“My son is currently in government secondary school. His Bahasa Melayu is not as good as we thought it’ll be; I wish he had a stronger foundation during his primary years”

“My girl missed school for a few months due to her hospitalization and she’s unable to catch up in class, especially Bahasa Melayu”

“I came across some Chinese school students who couldn’t give simple directions in Bahasa Melayu to an Indian fellow”

“Isn’t English and Mandarin more important than Bahasa Melayu? It’s only important here and not elsewhere”

These are some of the reasons we have heard from parents sharing online and in real life.

And its true Bahasa Melayu isn’t spoken widely except here, but isn’t that the point anyway? If you’re living in Malaysia, shouldn’t you be able to carry the tune of our national language? If you’re on vacation in someplace foreign, wouldn’t you expect them to know their nation’s mother tongue too?

Nelson Mandela once said, “If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.”

Imagine if you’re vacationing or studying abroad and you meet a Malaysian, isn’t it nice to be able to have a common language to speak?

Whilst Bahasa Melayu may not be the most important nor the most widely spoken language in the world today, it nonetheless remains our one and only national language. Bahasa Jiwa Bangsa, they say. It’s part of the nation’s identity.

Thus, it’s our duty as Malaysians to speak proper Bahasa Melayu.

We all believe we have a good grasp on Bahasa Melayu; take a short quiz below to see if we really can distinguish the right and incorrect spellings below:
Istirehat or Istirahat?
Rambut keriting or Rambut kerinting?
Komisyen or Komisen?
Losyen or Losen?

Bravo to you if you managed to differentiate the words above; but some had to refer to dictionaries or Google Translate.

What more your kids?

As a franchise of BM World, we want to help your kids master our national language in terms of speech and writing. They need it to converse with friends, purchase food and groceries, read, craft essays and more.

Unlike traditional tuition classes, our qualified teachers will conduct lessons through presentations, games, dramas and storytelling in Bahasa Melayu; which teaches kids not just the language but develop their public speaking, character and confidence level at the same time.

It’s also important to redefine the way we teach our kids today. After a long day at school, we want them to continue learning but this time, in an interactive way. They get to have fun and learn concurrently.

Come over for a visit and have your kid sit for a placement test. From it we’ll get to know their proficiency level and therefore enable the teachers to craft a proper study plan for them.

You can learn more about BM World here.

​This week is the #StandTogether National Kindness Week.

The challenge is an interactive WhatsApp chat bot developed by R.AGE and U-Report Malaysia. Users will receive Kindness Missions from the chat bot every day throughout the National Kindness Week, which they must complete within 24 hours.

At A Brilliant Child Care Centre, we too emphasize on fostering kindness in our kids, whether it’s helping a friend out, engaging in healthy competition or how to respond politely to insults, compliments or teasing.

How are you, as parents helping your kids to show kindness?
 
1. Are you as a parent treating everyone else right?
You are your kids’ role models. They mirror your moves because they don’t know any better. Your everyday frustrations while driving or when you feel your significant other isn’t helping in lessening the load of your daily chores; your child sees that and presumes it as a typical behavior.

But unlike them, you as a parent can quickly bite your tongue and pull yourself together. You are human, after all. It’s alright to let your kids know adults are no less than perfect. You slip up but make up for it at the end of the day.
 
2. Do your kids know how to distinguish theirs or other peers' emotions?
Children often do not know the words to describe their feelings and how to control them in the first place. Let alone another person’s feelings.

Show your kids how to identify and express emotions. Use real-life examples and give names to the many emotions as you and your kids go through the day. Teach them the proper way to react to these emotions, as well as when they encounter their friends and family displaying those emotions to show they care.
 

3. Do you encourage your kid to help others and expect nothing in return?
Kindness is free. Simple acts like cheering your friend up with a smile and giving good thoughts can be taught at home, or having your child watch you do it overtime.

Do it out of the goodness of your heart and see how it pays forward.
 

4. Are you treating yourself kindly in the first place?
We often spread positivity to make one’s day, but have we stopped being kind to ourselves? As parents, you often find yourself at the brunt end when the kids misbehave. But we want to reiterate again that you are only human. Your child is only human.

Take a breather and know you’ve done your best, and you’re not going to be a perfect parent. Rant in parent groups and forums, read articles and self-help books and somewhere along the way, you’ll come up with new ways on how to cope being a parent and not give yourself a hard time. In fact, give yourself a pat on the back whenever you’ve accomplished something in life or parenting, no matter how small it is.

The same it is for kids. They’re frustrated enough that they can’t do bigger kids’ stuff, they’re struggling with emotions that they don’t even know they have and they have a hard time distinguishing what is right and wrong.

How then, do we teach kids to self-love?

It’s important to carefully use words to show you understand what your kids are going through. They will feel angry when something doesn’t go their way, and as parents, you can encourage them to stop, regain their composure and work out other ways to get it done. Help your kids find out what activities make them happy, and you’ll be amazed to discover their strengths and what they can do. Accept them for who they are. As parents, it’s your responsibility to guide and nurture them in the right direction, but know you’re not in control of what they choose to be happy with.
 
We hope you’ve learnt a thing or two on how to cultivate kindness in yourselves and your kids. Remember, kindness and positive change begins with you.
​
Now, go out there with your kids and perform random acts of kindness and spread the love!