Almost every part of Malaysia, the elders often use the same taboos and practiced those words to discipline youngsters so that in the future, the children will be well behaved. Here, we will show you the examples of Malay taboos for those who might not be familiar with these words and practice. :
1) "Jangan duduk atas bantal, nnt punggung bisul" ( do not sit on the pillow or else you will get sores on your backside). The reason is, the pillows are used of the head, so it is not polite to sit on it.
2) "Jangan menyanyi di dapur, nanti dapat suami tua" (do not sing in the kitchen, or you(woman) will marry someone who is way older than you expect) The reason is, you might be careless while cooking in order to avoid accidents.
3) "Jangan keluar senja, nanti kena sorok dengan hantu payu-dara". ( do not go out and play at dusk, or you might be kidnapped by boogey-woman :p ) The reason is, most Malays are Muslims, so it is not good to go out at dusk because the devils and djinns usually wander at dusk.
4) Jangan kencing dekat busut, nanti bengkak kemaluan(Malay words for private part). ( do not urinate on termite bunk, or your(male) penis might be swollen. The reason is first, it is impolite to wee-wee out of nowhere. Secondly, a bunk might be a resting place for supernatural spirits and it might curse anyone who mess up their place.
These are only few examples that we show to you. We are looking forward to your kind co-operation to add comments on other taboos that you might want to share with us so that we can use it as a reference to our project in the future.
As you can see, all of those examples that we show you have one thing in common. They are used for an indirect moral lesson to children so that the children will be well behaved and discipline. In Malay taboos, fear is repeatedly used to educate children.
In our research,back in the past,words or content of conversations which is considered as Malay taboos only involves sexual and religious matters. For example, one cannot discuss about sex in public places and also at home. Sex is not meant to be discussed among the people because it is considered as immoral. The problem is, every grownups know about sex and share their "knowledge" among themselves but at the same time they do not want to expose their "knowledge" to the youngsters because they believe that it is no use to do so. The other thing is about religion, in the past, only the Ulama' or Ustaz can talk about religion. In Malay culture, religion seems to be a very sensitive issues back in the old days until today. For instance, the Malays believe that questions such as "do god exist?","who created the universe and why?","is Islam the true religion of all?". Don't get us wrong, but these question can get you into deep trouble if you mention it at school or religious classes.
We strongly believe that all of those mentioned above as taboos not because the subjects are immoral or corrupted,but the Malays are sometimes being restricted to certain knowledge by certain authorities for their own benefit, not because the words are impolite.
Now we want to show you the modern taboos of Malays. Nowadays, the young generation have their own taboos created among themselves which is not used as moral lesson, but to curse and to address people in an impolite manners. What interest us is not only because of why the new generation taboo exist, but also these words are not allowed to be used back in the old days( twenty-thirty years ago).
1) Bodoh sial, bangang nak mampus, palat, kepala bapak engkau, lancau, bengap, benyut, sengal, etc. All of these words are cursing words so we do not bother to translate it into English.
The main reason why we want to show you these examples is because those words all pretty well known to Malaysian youngsters. Actually, all of these words are taboos and cannot be used at home, school and public places. However, these words are widely used among the youngsters in their daily conversation. It really worry us as the youngster are the future generation, however, they are using such words to address other people. What if those words become a common thing in the future and be widely used by the society? For sure, Malays will become a rude race and negative impressions will be given to the Malays by other races in Malaysia. We want the Malay youngsters to be aware of what they are saying because our words usually shows our personality and backgrounds. Do you want to be labeled rude and uneducated by your parents because other people see the first impression of you by the way you talk to your friends??
In history, the Malays are well known for their polite manners. Nowadays Malaysian Government starts introducing new terms to make a word more polite in order for the public to converse using polite language. For example, the introduction of OKU(orang kurang upaya), warga emas, pendatang tanpa izin (rather than pendatang haram),and meninggal dunia. There are many euphemism being used all over the Malay language, but the people have the freedom whether to use it or not.
