By NATASHA IMAN alltherage@thestar.com.my I had always envisioned 2012 as an important year. It was the year I’d graduate from high school and finally be able to take eight months off from studying. It was also the year that I would begin chasing my dream of studying in Japan. Merely weeks before the start of [...]
Just Sayin’
It’s a refreshingly different adventure when you are working and travelling in a foreign country. By ELIZABETH LIEW alltherage@thestar.com.my I’M known to be quite stubborn. When my mind is set to do something, there’s usually nothing anyone can do or say to change my mind or sway my decision. When the earthquakes hit Christchurch in [...]
By ZAIN HD alltherage@thestar.com.my Malaysians want Malaysia to do well. We often look elsewhere for aspiration and a benchmark of what we should be. Where we want to be is ascertainable but how we get there is not always the case. Do we seek to achieve great things and then perhaps hope the international media [...]
I met H two months ago when I entered university, and I have had strong feelings for her since we first met. This has never happened to me before. Is this what is called “a crush”? Since we met, we have become very good friends. We share many common interests and I enjoy every moment [...]
By NATASHA IMAN alltherage@thestar.com.my I recall being in Year Six and avidly studying for my UPSR when someone came up to me and asked whether I had been preparing for my PMR. “How old do you think I am?” I genuinely asked back. Until today, when people attempt to ascertain my age, they usually conjure [...]
By ZAIN HD alltherage@thestar.com.my Many people find it surprising that I am against the education policy of teaching maths and science in English (PPSMI). This is considering that I am far more fluent in English than I am in Bahasa Malaysia, and went to Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) where everything was taught in English to [...]
By NATASHA IMAN alltherage@thestar.com.my Recently, in a bid to improve my Japanese language skills, I turned to watching Japanese dramas. In my onerous search to find Japanese dramas with appropriate English subtitles, I came across a drama with an interesting title, “14 Sai No Haha”, which is loosely translated as “Fourteen-Year-Old Mother”. Initially, I was [...]
By Zain HD MANY people I know do not actually have a clear idea of what they did in the past that had gotten them to where they are today. I was asked recently to speak to Monash University students on entrepreneurship. Until that point, I was not actually conscious of being an entrepreneur, nor [...]
By NATASHA IMAN THREE days after being back in Malaysia, I dragged mum and dad to our favourite sweet appam store in Kuala Lumpur that has remained unchanged since I was a child. On our way there, we drove past a street of houses and dad took the liberty of pointing out an area at [...]
By ELIZABETH LIEW I was raised in a cookie cutter world. I did things – physically, emotionally and intellectually – I was supposed to do at my age. Most of my friends and people I grew up with also went down the same path. Those who didn’t were considered underachievers, or outcasts. So, by 22, [...]