“The Everlasting Spark” Online sharing session had been done on 7 December 2021.

The poster of the event organized by PTUM.

Madam Rasyidah is the first Malay in Malaysia to report Mandarin news. Till now she is working in Mandarin newscaster at RTM for the TV2 Channel. She studied in a Chinese primary school from Standard 1 to standard 6 and went to Chinese private school from Form 1 to Form 6. She also went to UTAR to pursue her degree in Bachelor of Public Relations.

How did Mrs. Rasyidah get in touch in Mandarin

When she saw her Chinese friends play around together and speak with Chinese and she was envious on that time. So, she decided to start to learn Chinese language in primary school.

On the first day in a Chinese school, she didn’t feel uncomforted with the situation in a place using her mother tongue because she was surrounded by friends with different ethnic such as Chinese, Malay, Indian, Iban and more.

She said “I made up my mind to learn Mandarin during primary school because I don’t want to regret in the future.”

Challenge when learning Mandarin language

Overall, the learning process for Chinese language is not a difficult process but the only challenge was learning Classical Chinese language.

Her parents helped her to find teachers and tuition central to help her when she was having difficulties in learning mandarin. “My childhood is full of tuition,” she added.

The challenge for working as a Mandarin newscaster

“In my opinion, as at the professional level, the most challenging part is the pronunciation. I think it’s a challenge, but I’ll feel amused and delighted when I overcome it. I’m not just referring to the Malays. If you come from a certain native background, the way you speak and the way you pronounce might probably be affected too. If it’s Mandarin, you’ve to think of the initials, vowels, retroflex, alveolars and so on,” she said.

The pronouncing is important to have certain teachers to teach because sometimes the pronounce of words might be wrong although you feel you are pronouncing it as usual.

Although it was a challenge for Mrs. Rasyidah to learn how to pronounce correctly, she finds it interesting to practice by reading any words she saw when she was traveling outdoors.

She had experience about reporting many types of news such as politics, sports, international news. Credit from YouTube Channel PTUM.

“I interviewed a lot of news before, including international news, interview with the Prime Minister or news about the by-election. Personally, I would prefer to report soft news, which are influential and full of positivity,” she said.

Handicapped rider work as a driver. Credit from YouTube Channel PTUM.

For example, she like the kind of soft news which can be motivative such as a food delivery man who is handicapped but was still able to ride a motorcycle and work normally. Therefore, she thinks that news was quite inspiring.

The advantage of learning Mandarin

The biggest advantage of learning mandarin for Madam Rasyidah is she can manage her business without intermediates.

“I can buy the products with cheaper prize without intermediate’s help because I can communicate directly with the sellers,” she said.

When she travels, she can communicate with the people around directly by learning mandarin. She can also watch and enjoy about Chinese drama and songs. Besides that, when she read certain topics of news, she can have a wider look at different perspective such as perspective as a Malay and the perspective from Chinese community.

“I think no matter what language you learn, you’ve to speak it out bravely. Especially when you’re learning English, if someone notices that your grammar is incorrect, they will make jokes about you, as if you can’t travel to the United Kingdom. I think if you care too much about what other say, you can’t learn anything at all,” she said.

In the end of the session, she encourages us to be brave to learn any language. Credit from YouTube channel PTUM.