![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thevillagemyhome.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/IMG-20240202-WA0005.jpg?resize=500%2C344&ssl=1\")
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INTERACTION\u00a0 is a way of learning and progressing together, and that transcends age for these children and their tutor.<\/strong><\/p>\n By Foong Pek Yee<\/p>\n foongpekyee@gmail.com<\/a><\/p>\n INTERACTION\u00a0 is a way of learning and progressing together, and that transcends age for these children and their tutor. By Foong Pek Yee foongpekyee@gmail.com From journalism and back to school. After more than three decades working in the English media, Sharifah Fatimah quit her job and took the plunge into giving free tuition to village … Continue reading “The kids and their tutor”<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[381,382,383,384,84],"class_list":["post-3966","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-people","tag-english","tag-free-tuition","tag-journalism","tag-school","tag-village"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevillagemyhome.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3966","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevillagemyhome.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevillagemyhome.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevillagemyhome.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevillagemyhome.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3966"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/thevillagemyhome.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3966\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3991,"href":"https:\/\/thevillagemyhome.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3966\/revisions\/3991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevillagemyhome.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevillagemyhome.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevillagemyhome.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}From journalism and back to school.<\/div>\n<\/div>\nAfter more than three decades working in the English media, Sharifah Fatimah quit her job and took the plunge into giving free tuition to village kids.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n” I could see that the kids didn’t understand simple English I used to speak to them,”<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n“A good foundation in the language goes a long way, and I want to help them,” recalls Sharifah on her encounter with her neighbours’\u00a0 kids that prompted\u00a0 her to give them tuition.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thevillagemyhome.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/IMG-20240117-WA0003.jpg?resize=500%2C376&ssl=1\")
<\/div>\nHappy kids:\u00a0 Learning can be fun too.<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\nIt was Hari Raya in\u00a0 Kampung Paya Luas, Segamat, Johor in 2019, shortly after\u00a0 Sharifah and her husband Din moved from Petaling Jaya to live in the village.<\/div>\n<\/div>\nSharifah quit her job in Star Media Group in Petaling Jaya\u00a0 in January 2019 after working there for 24 years.<\/div>\n<\/div>\nIn Kampung\u00a0 Paya Luas, her first pupils are two girls whose mother is a single mother.<\/div>\n<\/div>\nTheir four cousin sisters also joined in.<\/div>\n<\/div>\nTwo months later she started to teach them Mathematics and Science too.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n“They\u00a0 told me they were weak in both subjects,” says Sharifah, adding that she also guides them on other subjects whenever they asked for help.<\/div>\n<\/div>\nAnd it is back to school for Sharifah-\u00a0 get reference books and re learn the subjects according to the syllabus in order to guide the kids.<\/div>\n<\/div>\nSharifah and Din, both 60,\u00a0 \u00a0have three daughters who are in their 20s now -Shahirah and Shahidah have graduated from Universiti\u00a0 Malaya and Universiti Sains Malaysia respectively while\u00a0 Shafiqah is studying in UiTM, Shah Alam.<\/div>\n<\/div>\nSharifah who has a diploma in Public Administration from ITM (Institut Teknologi Mara, Sabah in 1984 was with\u00a0 New Straits Times (1985 -1995)\u00a0 and Star Media Group (1995 – 2019 January)<\/div>\n<\/div>\nGrowing up, studying, working and staying in Petaling Jaya all the while,\u00a0 she says she can see the disparity in facilities between cities and villages.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n“There is only one tution centre outside our village, and it can also be costly to send the kids there,” she adds.<\/div>\n<\/div>\nWhen the Covid 19 pandemic and movement control order (MCO) came into force in March 2020, Sharifah says she discovered lots of teaching videos by professional school teachers.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n“They are very helpful in teaching me how to teach the kids,” she adds.<\/div>\n<\/div>\nOn overcoming challenges in learning English in a village setting, Sharifah says exposure to more English materials helps, but villagers generally could not afford books.<\/div>\n<\/div>\nAbout six months ago Sharifah reached out to another four kids who stay a bit far from her village.<\/div>\n<\/div>\nThey are in Year 2, 3, 6 and Form 1.<\/div>\n<\/div>\nShe teaches them on Fridays and Saturdays.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n“They are cared for by their grandfather who is a school gardener and their\u00a0 grandmother\u00a0 is illiterate.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n“I fetch them from their house and send them home or else they couldn’t come for the tuition,” says Sharifah, adding that she enjoys teaching the kids and watching them improve in their studies.<\/div>\n<\/div>\nAnd she is proud that the kids call her nenek (grandma in Bahasa Malaysia).<\/div>\n<\/div>\nSharifah says she and Din enjoy\u00a0 interacting with the kids who brighten up\u00a0 their home.<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"