In conclusion, taboos exist within a community, our perception on certain subjects or words will determine whether some words or doings are considered as taboos. So, we must use euphemism in our everyday conversation so that we will not hurt other people's feelings. Remember, use polite words to address other people and choose the words carefully before we open our mouth. For example, instead of saying "orang cacat"(disabled) use "insan istimewa"(special). Please take note! do not use bad words and misuse taboos for bad things so that we can be nice to each other and be happy.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Monday, February 23, 2009
Islamic Perspective on Taboo Words and Euphemism
http://www.ezsoftech.com/stories/mis57.asp
Taboo words are considered taboos for a reason. They are dangerous to the society and culture too. Similarly, religion does not view these words too highly. Islam particularly, prohibits talking in vain and swearing for once. The link above provides extensive elaboration on this matter. This blog takes no credit whatsoever from their explanations.
For a reason, Islam prohibits it's followers to hurt other people's feelings because it can break the "ukhuwah" between the community. Not only among the Muslims but also to the people of different beliefs. In addition, as a Muslim, we must show good example to other people with other beliefs in order to show that Muslims are polite and it will probably reduce negative impression on Muslims given by Westerners since they label Arab Muslims as terrorist. Definitely, we cannot argue and defend ourselves(Muslims) by using harsh words because religion is always a sensitive issue to debate in order to defend Islam because other people from various beliefs have their own opinions. As we can see in the news such as BBC,CNN and Al-Jazeera, there are many video-clips of Islamic leaders in the Middle-East that use harsh words to their followers by saying words such as "Satans","kafir", and "damned in hell". Be rational here, do you enjoy being called by such words? of course not, definitely it will trigger our anger. So, to defend ourselves, we must use the precise and polite words to counter those who have negative impression on Muslims and Islam itself. So, one of the main reason we are doing a project on taboo and euphemism is to give our humble opinion on the use of taboo words and euphemism.
Taboo words are considered taboos for a reason. They are dangerous to the society and culture too. Similarly, religion does not view these words too highly. Islam particularly, prohibits talking in vain and swearing for once. The link above provides extensive elaboration on this matter. This blog takes no credit whatsoever from their explanations.
For a reason, Islam prohibits it's followers to hurt other people's feelings because it can break the "ukhuwah" between the community. Not only among the Muslims but also to the people of different beliefs. In addition, as a Muslim, we must show good example to other people with other beliefs in order to show that Muslims are polite and it will probably reduce negative impression on Muslims given by Westerners since they label Arab Muslims as terrorist. Definitely, we cannot argue and defend ourselves(Muslims) by using harsh words because religion is always a sensitive issue to debate in order to defend Islam because other people from various beliefs have their own opinions. As we can see in the news such as BBC,CNN and Al-Jazeera, there are many video-clips of Islamic leaders in the Middle-East that use harsh words to their followers by saying words such as "Satans","kafir", and "damned in hell". Be rational here, do you enjoy being called by such words? of course not, definitely it will trigger our anger. So, to defend ourselves, we must use the precise and polite words to counter those who have negative impression on Muslims and Islam itself. So, one of the main reason we are doing a project on taboo and euphemism is to give our humble opinion on the use of taboo words and euphemism.
CALL Lesson Plan
Original version
Time : 1 hour 30 minutes (double period)
No. of students : 15-30
Setting : Computer Lab
Level of proficiency : Primary school students (Standard 5-6)
Theme : Pronunciation
Topic : Learning how to pronounce British and American English
General objective : To enable students to pronounce English words correctly
with the aid of computer software.
Specific outcomes : By the end of the lesson, students will be able to:
1. Pronounce correctly
2. Widen vocabulary
3. Expose the students to the British and American pronunciation.
Skills involved :
1. Listening
2. Speaking
Content : 1. Whole-class discussion
2. Pair-work
Teaching Aids : 1. Desktop Computer
2. Dictionary Software
3. Microsoft Power-Point (slide-show)
4. Projector
Reflection :
1. Students become less dependent on the teacher in learning English.
2. Teachers can save time for explaining every meaning of the words that students do not understand.
Stage/Time
Content Presentation/Rationale
Set Induction
30 minutes
Introduction to dictionary software and exercises. Software demonstration.
