learning as a teacher

Usually before I begin my first class, I will let my students know that throughout the learning period, they are not the only students in the class. Because I am a student too. I always believe that even I am the teacher, I will learn a lot of things from my students as well. And that's one of the best part that I really truly enjoy as a teacher.

So far I've learned quite a lot of things. But then, I never wrote it down somewhere. Not even here and I started to realized that I tend to forget the things that I've learned.

So starting from today, I will write down things that I learn so that I can always refer to it here in future and of course, to share it with my readers ( 3 of you) as well.

Ok, why do I sound so formal lah? Must be too much hours working with formal documents. Hehehe...

So, I went to my student's house the other day and I saw something dangling from her kitchen's cabinet. I've seen the kuih before at roadside and I know it's Bak Chang but I don't know what it is. They are wrapped with bamboo leaves (I think) and for sure I know it's non-halal because bak means pork. Then I asked my student,

Me: "Hey, what is that? It looks like Malay kuih koci"

Student: "Bak chang...you want teacher? Very nice..."

Me: (tempted to say yes) oh...but it's bak. I can't eat lah...pork maaa...

Student: "Eh? You know meh teacher? Right also lah..I also didn't realized got bak inside. It got rice, salted egg then sometimes got red bean. Very nice teacher..."

Me: "It really look like Malay kuih, I always saw it by the roadside at town. Always wonder what it is"

Student: "Actually teacher, there's a story about this bak chang.."

Me: "Tell me! Tell me! I want to know"

Student: "Err...sure ar teacher? But you don't give me homework ar since I tell you this story. Consider this as my homework" *peace sign*

Me : *peace sign*

Student: "Well, long, long long time ago in China........."

Of course the story was so jumbled up as being told by my student. Apparently she forgot it halfway and I need to Google it to find out the whole story. Hahahaha..but very interesting thing I tell ya. So here's the story.



So it seems that there was a famous poet in China. He was a good and a very loyal citizen. He tried to warn the king (my student said he try to warn the China sultan LOL! LOL!) about an attack but the king refused to listen to him. So when the enemy took over the kingdom, this poet was so depressed about the kingdom fall that he drowned himself in a river.

In the river, there were man eating fish. So the people were so scared that fish will eat the poet, they made bak chang and threw it in the river so that the fish will eat bak chang instead of the poet. Haaa...that's the story of bak chang. Sempoi isn't it?

What fascinates me the most is the fact that there is a story of a simple dish's origins. I really think it shows how beautiful a culture or folk tale could be. I wonder if roti canai and nasi lemak have any stories as well. Hmmm...maybe I should Google it now! :)