I was nervous when a Skype guest speaker request came into my inbox the other day. I understand that when I signed up, someday the first request will come. People say, the first time will always be the hardest but I say the first time is always mind-boggling. I didn't know where to start, although the teacher did mention that his students wanted to learn about Malaysia. Being born and raised in Malaysia suddenly made me an expert?


I love this song! Her voice was enchanting!

The realization of having to describe Malaysia in a short amount of time was certainly is not my choosing. I want to tell a lot of things, about my hometown, how we do things every day, how much we love being Malaysian. After some deliberation, I chose to share about Malaysian never-ending penchant for food and the glorious sandy beaches stretches that made Malaysia an island and a peninsular combined.

Picture taken by Mr. Alper Cifti

Ain't they cute?

The session went smoothly and judging by their body language, I knew they had a great time and I knew I certainly did. Although they seemed shy, the questions flowed at ease as they were teenagers with high curiosity (or it was their teacher's prompt? haha). I thought they were bright too.

I learned 3 things from the session:

The world is not defined by borders or ethnicity. Those students that I talked to came from the middle east with their family. Living in Australia, adopting the new country as theirs, adapting to new cultures and traditions made them into a world citizen. These days we should not stereotype countries with certain ethnicity but to be open to accepting people regardless of their religion or skin colour.

You don't have to be an expert at everything. What I think important in today's world, as people say living in the 21st century, is to be able to learn, unlearn and relearn. By embracing these three things, we can be optimistic of change and humbled by the knowledge we can learn from others.

Take pride in who you are. This is a value that I struggle to have, which only arrive as I grew older. The idea of the other side is always greener or taking pride is sin made me wonder about my true self, whether it is worth it. Now I do believe that everybody brings value into this world, therefore it is important to be proud of who you are and learn to own it. This will help you understand how you can contribute to the people around you.

I hope to be part of this guest speaker session sometime soon. Maybe it will teach me more about myself that I'm still discovering (I talk like a 20-year-old girl with a whole lot of possibilities! haha).

So, how about you? Have you tried being a Guest Speaker on the Microsoft Edu?