UNIVERSITI PENDIDIKAN SULTAN IDRIS

PROGRAM IJAZAH SARJANA MUDA PENDIDIKAN MOD PENDIDIKAN JARAK JAUH SEMESTER 1 TAHUN 2011 KUMPULAN EL-A17

NAMA KURSUS ENGLISH FOR COMMUNICATION 11 KOD KURSUS FIK 3042

ASSIGNMENT 3

An interview report on a prominent person who has contributed to the community.

NAMA PELAJAR SHAKIRAH BINTI MD SHAKIR NO MATRIK D20102045471

PENSYARAH AHMAD ZAINURI BIN LOAP AHMAD

Tarikh Hantar : 12 JUN 2011

BIOGRAPHY OF INTERVIEWEE

NAME : MR RAHMAT BIN JAHARI ADRESS : NO 7 KG MASJID, LEBUH NIPAH 2, 11900 SUNGAI NIBONG, PULAU PINANG. DATE OF BIRTHDAY : 20TH JULY 1965 AGE : 46 YEARS OLD EDUCATION : MAKTAB PERGURUAN ILMU KHAS EMPLOYEE : SEKOLAH KEBANGSAAN BUKIT GAMBIR JOB : HEADMASTER

Introduction It is cannot be denied that people are not doing their part in making our society a better place. They are always here among us working behind the curtains and they are certain not taken for granted by the community for their hard work. These people maybe a politician, social worker or just a plain civilian. If we go through our history, we can point out many people as examples and some of them are Thomas Edison, who invented light bulbs, Mahatma Gandhi who bought independence to India, And our former prime minister Tun Dr. Mahathir Muhammad. They are the people who contributed to the community on the large scale. But, there are still some people who contributing to the community on the small scale. Talking about these people who contribute to the community on the small scale, we must say that there are plenty of people who contribute to the community and I have been given a task to interview a prominent person who has contributed to the community. Since I am a teacher in a special education school, I have decided to interview my school head master since he has contributed a lot to the special education system and to the community around us. The interview I have had with him is an interesting one and I have learned many things from interviewing him.

The report My 3rd assignment for English for communication, I have been asked to conduct an interview with a prominent person who has contributed for the community. After thinking awhile on whom to choose for my interview, I had decided to choose Mr. Rahmat Bin Jahari who is the head master of my school, Sekolah Kebangsaan Bukit Gambir as the interviewee because he has contributed a lot to special education system, special education students and the community in Penang. I have decided to interview him for many reasons. He is one of the Malaysian Sign Language makers and alters, so, he had many experience in making Malaysia a better place to be lived by those less fortunate ones especially the ones communicate using the sign language. Besides making and modifying Malaysian Sign Language, he also contributed community by coming up with new ideas to make Malaysian Special Education better. Some of his works or ideas of him in this subject are coming up with brail incorporated books in Bahasa Malaysia, coming up with a systematic lesson plan for the special education syllabus and improve teaching and learning in sign language. Besides that, he is also contributing to the community he is living in by giving free sign language class to the public who wants to learn sign language. This

eventually leaded to a high number of Malaysian Sign Language literate people in Penang and this made it easy for the dumb and deaf to make their way around the city of Penang. His final contribution is the fund the donates every month for the disabled and the sick, from this we can say that he is very concerned about the well fare of others and cares for others. I had decided to interview him on 5th may, thus, I prepared all the necessary things to interview him. In order to interview him, I had to prepare all the interview questions and in order to prepare these interview questions I went out search for his history and background. By doing this survey on him, I have learned many thing I have not known about him. After collecting all the data about him, I had finally managed to come up with the questions I will be asking during the interview. But before I interviewed him, I had to ask his permission first on doing an interview with him and while asking for the permission I confirmed the time, date and venue of interview. After a long discussion with him, we both agreed to have the interview on the date I have decided and he wanted the interview to be conducted in morning and in his room. Even though I am very familiar with him as the head master of the school that I am working in, it gave me the butterfly in my stomach as I had to interview him for the first time and I kept on reminding myself that I must keep my boundaries of the questions so that I would not mistakenly ask any questions that would offend him or any question about his personal life. On the day of the interview, I went to that tall and slightly plump looking mans room and waited for him. After few minutes waiting, he came to his room and sat on his chairs ready to be interviewed by me. After a moment of abrupt silence, I asked him for his formal introduce introduction. He started to open his heart to my question and answer my question. He who is a 54year old gentleman is married for 28 years and has 3 children. His wife is a former teacher who is now a house maker who runs the chores of the house. Meanwhile, his three sons are studying in local universities. After hearing this, I had concluded that he is a man who gives importance to education since his children are top scorers in their studies. Later, I asked him about his early education and his early life. He replied saying that he went to Sekolah Kebangsaan Bukit Gambir,Penang and later continued his study in Sekolah Menengah Ibrahim in Sungai Petani. This is because her parents moved up north to Sungai Petani, Kedah when he was 12 years old. After finishing his SPM with flying colours, he continued his study in Maktab Ilmu khas taking teaching special education course. He reminisces the experiences he went

