Sunday 25 November 2012

Malaysia Traditional Food

Tourism MalaysiaMalaysia Food       

Malaysia food the popular tourist attractions in Malaysia food recipes. It exposes the many of Malaysian cooking from the variety of ethnic groups in Malaysia that have their own dishes such Malay food, Chinese food, Indian food and western food. Among the famous food that like by all ethnic groups in Malaysia such as mee siam, murtabak, nasi dagang, roti bakar, rotijala, somtam and tenji.
  Food in Malaysia cooked differs from place to place, but they are the same food. Different preparations have different taste and decoration, but commonly the ingredients used are the same. They are such Kelantan food, Negeri Sembilan food, Trengganu food, Johor food, Penang food and others.

Staple food in Malaysia is rice. Tourist come for Malaysia vacations will get to know and try rice. The variety of rice cooked in Malaysia come from the local padi fields. The largest padi field in Malaysia is in the rice bowl of Kedah state. It is one of the popular tourist attractions in Malaysia.

Malaysia also imports rice from Thailand. There are many types of rice used in Malaysia such as the Indian basmati which is used in biryani dishes because its long grained shape, fragrance and delicate flavors. There are also Japanese short grain rice eaten by Malaysian.

Malaysian food recipe incomplete without nasi lemak a popular food based on rice. The recipe of nasi lemak, steamed with coconut milk to get it special fragrance.

Nasi lemak normally served with spicy chili paste known as sambal, fried anchovies, peanuts, sliced cucumber and hard boiled eggs. If you want for a more ample meal, let nasi lemak served you with a choice of curries. But a spicy meat stew called rending the most popular one. Nasi lemak is national heritage of Malaysia. It is one of the traditional malaysian food.

There are many types of food in Malaysia. Among are Malay food, Malaysian Indian food, Malaysian Chinese food, Nyonya food, Sarawak Indigenous Cuisine and Cross-cultural influence.

As for Malaysian dessert such as cendol, Ais kacang, pulut hitam, bubur cha cha, honeydew sago, pengat, Sago gula Melaka, pineapple tarts and many-many more.

Malaysia is halal hub in the world. The poultry in Malaysia is handled according to Halal standards. Beef is common in the Malaysian diet. Beef is cooked in curries, stews, roasted, or with noodles.

Malays generally eat beef that is halal. Malaysia import fresh halal beef from Australia. However certain religions followers such as Hinduism and some forms of Buddhism forbid the eating of beef. Other Malaysia foods are pork, mutton, seafood, fish, vegetables and fruit.

Ten Reasons to Pursue a Teaching Career


10. You'll Earn A Solid Paycheck as a Teacher

While teaching is not a get-rich-quick profession, starting salaries are in line with other graduate professions. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, public teachers are actually paid about 11 percent more than the average professional worker. Teaching careers also offer opportunities for advancement and increased pay over time. And teacher salaries are actually higher than you'd think.

9. More than Just an Apple a Day

Important benefits, such as health insurance and pension plans, are becoming scarce commodities in many professions, but you can count on both in a teaching career. When's the last time you heard of someone getting a pension after retirement? Most teachers have their premiums fully paid by their school districts and their health, dental and vision benefits are among the best when compared with other industries. Teaching also offers additional benefits such as sick days and tuition reimbursement, so you'll find that teaching actually pays a lot more than you think.

8. Love Your Education Career

Joseph Campbell's recommendation to "follow your bliss" is universally echoed by career counselors. If you are happy at work, you'll be more motivated, energetic, successful and confident—and the other people in your life will benefit from your outlook. If the idea of teaching invigorates you, that's a great reason to pursue a teaching career.

7. Nix the Nanny

With a work calendar synched to your kids' school calendar, an education career allows you to eliminate most childcare expenses. Even though you're earning a paycheck, you'll have the flexibility to be home with your kids before and after school.

6. Become an Expert...as a Teacher

There's an old adage that it takes three years of teaching to master a subject. The best way to learn a topic is to teach it: students' questions make you dig deeper and learn more until you know the subject inside and out.

5. Teachers Have Reasonable Hours

With students in school just six hours a day, teachers often spend much less time on the job than their corporate counterparts. With the 8-hour workday rapidly becoming the 10 to 12 hour day in other occupations, you'll find a teaching career leaves you with more time for family, friends and other interests. Sure, you'll have some long days—plan on time for parent-teacher conferences, grading homework and attending (or leading) after-school activities—but overall, a teaching career will leave you with a life outside of your job. A teaching career truly lets you achieve a work/life balance.

4. Share your Passions in the Classroom

Did you have a teacher that got you so excited about a subject you started putting in extra time and work? That's what happens when you share your excitement and enthusiasm. Sharing your love of the subject matter with students is one of the best benefits of being a teacher.

3. Can't Beat the Job Security as a Teacher

While requirements may differ from state to state, once you've established yourself as a good teacher, you'll find there are always jobs available. And, unlike many industries, layoffs and downsizing are rare occurrences in education. For information on the most high-demand subjects and areas, see our teacher shortage article.

2. Teachers Have Serious Vacation Time

If the idea of having more than two weeks of vacation a year appeals to you, you should definitely consider becoming a teacher. With a couple weeks off for winter holidays, another couple weeks for winter and spring breaks, and almost three months off in the summer, you have the opportunity to invest in other interests:
  • Pursue your obsessions – You'll have chunks of time to trek around South America, visit exotic Southeast Asia, join an expedition to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro, spend a month eating your way through Europe, or take a series of music or yoga classes.
  • Summer moonlighting – With summers off, it's easy to develop a fun, seasonal career. For example, you'll often find teachers working as docents in our national parks each summer, a classic case of having your vacation and getting paid for it too!
  • Doctor in the house – Teachers often spend their vacation time furthering their own education and investing in professional development. If adding PhD to your name is part of your life plan, but not your budget, teaching can help you find the time and the money to make it happen.
And, the number one perk of a teaching career?