1. The teacher explains about the exercises they will be doing which is to create simple sentences and pronounce the sentences correctly by referring to the Bilingual dictionary for meanings and using the Cambridge Advance Learner’s Dictionary for the correct pronunciations.
2. The teacher shows the techniques on how to use the dictionary software efficiently through the projector. The lesson starts when the students understand how to use the dictionary. Teacher checks on each student to make sure they know how to use the software.
3. The teacher calls names randomly to know about the level of English generally by asking them to construct a simple sentence about them. For example, a student stands up and tells the class about his hobby (“My hobby is collecting stamps”).
Development
Stage 1
30 minutes
Individual task.
1. The teacher provides students with some words and asks them to produce a sentence based on the words. For instance, the words ‘dog’, ‘yellow’ and ‘big’. Students construct a sentence which contains all the words given. i.e. “Mary has a big yellow dog”.
2. The teacher asks the students to use both softwares as reference for meanings and pronunciations to aid them in constructing their sentences.
3. The teacher asks the students to share their sentences to the whole class one by one.
Rationale
Students are informed of the
importance of the exact
pronunciation and to encourage them to refer to a dictionary every time they do not understand a word.
Stage 2
30 minutes
Pair-work
1. Teacher asks students to sit in pair for pair-work exercise where the students must create a short dialogue where the student copy the way of speaking British and American English as accurate as possible. The teacher gives a situation where an American and a British communicate with each other using their mother-tongue.
2. The words are given by the teacher to the students. Those specific words are such as ‘colour’, ‘neighbour’, ‘metre’. The students refer to the Cambridge dictionary to differentiate the spellings and pronunciations and at the same time, the Bilingual dictionary in order to look up for meanings that they do not understand. i.e. British guy:“excuse me sir, what is the colour of your house? American guy: “the color of my house is white”.
3. Students will be asked to present their dialogues in front of the class.
Rationale
The students can differentiate the spellings and pronunciations for British and American English and students learn to pronounce English better.
Closing
1. Teacher evaluates the performance of the students based on correct pronunciations and sentence structures by giving the comments on their over-all works.
2. Students disperse.
Reflection on the assignment
We started the assignment with little knowledge on the methods of devising a lesson plan. With some guidance, we managed to figure out the necessary elements for the lesson plan and started creating it.
We have very little problem in finding the suitable computer software to be used in the lesson plan. Knowing how to operate the software is another thing but we managed to overcome that in a few days.
We also faced some difficulty in devising a proper exercise that fully utilizes both speaking and listening aspect of the language at the same time. However, by putting the exercises in proper arrangement solves this problem.
Improved Lesson Plan
Time : 2 hours (double period)
No. of students : 40
Setting : Computer Lab
Level of proficiency : Primary school students (Standard 5-6)
Theme : Pronunciation
Topic : Learning how to pronounce British and American English
General objective : To enable students to pronounce English words correctly
with the aid of computer software.
Specific outcomes : By the end of the lesson, students will be able to:
1. Pronounce correctly
2. Widen vocabulary
3. Expose the students to the British and American pronunciation.
Skills involved :
1. Listening
2. Speaking
Content : 1. Whole-class discussion
2. Pair-work
Teaching Aids :
1. Desktop Computer
2. Dictionary Software
3. Microsoft Power-Point (slide-show)
4. Projector
Reflection :
1. Students become less dependent on the teacher in learning English.
2. Teachers can save time for explaining every meaning of the words that students do not understand.
Stage/Time
Content Presentation/Rationale
Set Induction
30 minutes
Introduction to dictionary software and exercises. Software demonstration.
