Monday, April 25, 2005

Here's an advice for students who wants to ace the Malay language examination but are lazy to read: (disclaimer: At your own risk.)

Listen more to songs by Indonesian Bands.

During my O level year, i had to sit for a Mock Malay Paper. As usual, there's that section where they provide you with a word and you're supposed to create a sentence with it. Unfortunately, my Malay writing ain't the best around and this section has always been one of my weakest.

I was reading thru the section and one of the words given was "Sejenak". If you listen to Sheila On 7, you'd know that they use this word quite a lot in their songs. I was so excited coz i actually knew what it meant and was able to create a perfect sentence! and, surprise suprise! When we got back that paper, my sentence was the MODEL sentence. Can u believe it?

You can choose to not believe me but, im confident enuff to say that my malay writing skills improved and was very much influenced by the music i was and still is listening too. I think the Indonesian language is a bit more refined. The songs inspired me to be more expressive in my compositions. However, i only got an A2 for my O levels. So if you wanna get an A1, i suggest you do some reading as well. And oh, how can i forget...Lots of practice!!
(If you wanna do well in English, READ. There's no escaping that...READ, READ, READ...it's great coz u get to choose books that YOU like. So get on with it.)

A lot of people say that Indonesian modern music is as good as International standard..which is why you see a lot of them performing in Australia, America, Europe & Japan. And i couldn't agree more. In fact, i think they're at a standard of their own. The music is beautiful & deep. They pay detailed attention to the music arrangement, beautiful orchestration and they're unafraid to be experimental. There's a song for almost everything and the "Love" theme has been potrayed in so many different ways that there's no getting enough of "love". Ok that's it...im getting carried away. I'll continue tomorrow. There's almost no stopping me once i start talking about Indon bands...really.

later.
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(i wish i could show you the music video for this song. it's Breathtaking...)
Song: Hitam
Band: Padi

Oh jiwaku
Di manakah aku kini
Kau bawa aku melintasi tempat yang tinggi
Oh tubuhku
Mengapakah engkau kini masih membisu
Tak kunjung bicara padaku
Oh, ceritakanlah padaku
Apa yang mengeruhkan hati dan jiwaku
Tolonglah,
Kau tuntunkan aku lagi
Agar ragaku menyatu bersama isi jiwaku
Penuntun jiwaku
Luruskanlah hatiku
Seandainya aku tahu
Apa yang akan terjadi nanti
Aku masih terus melayang
Bersandingkan langit Hitam
Masih melayang
Terus melayang

the glamourchine laughed at 4:40 AM