Classroom Management

  1. Set the example. Remember that you are the teacher. It is important for you to be like a "superhero" figure in their eyes. Remember that your students look up to you and will thus try to mimic your dispositions. If you are rude or inappropriate, they will have an inappropriate model for their behavior. It is vital that students see you as a person with confidence, so that they follow your lead, and feel comfortable trusting you. Students, of all ages, need someone they can lean on, look up to, and be able to trust.
  2. Have well-defined consequences. Set specific consequences for breaking the rules. Decide what those consequences are and then implement them consistently. Your consequences should follow a procedure that starts with a non-verbal signal (such as just looking at the student), to a verbal signal (asking the student to please stop talking), to a verbal warning (if this continues there will be consequences), to the implementation of the consequence. The consequences are up to you and depend on the program of the school. Many schools have a detention system (students do despise detentions), or perhaps writing lines, or sitting away from other students.
  3. Be compassionate. Great educators form strong relationships with their students and show that they care about them as people. They are warm, accessible, enthusiastic and caring. Be open to staying at school after-hours to help students or get involved in school-wide committees and activities, and they demonstrate a commitment to the school.
  4. Set some ground rules. You should have 3-5 rules that the students know about. These are the rules that, when broken, are subject to the consequence scheme outlined above. Try allowing the class to suggest the ground rules: have a class discussion and write ideas, it makes the class feel they are listened to and that you care about their opinions and input while also setting some groundwork that they will feel loyal to because they've made it. Act as a mediator to make sure that the rules decided upon are appropriate. Some may be, for instance, be quiet when the teacher is talking, respect each other, and finish the homework and classwork.

Lesson Planning

  1. Have an objective. When you are planning a lesson, the most vital part is the objective. What do you want your students to take away from the lesson? If the objective is powerful, deep, and reflects what you really want students to learn, it will be reflected in the lesson.
  2. Have a solid plan for your lessons. Each and every lesson should be divided into three simple parts that reflect your objective.
    • First should be the "lecture" part of the lesson. This is where you teach something new to the class (of course allowing for questions or comments when applicable).
    • Dedicate the second part of class to something that involves a collective group work element where students can work with whoever they want. Near the end of this part, you can have a discussion session where groups voice their findings/opinions, and give marks for adequate participation.
    • The final part of every lesson should be where the students return to their seats and work QUIETLY on one final task, such as answering specific questions written on the board, or drawing a picture related to something they learned that lesson. The students should only talk to you (if they have a question about what/how to do it) or the person sitting directly next to them. This is the wind-down part where students get a chance to work on and understand the material on their own.
  3. Assign relevant homework. Rather than assigning something different every night, it is wise to assign one or two more substantial assignments on Monday and then collect these assignments on Friday.
WEAKNESS  OF EDUCATION SYSTEM IN MALAYSIA

Seeing first hand in Malaysian education system myself and now seeing my children going through the same system, I believe there are significant weaknesses in the system.

Students often are required to memorize facts and formula in their classes. Often teachers gave a lot of facts and formula for students to memorize. The students will then be tested with the memorizing skills through multiple choice questions and short answer type of questions. How many smart people do the system produce each year? How come there are no smart Malaysians who invented the newest car, the newest technology. All we see is students who are really good in memorizing facts/formula while do not know how to apply their skills to solve tomorrow’s problem.

Another related problem is students are often asked to learn how to write exams instead of learning. How many parents send their children to tuition centre hopefully they can do well in exams. How many teachers teach their students how to write exams instead of passing knowledge to the students. No doubt doing well in exams are important, but it should not be overlooked since doing well in exams does not guarantee one’s success in their lives.

Ranking system is another big problem. Students are ranked each year among their grade and they are placed in classes from the highest score students to the lowest score students. I think the rational is to facilitate teaching when all students in a class is of about the same “standard”. This maybe a good idea, but what about students who are late comers, who does not excel well in later years. These students will be placed in lower ranking and in lower grade classes. They may not ever have a chance to come back (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streaming_%28education%29).

Another problem of the education system is the huge amount of school works being assigned to students each day. Students are required to do lots of homeworks. I know my daughter may take 3-4 hours a day to do homeworks and she is only 8 years old. Homeworks is good, but too much does not make your children smarter, in fact, it is taking the time away from them to study and to do other outdoor activities.

However, the root cause of all the problems is the higher education entry requirements. To get to form 6, one has to score many A’s in SPM and a minimum of C in Malay. Once a student got into form 6, he/she spent two years studying it, and if he/she gets a good result in STPM, he may be admitted to local university. This sounds fine in theory, but it is the biggest flaw in the system. Assuming that the student met the minimum requirement to enter university, he/she may not get admitted to the faculty he/she likes to pursue due to the infamous racial quote system (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Issues_in_Malaysian_Education#Racial_Quotas_in_Universities).
I do not deny that pressure students receive from parents are making the matters worse. Parents are so focus on exams and it is not uncommon to see my daughter’s classmates get punished by their parents for not meeting their standards. However, the major reason for this competitiveness are caused by the higher education entry requirements, huge school workload, ranking system at school, and teaching methods.