Kids are full of surprises -never failed to amaze me on how fast they learn things or even how fast they pick up new lines .
On a recent regular drive from the Jumaat prayer at the mosque nearby – heading home, I asked Imran whether he knows the way back to our home Cordoba .Should I turn left or right ?
Obviously he was not interested to talk about it, (his mind was more focused to the ice-cream I promised to buy for him at the compound supermaket) so I said it was just a simple test for him and as it will be part of learning process. ‘No abah, I don’t like test, test is only for school!’ argued him. And I said ‘Imran .. you should always learn anywhere you go – remember bla bla bla .. when you’re small bla bla .. its part of learning’ .‘Learning is not only for school OK..’
And he goes –"Abah, you’re making me bezonkers!"
What was that ? Bezonkers?
Where did he learn those "bezonkers" word? I can’t recall anytime that me or ummi using it, indeed it was not part of my (limited) vocabulary. Did he become smarter than I am ? Naaaa..! Though I knew he is definitely smarter than me at his age now. (I cheated during a spelling test at Standard 1 because I just couldn’t spell "FISH"! )
So for the x times of the week, I asked my Imran – "Where did you pick up those words?"
From school? As usual he said , from "this" cartoon he watched at "this" TV channel.
Media such TV, internet has big influence to their audience. Check this .
It can also be used as a useful learning tool .
* Human can invent a chess playing computer like Deep Blue who can beat Kasparov but still failed to beat the intelligence of a 4 year kids in recognizing images or even understanding language.
Do read this interesting article about Jeff Hawkins AI project .
– every Malays (I believe) aware about this issue.
