Growing up in Sibu - Multi lingual

I grew up with Oxford English series from "A Pen and a Man...", Peter and Jane series, Enid Blyton was a known name, Aesop's Fables taught me morals not the 44 values of Pendidekan Moral,besides Greek Mythology, I had King Arthur and His Knights as warrior educators,great names of missionaries, adventurers etc.

I was born three months before the Hoover Memorail building (my primary school) was officially opened.

A global education.

I did not attend double session in thoses days ie. English education in the morning and Chinese education in the afternoon. My 7th aunt told me that before the war only the very bright ones could do both, or the wealthier ones. Those who attended only the Chinese had to work extra to help their families earn extra. some did not go to school until they were 10 years old due to financial difficulties. And with only a few years of basic education, they would leave school by the time they were 16 . In a year or two they became parents. the Methodist Church encouraged both boys and girls to go to school. Those without parents or had only one parent, were put in the boarding school and were called MISSION children, not orphans.

In Form One I studied BM, and at age 40 I started learning Chinese. In the first year of university I took Jawi as part of my Malay subject and Sanskrit as my second language. This was part of the regulation of those days. Others took Japanese, Chinese, Tamil, German and French.

Today I speak 4 languages,and 3 Chinese dialects and can understand some secret messages between Hakka and Cantonese...

Sibu was originally a Hokkien/Minnang speaking town where shopkeepers were descended from the earliest Minnang migrants to Borneo. It was only later in 1901 that the Foochows arrived. Even the Hakkas, Teochiews and Cantonese were earlier settlers.

There were schools before I was born, using Foochow as medium of instruction!

Basic education continues today in the rural and urban areas and remains compulsory but a lot of politicians have derailed the main principles of education.