1. The teacher explains about the exercises they will be doing which is to create simple sentences and pronounce the sentences correctly by referring to the Bilingual dictionary for meanings and using the Cambridge Advance Learner’s Dictionary for the correct pronunciations.
2. The teacher shows the techniques on how to use the dictionary software efficiently through the projector. The lesson starts when the students understand how to use the dictionary. Teacher checks on each student to make sure they know how to use the software.
3. The teacher shows the video clips on how the native speakers pronounce both of the accents. They will have clear understanding on how the native speakers pronounce their accent.
4. The teacher calls names randomly to know about the level of English generally by asking them to construct a simple sentence about them. For example, a student stands up and tells the class about his hobby (“My hobby is collecting stamps”).
Development
Stage 1
45 minutes
Individual task.
1. The teacher provides students with some words and asks them to produce a sentence based on the words. For instance, the words ‘dog’, ‘yellow’ and ‘big’. Students construct a sentence which contains all the words given. i.e. “Mary has a big yellow dog”.
2. The teacher asks the students to use both softwares as reference for meanings and pronunciations to aid them in constructing their sentences.
3. Some video aids will be provided. They can have reference regarding on how to pronounce the accents.
4. The teacher asks the students to share their sentences to the whole class one by one.
Rationale
Students are informed of the
importance of the exact
pronunciation and to encourage them to refer to a dictionary every time they do not understand a word.
Stage 2
45 minutes
Pair-work
1. Teacher asks students to sit in pair for pair-work exercise where the students must create a short dialogue where the student copy the way of speaking British and American English as accurate as possible. The teacher gives a situation where an American and a British communicate with each other using their mother-tongue.
2. The words are given by the teacher to the students. Those specific words are such as ‘colour’, ‘neighbour’, ‘metre’. The students refer to the Cambridge dictionary to differentiate the spellings and pronunciations and at the same time, the Bilingual dictionary in order to look up for meanings that they do not understand. i.e. British guy:“excuse me sir, what is the colour of your house? American guy: “the color of my house is white”.
3. Students then will have some video examples showing how to pronounce the exact pronunciation.
4. They will be asked to imitate the pronunciation from the video clips and present their dialogues in front of the class.
5. Finally, the students have to try to speak in either one accent and the teacher will be the navigator in the dialogue. The teacher will evaluate regarding the level of accomplishment by the students.
Rationale
The students can differentiate the spellings and pronunciations for British and American English and students learn to pronounce English better.
Closing
1. Teacher evaluates the performance of the students based on correct pronunciations and sentence structures by giving the comments on their over-all works.
2. Students disperse.
Reflection on the assignment
We started the assignment with little knowledge on the methods of devising a lesson plan. With some guidance, we managed to figure out the necessary elements for the lesson plan and started creating it.
We have very little problem in finding the suitable computer software to be used in the lesson plan. Knowing how to operate the software is another thing but we managed to overcome that in a few days.
We also faced some difficulty in devising a proper exercise that fully utilizes both speaking and listening aspect of the language at the same time. However, by putting the exercises in proper arrangement solves this problem.
Comments from Dr.Rozina regarding the original version:
1.) need video gather- British and American video (it was not congruent without the videos.)
2.) it is a hard lesson plan. (no difference in pronunciation because there is no samples from video or clips.)
3.) maybe can put video excerpts from movies.
4.) need to expose the students regarding how to pronounce.
5.) evaluation is not clear (missing)- what is the test to know that they have pronounced it correctly.
6.) number of students-should be 40 normally.
7.) it does not use technology based lesson. Use more in context.
8.) improvise the lesson plan and put in the blog.
Time : 1 hour 30 minutes (double period)
No. of students : 15-30
Setting : Computer Lab
Level of proficiency : Primary school students (Standard 5-6)
Theme : Pronunciation
Topic : Learning how to pronounce British and American English
General objective : To enable students to pronounce English words correctly
with the aid of computer software.
