Another print worthy winning speech from one of the new members. Congratulations Yazlin. Well done!
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Celup in English means dipped or in this context I mean ‘of mixed parentage’.
It was a cold wet night on the 26th day of January 1985. A couple was awoken in the wee hours of the morning by the sudden labour pains of the wife of the man. He quickly rushed her to the Ipoh Specialist Center and within a few hours, a baby girl was born. That girl was named Yazlin. Her name was a combination of the man and the wife’s names. The following year, she had a sister in the family.
Yazlin was a bright child. She was very inquisitive and always wondered about how things in her surroundings work. At the age of five, she was placed in a kindergarten and that was among the first places she learned to socialize with other children. She always had a passion for music. It was at that kindergarten where she first learnt how to play the piano which she eventually completed her final grade of piano at the age of 14. Life was carefree and blissful there.
At the age of seven, she entered Standard 1 at the Main Convent Ipoh. It was quite a change for her to adapt to because coming from a family of mixed parentage with an English speaking background, many a time she felt like she was confused of her identity. More often than not, she would rather say that she isn’t Malay nor is she Chinese but should be categorized under ‘lain-lain’ which means ‘others’ or races that do not specifically belong to a category. She would also prefer to be categorised as ‘English’.
One would take for granted that a Malay child would be able to converse in the Malay language. However, little Yazlin couldn’t speak Malay except for a few simple words especially during her first year in Primary school. On the other hand, her maternal family is Hakka Chinese. She grew up listening to her mother speaking to her grandmother in the Hakka dialect. Communication between Yazlin and her grandmother is something worth observing. It is like a chicken and a duck communicating but somehow they understand each other. Her po-po (grandmother) would ask, “Yazlin, Sit Pau Mei?(what do you want to eat? in Hakka)” and she would answer in English, “I want chicken rice”, even until today.
In secondary school, Yazlin was a geeky person. She was as tall as a pole, as skinny as a stick with big frizzy hair and she wore glasses and braces. She felt like she didn’t really fit into any group and had some minor self-esteem problems. However, she always tried to hide those feelings and put on a different persona on the outside. She hid this well by joining the school choral speaking team, choir, English Language Society and also Girl Guides. In fact, she was also a school prefect. It was also during this time she got really involved in tenpin bowling. By Form 3, freshly roped into the national team, she was sent to Egypt for her first international assignment. Through these international exposures, she slowly shed her square image and gained self-confidence. One day, she looked into the mirror and thought to herself, “Hey, I don’t look so bad”.
Looking back, she realizes that her life experiences as a celup has taught her a lot about appreciating the Malaysian cultures and she is proud to be ‘Made in Malaysia’. So who is Yazlin? I am Yazlin.
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Celup in English means dipped or in this context I mean ‘of mixed parentage’.
It was a cold wet night on the 26th day of January 1985. A couple was awoken in the wee hours of the morning by the sudden labour pains of the wife of the man. He quickly rushed her to the Ipoh Specialist Center and within a few hours, a baby girl was born. That girl was named Yazlin. Her name was a combination of the man and the wife’s names. The following year, she had a sister in the family.
Yazlin was a bright child. She was very inquisitive and always wondered about how things in her surroundings work. At the age of five, she was placed in a kindergarten and that was among the first places she learned to socialize with other children. She always had a passion for music. It was at that kindergarten where she first learnt how to play the piano which she eventually completed her final grade of piano at the age of 14. Life was carefree and blissful there.
At the age of seven, she entered Standard 1 at the Main Convent Ipoh. It was quite a change for her to adapt to because coming from a family of mixed parentage with an English speaking background, many a time she felt like she was confused of her identity. More often than not, she would rather say that she isn’t Malay nor is she Chinese but should be categorized under ‘lain-lain’ which means ‘others’ or races that do not specifically belong to a category. She would also prefer to be categorised as ‘English’.
One would take for granted that a Malay child would be able to converse in the Malay language. However, little Yazlin couldn’t speak Malay except for a few simple words especially during her first year in Primary school. On the other hand, her maternal family is Hakka Chinese. She grew up listening to her mother speaking to her grandmother in the Hakka dialect. Communication between Yazlin and her grandmother is something worth observing. It is like a chicken and a duck communicating but somehow they understand each other. Her po-po (grandmother) would ask, “Yazlin, Sit Pau Mei?(what do you want to eat? in Hakka)” and she would answer in English, “I want chicken rice”, even until today.
In secondary school, Yazlin was a geeky person. She was as tall as a pole, as skinny as a stick with big frizzy hair and she wore glasses and braces. She felt like she didn’t really fit into any group and had some minor self-esteem problems. However, she always tried to hide those feelings and put on a different persona on the outside. She hid this well by joining the school choral speaking team, choir, English Language Society and also Girl Guides. In fact, she was also a school prefect. It was also during this time she got really involved in tenpin bowling. By Form 3, freshly roped into the national team, she was sent to Egypt for her first international assignment. Through these international exposures, she slowly shed her square image and gained self-confidence. One day, she looked into the mirror and thought to herself, “Hey, I don’t look so bad”.
Looking back, she realizes that her life experiences as a celup has taught her a lot about appreciating the Malaysian cultures and she is proud to be ‘Made in Malaysia’. So who is Yazlin? I am Yazlin.
