ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE

FACULTY OF LANGUAGES AND

COMMUNICATION
FIK 3042- ENGLISH FOR COMMUNICATION
2
ASSIGNMENT 3

Interview report
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

For 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 a
while on whom to choose for my interview, I had decided to choose Mr. Abdul Rahman B.
Mohd Said who is the head master of my school, Sekolah Kebangsaan Pendidikan Khas Ipoh as
the interviewee because he has contributed a lot to special education system, special education
students and the community in Ipoh. 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 Ipoh and this made it easy for the dumb and deaf to make their way around the
city of Ipoh. 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 man’s 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 54
year 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 Abdul
Rahman Ipoh and later continued his study in Sekolah Menengah Ibrahim in Sungai Petani. This
is because is 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 hw 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 Pendidikan Khas Ipoh.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 Dalan who is also a trainee teacher taking the same Special
Education option in the teachers training college he was studying. Dalan was special to him
because unlike other normal teacher trainee student who have their all senses well equipped and
could perform normally, Dalan 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. Rahman had personally seen what kind of troubles the disabled people face after
being friend with him. Even though Dalan 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 and 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 sighs 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 Ipoh 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 sees 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, he
added 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 she
encourages 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 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. Abdul 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?