Once upon a time, I was a student of English Literature in my school (Convent School). I was picked up by my teacher to join the first batch of English Literature that time…He really want me to do English literature beside Malay literature that I was studying on that time…because I seem to refused his proposal, he made an effort to negotiate with my father in order to influenced me to do so… (memang beriya betul Sir tu…) Because it was my father requests, I made my decision to join the group because I trust my father the most… Believe it or not, there were only 5 Malay students in that class and the other half were Chinese and Indian. (We are the experiment batch actually)

That is how the word literature comes into my life… Then, it follows with my father’s (again) choice who wants me to join IIUM and taking English and Literature course… (again, pity me) Actually, it was my father who fills up the UPU form and made all the choices for me. Not, even my mother though. (she just agree with him) That’s why my siblings and some of my relatives said that I’m a father’s daughter, am I? God knows better…

However, after four years been ‘into linguistics and literatures’, it made me realize that actually this course goes well with me, Alhamdulillah… Therefore, I’ve to thank my teacher and my beloved father for ‘forcing’ me to this course.

Okay, as I endure this course, I think I prefer more on literature because in literature I can explores the world of beauties in words and the language… I love literature also because by learning it we have borderless of knowledge to dig up. For instance, you can learn about history, geography, science, society, politics, customs, and belief among others.

When I study English Literature, I’ve learned about Christianity, the people lifestyle in certain period such as Elizabethan era, Romanticism era, Victorian era and what not…Even though I kind of hate it for the first place, but as I explores the field, I feel the sweetness insides (chewah!)

I also love to interpret poetry…the most inspiring to my life is the poem by Robert Frost “The Road Not Taken” (I’m sure you also like it right Madam) I’ve learned this poem in my secondary school and I’m the one who recites it to class, hehe… (proud) Currently, I also adore the poems by Malaysian writer, Muhammad Haji. Salleh. It attracts me when I first read a poem by him which is about his daughter. He dedicates the poem to his new born daughter. I was touched by the words he chose and how he plays with the words in describing the WORLD to his daughter. It catches my attention (and makes me cry at last, sob…sob…) because the way he portrays the father-daughter relations similarly with me and my beloved father…

Last but not least, I also enjoy studying linguistics such as Phonetics and Phonologies, Sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics etc…Emm, not to forget, Linguistic Approach to Literature by Dr. Normala. For me, as I learned the course, it catches my interests because in that course we learn on how to interpret literature linguistically… As Aida said before “Once you get the hang of what Dr. Normala is saying, the class would definitely be a breeze for you all”. Finally, I thank GOD for sending me here to fulfilling my life with knowledge and plus the Islamic surroundings I must say, where can you find such a wonderful university like IIUM… Bliss, Bliss, Bliss…