What’s it like being a Tamil school student in Malaysia? An ex-student tells us.

Coming from a traditionally Indian family, it was no surprise that my siblings and I were sent to a Tamil school. I’ve been asked many things about Tamil school, like… do we dance around trees like in Bollywood movies? No lah, come on lah dei.

I also have a love/hate relationship with telling people that I’m a Tamil school student (TSS, for short) because they’ll drama betul like the ayam goreng McD commercial all I cannot tahan lah.

“Fuyooh tamil school ah!”

“Eh not bad ah you!”

“WOW!!!”

These reactions amuse me greatly because the people who responded this way were all Malaysians. Malaysians who have been here for years and would probably not react this way when someone says they went to SK or SJK(C). Though I feel like a unicorn whenever this happens, it kind of gets tiring sometimes lah. 

As an ex-TSS, I’d like to share a few things about what it’s like to study in a Tamil school.

 

1. Yup, the pressure to be fairer still exists! 🙂

Like this one Cilisos writer who kena her whole life because she had dark skin, I also kena. Indian people have always appreciated fair skin over dark skin. Isn’t it quite lousy for a race that has mostly dark skin to bash dark skin girls? ?

Teachers also siap bagi advice for you to lighten your skin. I WAS 12! 12!!! What part of that demographic did these adults never understand? I was advised not to play around in the sun too much which was useless advice because I never listened. I vividly remember being asked by a teacher if I had wanted to be more like Aishwarya Rai, Trisha or Tamannaah. All three were fair-skinned actresses. At that moment, I wished I was fairer because fair-skinned people didn’t get swamped with fairness creams and unnecessary advice.

Their reason for this confrontation is usually :

“Oh, boys will make fun of you!”

“You’ll never get a boyfriend if you’re dark!”

“I’m saying this for your own good!”

“It’s hard to find someone who will marry a dark-skinned girl!”

Rather than being taught to be more confident in my skin, I was conditioned to please boys! Pebenda???

I mean, Kali, one of the many Indian goddesses, is dark but very beautiful. In all the 20 years I’ve been in this Earth, I’ve never heard anyone say Kali is ugly. Go lah, go tell Kali to use Fair and Lovely! If only, dark skinned Indian girls were praised and appreciated the same way fair skinned girls are treated. Obviously, 12 years old me, had no one to look up to as a role model. NO. ONE.

Let’s not forget the friends who think it’s all in the name of fun. It’s not. I was called Dr. Burn, who is a local Indian artist who is dark skinned. Though initially, this friend actually called me roti bakar. I was pretty much done with that friendship so, I ended it. They, later on, begged me to talk to them so, I kawan balik. Reda je lah.

My years of studying in primary and secondary schools were a rough time for me but now I have that inner glow that outshines errbody. The ‘ada-aku-kesah’ glow. Try it! In the beginning, fake it. Just don’t tell anyone. Later on, you’ll come to realise your confidence is real and not fake. Like that Malay peribahasa sikit-sikit, lama-lama jadi bukit or something like that lah.

 

2. We also pray but in Indian way.

In SK, usually the Ustaz or a student recites the prayers and in SJK(T) we’d typically have 2-3 students who would lead the prayers every Monday. Interestingly enough, in SJK(C) there are no prayers before assembly.

Assembly begins with a prayer song (thevaram), and all Tamil schools practice this tradition. Non-Hindus stand quietly while Hindu students pray and there’s no objection if they decide to pray along too. I usually stutter and mumble my way through the songs because I wasn’t well versed as the others. The girls who lead the prayer songs usually have such beautiful voice that Jaclyn Victor boleh kalah wo!

After we were done with singing the prayer songs, we then meditate for about 10 minutes. We’d also play a song that repeatedly says ‘Om’ but has a soothing background music. I’m not sure if other Tamil primary schools carry out this activity, but my school did this because it was our headmistress’ idea. This activity was more recreational than religious, therefore, all students regardless of their religion participated. We meditated to clear our mind and relax our body. Obviously, the students will play around poking their friends, peeking their eyes open and trying not to giggle.