through while he was studying here for about 3 and a half years. After graduating from MPIK, he worked in the same school he is teaching right now that is Sekolah Kebangsaan Bukit Gambir, Penang. Later, he furthered his study to improve his knowledge in special education. Now, he is working as the headmaster in the same school. Feeling impressed after hearing his life journey, I asked him about how he got the interest and inspiration for doing such work community. With a brief silence, he stared to tell me his inspirational story. He said that he is who he is now today because of his time spend in his teachers training college during his early life. He continued telling his reasons and experiences that were the moulds of his attitude. He told me the most important reason that changed him to be the person he in now is his friend Aziz who is also a trainee teacher taking the same Special Education option in the teachers training college he was studying. Aziz was special to him because unlike other normal teacher trainee student who have their all senses well equipped and could perform normally, Aziz was Dumb; he became dumb after a mysterious ill attacked him during his childhood and left him dumb. This friend of my interviewee is the inspiration for him because Mr. Rahmat had personally seen what kind of troubles the disabled people face after being friend with him. Even though Aziz is well versed in Malaysian Sign Language since he is learning about it, he faced serious problem when communicating with the public. This happened because most of the public is not aware of the end does not know the sign language. After seeing all the hardships his friend faced, he decided to do something to make our country a better place for those less fortunate ones especially the dumb and deaf. Thus, we can see that he had improved our Malaysian Sign Language and giving free sign language classes to the public; he is doing all this to spread the sign language and to make it well known among the public. Later I asked him about why he does donate ample money to the charity, he replied saying he is doing this for his own satisfaction. After that, I asked him what he has achieved so far both in his career and his social works. Even though his contributions are prominent in the society of which we are living in, I had to ask this question formally to get his own answers and to record it. Without any sigh or worrying face gestures, he replied my question with a smile. What he thinks as his great achievement is the high number of Malaysian Sign Language speaking public in this community, he says that he is happy to see that many are able to communicate in sign language fluently

because they are attending the classes he are giving for free. This indirectly develops economic wellbeing of his community as those who are disabled come to Penang to thrive and make a living since living here would be easier with the high number of sign language literate people. Besides that, he is also happy to make a Malaysian Sign Language better; this is true since him with his panel of Malaysian Sign Language made many changes to the system and improved the sign language and made it apt for our national language Bahasa Malaysia. Besides that, he also had received Guru Cemerlang award for his contributions in his teachings. He also said that he like to consider every pupil of his as his own child. Yet, he says that the most highest achievement of his is the happiness the see in the faces of the people that he have helped. He proved to be a very humble man because he only mentioned his major achievements and left out many small achievements which in some ways is also very use full to the community. While speaking about his achievement he spoke with such humbleness and did not boast about any of his achievements. Frankly, after hearing about his achievements I also felt an urge to achieve something in life and to do good for other people because from him; I could see the happiness that comes from helping other people. After knowing about his achievements, I wanted to know about his experience and feeling that he gained from doing such contribution to the community. The first thing he mentioned to me when I asked him about this is satisfaction. In his own words, he tells me satisfaction is anything that brings gratification, pleasure, or contentment to someone after doing something which is presumably something that person likes to do. He says that he gets satisfaction in every single work he does in order to help others. From him saying like this, I had learned that he is a person who gives importance to humanism, I myself was personally awestruck of his attitude because most of the people I meet on the daily basis are very cynical and they always thrive for their own good and welfare. Most importantly, he got the satisfaction of fulfilling is duty as a Muslim because in the Islamic teaching it is said that helping other is a good deed and every Muslim must fulfill their duties by helping the poor and needy or in this case the disabled. Later on, headed to his speech saying that he gained a lot of experience in conducting events and gained profound knowledge in sign language; He gave an example of most difficult event he had conducted that is a charity concert done to collect fund for the disabled people and in this making this a success, he had to seek out our national celebrities like Misha Omar, Anuar Zain and Mawi. But, he claims that the most difficult part is working with