Specific outcomes : By the end of the lesson, students will be able to:
1. Pronounce correctly
2. Widen vocabulary
3. Expose the students to the British and American pronunciation.
Skills involved :
1. Listening
2. Speaking
Content : 1. Whole-class discussion
2. Pair-work
Teaching Aids : 1. Desktop Computer
2. Dictionary Software
3. Microsoft Power-Point (slide-show)
4. Projector
Reflection :
1. Students become less dependent on the teacher in learning English.
2. Teachers can save time for explaining every meaning of the words that students do not understand.
Stage/Time
Content Presentation/Rationale
Set Induction
30 minutes
Introduction to dictionary software and exercises. Software demonstration.
1. The teacher explains about the exercises they will be doing which is to create simple sentences and pronounce the sentences correctly by referring to the Bilingual dictionary for meanings and using the Cambridge Advance Learner’s Dictionary for the correct pronunciations.
2. The teacher shows the techniques on how to use the dictionary software efficiently through the projector. The lesson starts when the students understand how to use the dictionary. Teacher checks on each student to make sure they know how to use the software.
3. The teacher calls names randomly to know about the level of English generally by asking them to construct a simple sentence about them. For example, a student stands up and tells the class about his hobby (“My hobby is collecting stamps”).
Development
Stage 1
30 minutes
Individual task.
1. The teacher provides students with some words and asks them to produce a sentence based on the words. For instance, the words ‘dog’, ‘yellow’ and ‘big’. Students construct a sentence which contains all the words given. i.e. “Mary has a big yellow dog”.
2. The teacher asks the students to use both softwares as reference for meanings and pronunciations to aid them in constructing their sentences.
3. The teacher asks the students to share their sentences to the whole class one by one.
Rationale
Students are informed of the
importance of the exact
pronunciation and to encourage them to refer to a dictionary every time they do not understand a word.
Stage 2
30 minutes
Pair-work
1. Teacher asks students to sit in pair for pair-work exercise where the students must create a short dialogue where the student copy the way of speaking British and American English as accurate as possible. The teacher gives a situation where an American and a British communicate with each other using their mother-tongue.
2. The words are given by the teacher to the students. Those specific words are such as ‘colour’, ‘neighbour’, ‘metre’. The students refer to the Cambridge dictionary to differentiate the spellings and pronunciations and at the same time, the Bilingual dictionary in order to look up for meanings that they do not understand. i.e. British guy:“excuse me sir, what is the colour of your house? American guy: “the color of my house is white”.
3. Students will be asked to present their dialogues in front of the class.
Rationale
The students can differentiate the spellings and pronunciations for British and American English and students learn to pronounce English better.
Closing
1. Teacher evaluates the performance of the students based on correct pronunciations and sentence structures by giving the comments on their over-all works.
2. Students disperse.
Reflection on the assignment
We started the assignment with little knowledge on the methods of devising a lesson plan. With some guidance, we managed to figure out the necessary elements for the lesson plan and started creating it.
We have very little problem in finding the suitable computer software to be used in the lesson plan. Knowing how to operate the software is another thing but we managed to overcome that in a few days.
We also faced some difficulty in devising a proper exercise that fully utilizes both speaking and listening aspect of the language at the same time. However, by putting the exercises in proper arrangement solves this problem.
Improved Lesson Plan
Time : 2 hours (double period)
No. of students : 40
Setting : Computer Lab
Level of proficiency : Primary school students (Standard 5-6)
Theme : Pronunciation
Topic : Learning how to pronounce British and American English
General objective : To enable students to pronounce English words correctly
with the aid of computer software.
Specific outcomes : By the end of the lesson, students will be able to:
1. Pronounce correctly
2. Widen vocabulary
3. Expose the students to the British and American pronunciation.
Skills involved :
1. Listening
2. Speaking
Content : 1. Whole-class discussion
2. Pair-work
Teaching Aids :
1. Desktop Computer
2. Dictionary Software
3. Microsoft Power-Point (slide-show)
4. Projector
Reflection :
1. Students become less dependent on the teacher in learning English.
2. Teachers can save time for explaining every meaning of the words that students do not understand.
Stage/Time
Content Presentation/Rationale
Set Induction
30 minutes
Introduction to dictionary software and exercises. Software demonstration.
