my thumb was marked with blackish powdery carbon stain

After spending a few days in the jungle for his seasonal hunting trip, my father came home. Sometimes with a porcupine, and a deer or two. We would be so happy to welcome him home but would shiver to our bones when/ should he asked: 

“Surat khabar hari ini ada beli?”

We shook our head.

“Semalam punya surat khabar pun tak beli?”

Again, we shook our head. He was annoyed.

“Ape nak jadi dengan kau orang semua ni? Macam orang ****. Surat khabar tu penting. Bila dibaca, banyak benda boleh tahu, boleh belajar. Nah, ambil duit ni, pegi beli. Utusan satu, News Strait Times satu.”

You see, the newspaper was like lemonade on a hot day, quenching his thirst for knowledge, after a few days of absence from the modern world. 

I think, that was, one of the starting point for my English language learning experiences – newspaper – initiated by my newspaper-freak father. It all started at home. My father really stressed to all of his children to read the newspaper. He would boast about the advantages of newspaper – of how, by just paying a small amount of money, one can get abundance amount of knowledge in various fields. My guess, at that time, his only objective would be to instill love in reading among his children – regardless in what language. 
My father would not forcefully shoved the newspaper onto our faces, but rather, he would, so subtly, asked us to read the newspaper for him, on the pretence that he was either too tired, or forgot where he had placed his reading glasses. From there, all of us, subconsciously, developed our love for reading. 

From newspaper, gradually, I advanced to reading Enid Blyton, Reader’s Digest, National Geographic and novels. Nevertheless, I still enjoy having my thumb marked with blackish powdery carbon stain even until today.

There are a lot of experiences I have collected from reading the newspaper. Apart from it being the main contributor to my achievement in English as of today (I am rating it as mediocre), it also played a major role in strengthening father-daughter relationship. I grew closer to my father because of newspaper. He loved to ask me questions, meaning of words, opinions and etcetera. Until today, I vividly remember he asked me the pronunciation of the word “bovine”. 

I am very thankful for my priceless English language learning experiences as I utilize it in my current work as an assistant lecturer at a local university. However, I can feel my students cringed each time I gave them advice on ways to improve their overall English proficiency. It may, better yet, it will sound cliché to others, if I say the cheapest way to improve your English language proficiency is by reading newspaper. Most of the time, I will add this: “If you are too broke to buy a newspaper, take The Sun, it’s free!”.

I couldn’t list any negative experiences from my language learning experiences. Perhaps what I am going to share in a moment is not really related to language learning. The only person who will, I presumed, deem newspapers, as useless would be my mother. She is not very supportive of my father buying the newspapers on daily basis as she was and still is pretty convince that whatever that is one the prime-time news is suffice enough. 

“eee..buat apelah beli suratkhabar ni tiap2 hari…berita tgk…surat khabar baca…benda nyer sama jer…eee…bazir jer duit…hmphh….hpmhhh….”

There you have it – my English language learning experiences. It started with a father’s “weakness” for newspapers, armed with the intention of giving his children the gift of a lifetime. True enough that at least one of his daughters is able to make use of this invaluable experiences by sharing it with her students, friends, others and perhaps someday, his granddaughters