Sunday, November 18, 2007

U STUDY MANA DULU?

I was having a nice evening meal with Jai the other day at the newly opened Subway in Kelana Jaya. We were yakking away and tucking into our foot-long sandwiches - kemaruk sangat nak makan sandwich, tamak haloba, order foot-long, pastu terbelahak nak mengabihkannya, last-last bungkus bawak balik hehehe :-) Suddenly a guy came near our table and called out to Jai. Oh, rupanya kawan Jai masa student days dulu. Mamat tu pun datang join our table, no hal la tu.

Anyway, they started reminiscing about their student days in the US of A. Well, I've been hearing so much about Jai's student days before this and vice versa, it's always a fun conversation. But this new guy's way of conversing makes it sound like so oh exclusive, US of A has got better malls than over here, US of A has got better university system, US of A has bla de blardy bla bla.

Suddenly he turns to me and asks, "U study mana dulu? Overseas jugak ke?"

And me with muka poyo nak mampus, jawab, "Ha'ah, UK"

That got him interested, "Ye ke? UK kat mana?"

Me still with my poyo-ness, answered, "UK of M"

Hahaha.... terpinga-pinga plak mamat tu, sambil Jai terkekek gelak. Meanwhile, aku dengan selamba katak continued devouring my foot-long sandwich.

Come on la people, just because a long time ago, when you were barely 18, you were given an opportunity to study abroad, toksah la dok berbangga sangat. It's not where you went, BUT who you are today, that really matters. No doubt masa diberi peluang belajar overseas tu, the sponsors akan cari students yang dirasakan ada potensi. But that doesn't mean semua yang lain yang tidak belajar overseas tu kurang bagus. Even Jai pun masa SPM, result dia kureng dari aku, tapi rezeki dia, dapat tawaran belajar ke sana, so good for her la kan. Dah, dah, korang jangan ingat aku jeles plak ek... hehehe...

Anyway, bukannya tak ada di kalangan kawan atau senior aku sendiri pun, yang 'terpilih' ni, yang kantoi. Dok overseas 4-5 tahun, balik tanpa ijazah, susah nak carik kerja dan sampai sekarang berhutang berpuluh (atau ratus?) ribu ngan JPA ke, MARA ke, Kementerian Pelajaran ke.

Banyak faktor la yang boleh sebabkan kantoi tu, but that's beside the point. Aku cuma nak kata lagi sekali, it's who the person you are today that really matters la. Ada jugak yang walaupun kantoi, but managed to prove themselves otherwise. Ada yang sambung belajar dengan duit sendiri, ataupun kerja from scratch sampai dapat hidup selesa - after all paper qualification is not the only thing that matters in the workfield, kan? Terpulang kepada rezeki masing-masing.

Ada jugak macam kes senior aku, balik dengan ijazah, tapi tak pernah kerja. Sebab balik aje, terus kawin dan laki tak kasik kerja. Hok ni kawe maroh ni. Cuba bayangkan kalau peluang belajar tu diberi pada student lain dari keluarga yang miskin contohnya, mungkin sekembalinya nanti student miskin tu akan dapat kerja yang bagus dan akan menjadi titik permulaan untuk membangunkan taraf ekonomi dan pendidikan keluarganya di kampung, kan?

Anyway, I guess this guy is an exception la. Sebab so far he's one of just a few people I've met yang macam tu. Coming from a boarding school, I have many friends who received their tertiary education overseas, including my close buddy Jai (USA) and my bosom buddy Millie (Eire). A number of my colleagues also studied abroad, as do various friends (you know who you are) I've made along the way, most of whom are very humble and down to earth people (pujuk balik ke ni hahaha).

It was an entertaining evening for me, nontheless :-)

6 comments:

Ir. Hanafi Ali said...

Masa memula balik dari US dulu, Januarty 1995 (United States, bukan Ulu Sungai, keh keh), seronok jugak lah cerita pasal US. Pasal salji, pasal sejuk (Iowa kannn), pasal system senang, pasal beli kereta senang, pasal hidup mudah. Tapi komplen or reminiscing macam tu, masa memula balik je la buat. Dah lama-lama kat Mesia, malas dah la nak bukak cerita.

Tapi kan, I do believe education system especially graduate degrees macam Master dan PhD lagi berkualiti for *most* universities in the States than in UK. UK sukar nak fail Master or PhD. Sebab tu ramai lecturer tempatan kalau nak sambung study, memang kebanyakan sambung study kat UK. Ini boleh buat research ni...

JIE said...

Salam Hansac,

I actually enjoy listening to people's experiences, hence my 'Living vicariously' tag phrase in the sidebar of this blog :-) But like they say la, 'it's all in the delivery' hehehe...

Hmm... betul ke lagi senang buat post grad di UK? Maybe govt employees banyak buat di UK sebab most UK courses are recognized by JPA. Probably due to different systems etc, there's a number of courses in US that's not recognized by the govt, some of which were taken by govt sponsored students. Go figure!

btw, my UK of M is in Bangi hahah :-)

Dr. Shaikh Mohd Saifuddeen said...

Saw that UK of M part miles away.. hehehe... I would've answered the same thing.

I have to agree with hansac on the postgrad bit. When I did my undergrad studies in Scotland, we were endlessly told that undergrads should've gone to the US of A as it's easier to do undergraduate studies there (or so they say). UK is easier for postgraduate studies (again, so they say).

In any case, I am a firm believer that it's not so much the place you study, but the experience you bring back. Kalau pergi belajar over-the-sea tapi dok berkampung dgn kekawan senegeri, no point gak. Might as well study di belakang rumah di kampung jer.

And at the end of the day, after graduating and entering the job market, the employers look for your character and not so much where you come studies. A local student may have better characteristics - confidence, discipline, etc. - compared to an overseas grad.

I can go on and on about this. But I shan't. Hehehe...

BTW Jie, in case you still haven't noticed...
paraphrasing the immortal words of Arnold Susah-nak-eja's character in the Terminator...

I am back!

Dade Ghost said...

Fuyoooo what to do la Jie, some people there are proud of their achievement.....

Me too, at least I go to MENOGO uni..... hehehe....

JIE said...

Salam Kelana,

Yeah, I thought the UK of M bit was very appropriate for that conversation hehe :-)

I agree about the experience thingy. I would've tried to find friends as diverse as possible, enrich and maximize my experience abroad. Unfortunately in local U's too, some people stick only with a certain clique.

Cuma mungkin students abroad yang dok berkampung tu, sebab takut kena culture shock dan terpesong akidah kot... yang ni kena pandai jaga la.

Anyway, Welkam bek, bro! Lepas ni, apdet hari-hari, okkay? *Blajar kat Scotland, ada pi cari Nessie tak? :-)

JIE said...

Salam DG,

Tak kisah kalau nak rasa bangga dengan pencapaian, cuma tak payah nak nyombong kat orang lain la, kan?

Ahhh.... Menogo Uni... do they have the same courses as University of Ontahmano? :-)