I usually just use this opportunity to sleep. I peek around a little, not that I have any reason for that. It’s really fun when you lock eyes with your friends and giggle quietly because you’re being naughty, but start sweating when the teacher says she sees a few students not concentrating. Sometimes, I concentrate too hard in trying to clear my mind that I fall asleep because of the extreme effort. A girl needs her sleep lah. Am I right or am I right?

 

3. Friends be teasing you left, right, upside down when you speak in BM/English.

Most of the students, about 99.9% of TSS, speak Tamil in school and home so, the only place to cultivate them to speak English and Malay is in school. Teachers warned us to only speak in BM or English during BM and English classes. If not, kena rotan or denda 50 sen.

If I remember correctly, we were told to speak in Malay if it was Minggu Bahasa Malaysia and English if it was English week. Although it was only for five days, 12 year old me took this as a death sentence. Why? Malu lah. Students talked to each other but it only lasted a few minutes because both of them felt insecure with their pronunciations and felt awkward because it wasn’t the norm.

However, while this is a great way to grow our language muscle, the odd thing is this. Students actually look at you funnily! I don’t know the origins of it, but if a boy speaks in English, he’s called Peter and if it’s a girl, she’s Peter akka which directly translates to Peter’s sister. Never knew why Peter’s sister was never given a name.

If we’re feeling extra sassy, we say “Saapdrathu sambar’u aana pesarathu English’u” when translated means “Why are they speaking in English if they eat sambar?” which is actually calling Indians out for eating an Indian dish but not speaking in Tamil. Childish, I know but it seemed fun back then. I think it was karma for what I experienced in SMK.

Actually, mocking someone for learning a different language (ESPECIALLY ENGLISH!) isn’t uncommon. This problem even happens in the Malay and Chinese community.

A friend of mine from SK was teased for speaking in English by her friends :

My English teacher told us to practice talking in English after class and me and my friends followed her advice. When some students heard us talking in English to each other, they looked at us funnily. I didn’t really care anyways because my English was better than theirs. – A friend from SK.

Being in a multiracial country, it’s important for us to be able to speak to everyone. Knowing how to speak in BM and English (and your mother tongue if you’re well versed in it) will also expand our job opportunities. Plus, we’ll know if anyone talks smack about us in a different language.

I guess I should have listened to my teacher’s advice because I could barely hold a conversation in BM or English in secondary school. My thick Indian accent made me self-conscious whenever I talked to my non-Indian friends. Unfortunately, the way I spoke BM was more to textbook BM so my life in secondary school was BM lisan everyday. The amount of times I’ve used ‘saya’ aduhhh!

I envy people who are able to speak fluent Malay because they sound very cool! No worries though because now I have pretend arguments in the shower in BM to perfect my BM. All’s good! ??

 

4. SK students have it easier in UPSR as compared to SJK(C) and SJK(T) students.

Look, UPSR is way harder for SJK(C) and SJK(T). Not only must we get an A for our respective first language papers to avoid embarrassment from teachers, friends and family but we must also pass our Bahasa Malaysia papers to not sit in remove classes when we move to our secondary school! 

SK students are very lucky because they don’t have to enrol in remove classes even if they fail. But now, the gomen has implemented the Primary School Standard Curriculum (KSSR) in 2017 whereby the level of BM in SK, SJK(C) and SJK(T) is standardised. They did this to remove the remove classes.

Before we had KSSR, there were several NGO’s that helped the TSS. These NGO’s are some of the reasons as to why TSS push themselves to score straight A’s. One in particular that I remember was the Ilham project. This project was organised to guide straight A’s students from Tamil schools to continue excelling in secondary schools. It’s a five year program where the students will be involved from Form 1 until Form 5. These students also receive an ang pau of RM 90 that’s banked in yearly in their account. I didn’t join this project though but I’ve heard from my friends that it’s a great initiative to bring all the TSS together.

