The Bad Habits of a UTP Student
November 12, 2007 by Henry Yew
- Taking library books from the library shelves but never return them to their respective places.
- Playing with fire crackers that annoy other hostel residents despite being off festive seasons. I find this mighty childish and inconsiderate of those students, despite some being FINAL YEAR STUDENTS.
- Staring at other people photocopying past-year examination papers in such a way that the person photocopying their materials feel so uncomfortable because they are being stared in such a way as if they have been using the photocopier for ages.
- Booking discussion rooms in the library but in the end fails up to even turn up in the library in the first place.
- Coming to the library to study with friends but in the end chatting among one another that the library starts to feel like a market place rather than a quiet place for people to study.
- Using Bahasa Melayu to communicate with one another despite having international students among them who do not understand a word of Bahasa Melayu.
- Making so much noise at night by shouting or singing loudly while passing by corridors while fellow housemates are sleeping.
- Revving up their motorcycles at night while people are sleeping or revising their subjects.
- Making appointments at 10.00 pm, only to show up half an hour later.
- Making appointments at 10.00 pm, only that other people get to know about the meeting half an hour before.
- Agreeing to participate in a group project, only to see that they become sleeping partners.
- Asking other friends to sign in their (referring to absentees) attendance on their behalf.
- Asking lecturers to extend the deadlines for the assignments even though they were given a month to complete their tasks.
- Lack of initiative to improve their standard of English when their spoken English is as horrible as one who has never learnt English before. Quite frankly, even five-year-old kids can speak better English than some university students.
- Being shy to ask questions to lecturers when in doubt about a certain subject. (Why is that so? Refer to statement 14 and you will understand why.)
Posted in Education, Henry Yew, Random, Social, University Issues | 15 Comments
Henry Yew
Perfect! Exactly everything that people here seem to do WRONG. Idiots. Haha!
And by the way, you’ve got my link wrong as well.
Agreed. UTP students’ culture is a lil bit disappointing. No, that would be understatement; it is VERY disappointing. Well, my dad brought me up in a strict and disciplined way where I must get up early in the morns and must always be early for everything. My dad always says that if there is an appointment or any meeting, be there early and or least be punctual by being there 5 mins or so before the meeting starts. I must say every seniors I know so far could not be compared to my dad. Seniors being unprincipled and show such bad examples prove only one thing- UTP students’ terrible culture will never change and is going to affect the freshies too. That is why it has been UTP’s culture. Seniors tak berubah, mana taknya…O_o
Another thing…UTP students aren’t warm. No, they are not. Yala, not all of them are like that, but mostly. And no offense,they are usually the Malay bunch. I mean, does it hurt to smile or even give a slight nod as a salutation? This one bad culture is that UTP students act snobbishly as in staring at others but can’t even muster themselves to greet the people they meet. And seniors some more. What is this? Back in my hometown, the people are so warm that they will at least have the decency to smile. That is truly Malaysian. UTP is worse than kampung. Really terrible, horrible, and vegetable.
Leslie, you’re a student in UTP too? Which batch and course are you?
Cheers,
Jared.
Leslie..i am senior in utp(haha)..final yr student..there was no juniors want to smile to me..because my face looks very ‘garang’ and people scared the hell out of me..so how am i gonna smile to you?can you show us some photo of yours,so that i can smile to u?
::cheers::
for me,i do agree with some of the points.like using b.m.hey,chinese and indian student also speak mandarin and tamil among themselve.even the malays also not understand what they’re talking about.plus,the foreigner also prefer to speak their own language among them.so,is it a bad habit? it’s up to us la what language we want to use,we have our own language.is not like we don’t respect them but we feel comfortable when speaking malay among us.actly,i think any country is like that.like japanese,they prefer to speak in their own language,even their prime minister don’t know how to speak english and need a translater to speak on behalf him.then,bout the standard of english.i admit that many students can’t communicate in english very well but the foreigners who came also hv a bad english.it’s normal k.but as time goes by,their englis is improving.then the firecraker thing.don’t be so narrow minded and think that only children can play the firecraker.anyone can play it.and i’m really sure that the person who wrote all those things are so nerd and like to live alone.hey,if you want the perfect place,go to Havard or Oxford or MIT.maybe u’ll find the all the good quality of a student there.UTP is UTP.but still,we need improvement.all the bad things,it won’t disappear in a second.and u’ll find it in anywhere u go.trust me,it’s human nature.not UTP students’ nature.hehe..all da best for final…
Hello from the Turkmen bunch
UTPians are still warm and nice compared to other people. Maybe you’ve just been there too long…
Life:
It is very true that all of us have our own languages. However, what I am trying to say here is that, if there are international students among us in the conversation, let us not confine ourselves to using only Bahasa Melayu, as they cannot understand our conversation. I said Bahasa Melayu because all Malaysians can understand that, regardless whether you are a Malay, Chinese or Indian. With that in mind, we should understand that international students, being foreigners, are not able to understand our conversation if we use Bahasa Melayu. As a sign of respect, we should use English as it is the international medium of communication.