the agencies and public to make the event a success. At the end of this question, he said that he also gained the trust and the respect of the people of that that community and he could understand how people would behave in certain situations. With every passing question, I felt that I could understand my interviewee much better and I kept on asking the questions I have prepared for him. In this case, my next question was to talk about the support given by his family, friends and the people around him to make his efforts to make our country better place for the disabled people. After thinking for a while, he spoke. He said that the support given by his environment is really good. At the same moment, he thanked his wife for being very understanding towards his ambitions and goals, most importantly being together with whim through the rain and shine. He says that he would come back home very late after finishing his work and her wife would stay awake waiting for him with a warm food in the table. He also says that his wife does not mind him spending money for charity yet sheen courage him to do so any he says that he is lucky to have a wife like her. While thanking his wife, he also thanked his sons who sometimes provide him with some cash to conduct his activities. Telling me about the community about him that helped him, he said the teachers in his school were really helpful because they would volunteer to teach in the free Malaysian Sign Language class that he is holding and it is obvious that these free classes that were held are the main reason for the high number of Sign Language literate people in his community. Last but not least, he told his good experience with the public. He said that the public were really supportive to him in many ways. Some of the ways the public helped him were by giving him men power to carry out the events and activities, he is also very grateful to the public for giving him financial support by collecting funds or gathering money. Moving on to further discussions, I asked him about his future plans and how will he make these plans come true. As soon as I have asked him, he gave me a list of some useful plans to the disabled people and the community. Some of the things he listed out are; writing a book on Malaysian Sign Language and how to learn them easily, opening a free institution for civilians and disabled people to learn and acquire knowledge about special education, opening up free sign language classes all over Malaysia, opening a welfare home for those who are homeless and finally do more things or put in more effort to make sign language well known among the citizens of Malaysia. He is also very eager to make his school better by coming up with the plans

that would do well to the school, teachers of that school and the students of that school. He also wants to open a website and tell the world about how to make our community a better place and spread his ideas. As the final question, I asked him about what he would like to tell to the young and future generation. I said he could give any suggestions, idea or advice to the future generation regarding this subject. His eyes started to shine with the rays of hope as I asked him this question; his reactions were as though he was expecting me to ask this question to him. He started with telling what he is expecting from young generation. He said that the young generation must have the curiosity and interest in learning sign language. He said like this because the number of youths learning special education is getting lower and lower. If this thing continued there would not be anyone to maintain this knowledge and pass this knowledge to their successors. He also said that almost everyone of in the future generation must learn and be able to communicate in sign language. Even though this might sound a little outrageous, it is possible he says because if the learning of sign language is inserted into our education curriculum. This would eliminate the difference between the normal people and the disabled ones. Adding on to his suggestions, he also wanted more teens to join him in his quest and help him to make the community he lives in a better place. Because, the teens might not interested in sign language still they can contribute to the community by joining him in social works and extra. His final expectation from the youths is, he wants them to be more responsible and care for others especially those disabled ones. He said so because there are many youth related problems happening all around the corners of the country nowadays. After finished asking the entire question I have prepared, I wish him thanks and gave him a small gift as a souvenir for his cooperation. In conclusion, my interview with him has been very inspirational and motivational, I have learned many good values from him and I wish to follow his ways even in the slightest ways possible. This interview is also an eye opener for me about the importance of learning sign language. I sincerely wish Mr.Rahmat a pink of health for the rest of his life and I want him to keep on doing his contributions to the community.

Interview Questions 1. Could you tell about your family and your educational background? 2. Could you tell me what was your inspiration? 3. What you think you have achieved so far? 4. Can you describe your feelings and tell your experience on doing this? 5. Can you tell me about the supports you have received? 6. What are your future plans? 7. What would you like to tell to the young generation?