At the end of the day, we, TSS, must try our very best to score in our UPSR because we need to compete with other TSS to gain a spot in any secondary schools because…..we don’t have a Tamil secondary school.

 

5. Wait… you’re telling me there’s SMK and SMJK(C) but no SMJK(T)??

Yes! And that’s because there have been several people urging the gomen to build a Tamil secondary school to provide a sense of normalcy to the TSS, but gomen tolak because apparently there was a lack of provision under the existing education laws. 

There was only one secondary school with Tamil in its name, and that’s SMK Vivekananda. It was built in 1958 with the name Sekolah Menengah Tamil Vivekananda and was officiated by the first prime minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman. Later on in 1960, the school was renamed to Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Vivekananda.

As there’s SMK, SMJK(C), International schools, agama schools… it’s only fair to have a Tamil secondary school. By having a Tamil secondary school, Indians mother tongue can be preserved as well as encouraged to be used more among its people.

Although there are 523 primary tamil schools in Malaysia, some are too small to be identified as a school. No joke, some are as small as a padang. Most of these schools also need refurbishments to cater to the students and any future projects that the school might hold. Maybe that’s why there’s no Tamil secondary school. We assume that maybe the gomen scared there’ll be few students in Tamil secondary schools, so they decided not to built one at all? We don’t know for sure. 

 

6. It’s such a headache to find for POL teachers.

Imagine going from learning your mother tongue for four days in a week in primary school to one day in a week in secondary school. And THAT itself is considered good already. Here’s why.

Usually, people’s own language classes (POL) will be available for students to learn their mother tongue but there’s a catch. Classes will only be held if there’s a minimum of 15 students. Any less, and you can say bye bye to learning your mother tongue in school.

There are Tamil language teachers in schools that have a high intake of TSS. On the other hand, you have schools that need to find Tamil teachers from other schools to teach the POL students. For example, my school. 

Students, myself included, who chose to sit for SPM Tamil paper had to find a teacher from another school who didn’t mind teaching after school hours for three hours.

Besides, three hours a day for a week was not enough so, we had to attend tuition. Listen here, learning a subject two days in a week for SPM is not enough, ok?

Believe it or not, my principal tried to brainwash me to not sit for the SPM Tamil paper. She was afraid I’ll fail the paper and bring down the CGPA and this motivated me to prove her wrong and I did! I’m still mildly surprised till this day that I got an A- in my Tamil paper.

Needless to say, if there was a Tamil secondary school, I wouldn’t have struggled as hard as I did just to learn my mother tongue in my teen years. Quite sedih lah that I had to go through this mess since I was 13. ?

 

If it’s so hard to jaga the language, why bother?

We, Indians, may very well turn into Elsa and sing Let It Go and move on from this problem but nah, sorry can’t do that. When the people stop using a language, the value of the language reduces. Some even say that there’s no use in speaking Tamil because the people don’t speak it. People do speak Tamil in Malaysia so, I don’t know why some aunties and uncles say that lah!

As an Indian in Malaysia, I just want to be able to learn my mother tongue as easily as the Malay people do without fighting tooth or nail. The reason we bother preserving a language, goes further than trying to let it to die. Most Malaysians don’t have a relationship with their grandparents because they don’t know how to speak their mother tongue. I mean, if you know how to speak, guess how many inside jokes you’ll probably have with your extended family? Just saying, jangan marah!

Some might find it hard to speak in Tamil and totally disregard in learning it. Do you know how excited I get when I see a fellow Indian? The inside jokes about movies, talking about each other’s family, Deepavali murukku recipes and the endless amount of gossip! ALL IN TAMIL!!! 

Though I have to ask, if it’s not us, Indians, preserving the language, who is it going to be?