you could forward this matter to any relevant persons in the federal to help boost the interest of Sarawakian writers in order to be seriously involved in producing books. Otherwise, I consider the talk that you gave as pointless. The idea is great but it has to be followed by the correct setting. 

2. Specialist teachers

·         There are many ways on how to get the post of specialist teachers. Some were lucky enough as they were judged by the school administrators while some had to face the education officers from Sarawak or Semenanjung. Some got it based on quota. Some didn’t get it due to the quota. Sometimes, I wonder, what is this specialist teacher all about? The most ridiculous thing is a teacher is judged in a few hours a day before they could get the post of specialist teacher.  I believe a teacher should be judged based on the consistency of the student’s result.

3. Colleagues

              You claimed that young teachers should be very naïve so that it would be easy for senior    

              teachers to make use of them. I am sorry Prof. I quite disagree with that.  What I see in   

              school is that there are some senior teachers who bragged about their teaching experiences

              but failed to produce excellent result. The worse thing is some senior teachers use the young

              teacher’s strengths for their own personal gain. Senior teachers should motivate and inspire

             the  young teachers instead of bullying them. That is wrong. Senior teachers should guide

             instead of throwing instructions. Some people become wiser as they get older while some

             become worse as they grow older. Therefore, I promise myself that I would not do that with

             teachers who are younger than I am. In my case I do respect teachers who are older than I am

             provided they are wise, supportive and senior teachers who have good manners.

Please forgive me if any of the words offend you. Honestly, I didn’t mean it. Thank you for reading.

Mr. Mani ak Jack  (English Language Teacher )