Of course, within your own groups, you can always use your own languages to communicate with one another, whether it is English, Bahasa Melayu, Mandarin, Tamil, Arabic or even French.
[...] Good Habits of a UTP Student 15 11 2007 Now that I’ve written on the bad habits of a UTP student, it wouldn’t be fair if I don’t write on the good side of UTP students, right? So here [...]
[Jared]- I am NABS. Anyway, nice to meet you.
And how do you do?
I am an foundation first sem student.Taking a course i would never have
dreamt of taking: ICT. Anyway, well, since i am here d, wat to do?
One of the UTP student’s bad habit is that they do not want to be friendly with international students. If we speak to them, the students respond back us jz a few necessary words.
As a international student, we need to get the warmly welcome of local people. We may also need so many help also..There are over 600 international from 3000 UTP student. But when u go to canteen, u won’t see the international sudents and local students speaking or eating togethe except meeting or discussion. Moreover when i go to sport complex with my friend. we usually ask local students that do u wanna play together with us..but they respond me back, i m sry thz..it is already full..how sad..
I mean to most of them… some of the local student feel warmly to international student lol.but it is quite a few.i would like to request all of u to be warmly with international students because we are away from our family, friends and our beloved countries lol. Sometine we feel very lonely. u will see this kind of when u go to abroad lol naw..thz….
xymass:
I understand your feelings about our local students not giving a friendly treatment to international students. Personally, I do treat my international friends well and have, in my past experiences, worked with them in certain activities.
However, do understand that there is always a language barrier. Local students who are fluent and comfortable with the English language will have no problem making friends and conversing with international students. The problem lies when English is not considered as one of the main languages used in daily life. Thus, these students would rather not mix with international students than having to converse in English, which they might find, is not as fluent as you think.
If anything is to be blamed, it is our education system. Standards have dropped such that students today actually live in denial, thinking that their standard of English is very high (based on their A in the English examination), when it is actually the contrary. You could see that many students need not work very hard to get an A in the SPM English examinations, but don’t be surprised to see them scoring a C for GCE “O” Levels English.
No doubt international students in UTP feel as if they are sidelined. On my side and my friends who can work comfortably with international students, we could only hope to appease as many international friends as we could.
However, when we do try to help out, it is only fair that the international students do their side as well. Often, international students forget that “when in Rome, do what the Romans do.” There is a tendency that international students would bring their standards from home to UTP, and that could seriously bring about disappointment, distress and shock.
Malaysians have their own standards and societal norms and it is only our prerogative to ask all international students to conform by our standards and norms. We can change to help you suit better in our environment, but we would need you to adapt in our environment first, rather than imposing your standards on us. Although your standards have no harm on us whatsoever, do not expect us to readily accept your standards as there are many other constraints to be considered, politically or otherwise.
If the international students feel that they are not being respected by our locals, probably that’s because they are constantly displaying their “high and mighty” status in UTP. We know that you are international students, but we will not give you any special treatment as foreigners. The hospitality that we give you is the same that we give to our local students. We have worked equally hard like you, if not harder, to secure a place in a university. Don’t condescend to us and we won’t condescend to you. Remember, you have to EARN your respect, not DEMAND it.
I’ve had my fair share of good times and bad times with international students. That is why I dare to write all this. I admit on my part that our local students are not always in the right, but neither are the international students!
Bluntly put, if you don’t give a damn about us, our societal norms and our cultures, we won’t give a damn about you either.
OhmyGod. So true. SO SO true.
*hahaha. jared & linda so funny la.*
man, don be dat strict
it still to early to be adult,(mb not apply 2 u final year)
fire craker is da way student show protest to mngment,
aftr all, here is a place to find friend and do stupid things,
when you work,there r no time to be childish no more,
just let da boy be da boy, do wat u want to do……fell da life
No, no ,no… If you want to show protests to the management about certain things, playing with fire crackers is not the method. Why? That is because when you play fire crackers you only do so at night, when everybody from the management is not in campus!
If you are so brave enough to play with fire crackers as a sign of protest to the management, do so outside the Administrator’s office during the daytime. Of course, I am not responsible if you get expelled or arrested by the police.
What I am trying to say is that you cannot and must not invoke other innocent people’s wrath in order to show your displeasure towards the administrators. There are channels to do so. You can lodge complaints to the management, and if problems still persist, you can either report this matter to the Ministry of Higher Education or your embassy. You have your rights.
And the university is not a place for you to do stupid things, especially not at places where people want to sleep, rest or study. Have some respect for your community.
We are at least seventeen or eighteen years old. Some of you are already perhaps twenty-two or twenty-three. It is no time to be childish. That is silly. You want to feel the life? There are many ways to do that. Just get out of UTP and go somewhere to “feel your life”.
YOU HAVE NO RIGHT AND NO FREEDOM TO DO WHAT YOU LIKE AT THE EXPENSE OF OTHER PEOPLE’S COMFORT AND PRINCIPLES. Period.
Therefore, I heavily resent your statement, margerine.