Traditional Food

 

My favourite traditional food is nasi lemak. I usually eat nasi lemak almost everyday. There are a lot of stalls or restaurant that sell nasi lemak in my place and it is easier to get it.

There are a lot of condiments that you can choose which are fried anchovies, crispy fried chicken, fried egg (or sunny-side-up), shrimp, cuttlefish and also clams. My favourite is ikan tongkol because I grew up in Dungun, Terengganu and they usually serve nasi lemak ikan tongkol (we call it ikan aya).

You can't call nasi lemak without its sambal. Some people prepare nasi lemak with sambal bilis, boiled egg (cut in half or a quarter, depends on the makcik who prepares it), slices of cucumbers and fried beans. The most delicious is when it's served in banana leaves where you can smell nice aroma of nasi lemak.

For me, traditional recipes should be passed on to the next generation especially Malay kuehs because not all people in this generation can cook all these things. I admit that I am not a good cook but I really want to learn to cook traditional food from my mother since she's an excellent cook. We need to preserve our traditional food if we don't do it, who will?

Foreign Language

 

I love learning new languages. Japanese is the one that I really want to learn and master because I love watching anime and J-Drama so I could understand what they are saying without looking at the subtitles. Plus, I wish I can go to Japan one day so I need to master speaking Japanese first before going there.

I plan to learn Japanese through YouTube and TikTok because it is much easier than reading the books. Besides, there are a lot of Japanese teachers do their online teaching through these two platforms.

There are some challenges in learning new language. One of them is the pronunciation. Some languages need to be learned in face-to-face classes because we can practice the pronunciation with the teachers. For example, Mandarin. For me, Mandarin is quite challenging because of the pronunciation.

Another challenges is how we are going to practice in real life situation. Native speakers tend to talk fast and we need time to process what are they saying and it is hard for us to reply them back. Furthermore, there are dialects that the native speakers use and this is very hard of us to understand.

In my opinion, teenagers should be multilingual because it is good for their additional knowledge and learning foreign language is fun. Being a multilingual shows that you are genius and have good brain because not all people can be multilingual. 

Social Media Influencer

 

My favourite social media influencer is Azfar Heri. I knew about him when I was scrolling on Twitter where I caught a short video of him doing the 'wiping out' that was going viral at that time. So, since then, I followed him on the Instagram and YouTube.

I like the way he nags about his days in his IG Story and the way he talks is funny. He is very spontaneous and the most important is he cares about his family especially his handicapped brother, Afif. Even though some people said that he is very annoying but I like his style. I don't really care about the way he coloured his hair or whatever he bought (most are expensive stuff). I never been influenced on certain things that he did (shopping or going to any events).

You see, kids nowadays idolize influencers. Some give good influences for example, Khairul Aming; some give bad influences (I am not going to mention names!) They are easily influenced by the current trends such as fashion, the way they talk (slangs or whatsoever), hair style and money spending. Some want to have what these influencers have even though that thing is pricey, as long as they want to be in trends.

Parents should tell and advice their children not too obsessed with the influencers because not all of them are good people. Besides, not or influencers have tons of money in their pocket!

Staying Safe Online

 

Most people nowadays use Internet 90% in their life. Well, some depend on the Internet 24/7 because of work or just play games.

Internet can be good and can be harmful too. I love scrolling on my favourite social media but I always be aware not to give any information especially the details. Back then, I heard a lot of news about people scamming others; some did something bad to others like stalking and robbing their bank account. So, I always be aware and tell myself never reveal anything about me. I even put other name so that people don't know who I am in the real world (except for Instagram where most of my family, relatives, friends and my students know me there). I even put account into a private account.

We should stay safe online because anything can happen these days. With the advance technology, not all people use it in good ways. Plus, people are getting rude especially teenagers where they become keyboard warriors to give bad and rude comments to others. This is one of the causes of cyberbullying.

So, all of us need to be careful when you log in to any social media account and always remember, never reveal yourself to strangers!