1. The teacher explains about the exercises they will be doing which is to create simple sentences and pronounce the sentences correctly by referring to the Bilingual dictionary for meanings and using the Cambridge Advance Learner’s Dictionary for the correct pronunciations.
2. The teacher shows the techniques on how to use the dictionary software efficiently through the projector. The lesson starts when the students understand how to use the dictionary. Teacher checks on each student to make sure they know how to use the software.
3. The teacher shows the video clips on how the native speakers pronounce both of the accents. They will have clear understanding on how the native speakers pronounce their accent.
4. The teacher calls names randomly to know about the level of English generally by asking them to construct a simple sentence about them. For example, a student stands up and tells the class about his hobby (“My hobby is collecting stamps”).
Development
Stage 1
45 minutes
Individual task.
1. The teacher provides students with some words and asks them to produce a sentence based on the words. For instance, the words ‘dog’, ‘yellow’ and ‘big’. Students construct a sentence which contains all the words given. i.e. “Mary has a big yellow dog”.
2. The teacher asks the students to use both softwares as reference for meanings and pronunciations to aid them in constructing their sentences.
3. Some video aids will be provided. They can have reference regarding on how to pronounce the accents.
4. The teacher asks the students to share their sentences to the whole class one by one.
Rationale
Students are informed of the
importance of the exact
pronunciation and to encourage them to refer to a dictionary every time they do not understand a word.
Stage 2
45 minutes
Pair-work
1. Teacher asks students to sit in pair for pair-work exercise where the students must create a short dialogue where the student copy the way of speaking British and American English as accurate as possible. The teacher gives a situation where an American and a British communicate with each other using their mother-tongue.
2. The words are given by the teacher to the students. Those specific words are such as ‘colour’, ‘neighbour’, ‘metre’. The students refer to the Cambridge dictionary to differentiate the spellings and pronunciations and at the same time, the Bilingual dictionary in order to look up for meanings that they do not understand. i.e. British guy:“excuse me sir, what is the colour of your house? American guy: “the color of my house is white”.
3. Students then will have some video examples showing how to pronounce the exact pronunciation.
4. They will be asked to imitate the pronunciation from the video clips and present their dialogues in front of the class.
5. Finally, the students have to try to speak in either one accent and the teacher will be the navigator in the dialogue. The teacher will evaluate regarding the level of accomplishment by the students.
Rationale
The students can differentiate the spellings and pronunciations for British and American English and students learn to pronounce English better.
Closing
1. Teacher evaluates the performance of the students based on correct pronunciations and sentence structures by giving the comments on their over-all works.
2. Students disperse.
Reflection on the assignment
We started the assignment with little knowledge on the methods of devising a lesson plan. With some guidance, we managed to figure out the necessary elements for the lesson plan and started creating it.
We have very little problem in finding the suitable computer software to be used in the lesson plan. Knowing how to operate the software is another thing but we managed to overcome that in a few days.
We also faced some difficulty in devising a proper exercise that fully utilizes both speaking and listening aspect of the language at the same time. However, by putting the exercises in proper arrangement solves this problem.
Comments from Dr.Rozina regarding the original version:
1.) need video gather- British and American video (it was not congruent without the videos.)
2.) it is a hard lesson plan. (no difference in pronunciation because there is no samples from video or clips.)
3.) maybe can put video excerpts from movies.
4.) need to expose the students regarding how to pronounce.
5.) evaluation is not clear (missing)- what is the test to know that they have pronounced it correctly.
6.) number of students-should be 40 normally.
7.) it does not use technology based lesson. Use more in context.
8.) improvise the lesson plan and put in the blog.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
