English is a West Germanic language; the origin of which can be traced to dialects brought to Britain by Anglo-Saxon migrants, whose settlement in the British Isles dominated most of southern Great Britain. Now called Old English, the language came to be influenced by French, German, and Dutch as it morphed through Middle English and emerged into Modern English.
Many words in the English vocabulary use the prefix dis-, which means ‘apart’. Two words exemplify. The word disease, for example, from Middle English’s originally French desaise meaning ‘lacking in ease’, translates into ‘inconvenience’. The word distance, which in Middle English meant ‘discord’ or ‘debate’, comes from Old French’s distantia, traceable to a Latin-origin distant translating into ‘a standing apart’.
For TESL graduate Amni Zulaikha Zamri, never had the meaning of distance and disease been more clearly defined than by her harrowing Covid-19 experience.
The alumna of Management and Science University (MSU), who is studying Public Relations and Media in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, was getting worried by the situation in the UK. With close to five thousand fatalities among more than forty thousand infected, the country went into lockdown on March 24. Amni Zulaikha is grateful to be allowed to return home to Malaysia.
“There was the Easter holiday coming and still a lackadaisical attitude towards the seriousness of it all. The Covid-19 situation is handled better by the Government of Malaysia.”
The undergraduate at Sheffield Hallam University in South Yorkshire had to endure a four-hour bus journey from her campus to London’s Heathrow Airport (LHR), and from thereon a fourteen-hour flight by Malaysia Airlines over the fourteen thousand kilometres between LHR and KLIA. Once landed, she spent fourteen days quarantined in a 5-star hotel in Kuala Lumpur under the Malaysian government’s provisions for the Movement Control Order (MCO) which began on March 14 in Malaysia.
“It was quite worrying to be on that bus for that long with no visible S.O.P. onboard when I boarded, so I took my own precautions with hand sanitizer and mask. When I arrived at Heathrow, it was very quiet because there were not many people. It felt a bit weird to see one of the world’s busiest airports to be that quiet. Checking in for my flight was very quick as there was no long queue. It feels good to be back in Malaysia and be taken care of by the Ministry of Health.”
Home after the quarantine is with her parents in Klang, a town next to the Shah Alam municipality where Amni’s alma mater is located a short distance away. The proximity, plus positive feedbacks from people she knew who had studied the Teaching of English as a Second Language (TESL) at MSU, had factored into her choice of Management and Science University (MSU) to study for a Diploma in Education (TESL) at MSU’s School of Education and Social Sciences (SESS).
“I had always been interested in language and English was one of my strongest subjects in school. I like teaching and wanted to share my knowledge with kids. I’m exploring my options in the media field, where another interest lies. Especially with communication skills, as required in training to be a teacher of English, what I gained at MSU was good preparation for my current studies.”
MSU Bachelor in Education (Hons) - TESL
MSU Bachelor in English Language and Literature Studies (Hons)
MSU Diploma in Translation and Interpreting
MSU Diploma in Public Relations and Entertainment Management
MSU Bachelor of Public Relations Management (Hons)
MSU Bachelor of New Media (Hons)
MSU Story: You’ll never regret going on the Global Mobility Programme!
MSU Story: Expanding my global perspectives in Ireland
MSU Story: Living her dream in Oxford through MSU
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English is a West Germanic language; the origin of which can be traced to dialects brought to Britain by Anglo-Saxon migrants, whose settlement in the British Isles dominated most of southern Great Britain. Now called Old English, the language came to be influenced by French, German, and Dutch as it morphed through Middle English and emerged into Modern English.
Many words in the English vocabulary use the prefix dis-, which means ‘apart’. Two words exemplify. The word disease, for example, from Middle English’s originally French desaise meaning ‘lacking in ease’, translates into ‘inconvenience’. The word distance, which in Middle English meant ‘discord’ or ‘debate’, comes from Old French’s distantia, traceable to a Latin-origin distant translating into ‘a standing apart’.
For TESL graduate Amni Zulaikha Zamri, never had the meaning of distance and disease been more clearly defined than by her harrowing Covid-19 experience.
The alumna of Management and Science University (MSU), who is studying Public Relations and Media in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, was getting worried by the situation in the UK. With close to five thousand fatalities among more than forty thousand infected, the country went into lockdown on March 24. Amni Zulaikha is grateful to be allowed to return home to Malaysia.
“There was the Easter holiday coming and still a lackadaisical attitude towards the seriousness of it all. The Covid-19 situation is handled better by the Government of Malaysia.”
The undergraduate at Sheffield Hallam University in South Yorkshire had to endure a four-hour bus journey from her campus to London’s Heathrow Airport (LHR), and from thereon a fourteen-hour flight by Malaysia Airlines over the fourteen thousand kilometres between LHR and KLIA. Once landed, she spent fourteen days quarantined in a 5-star hotel in Kuala Lumpur under the Malaysian government’s provisions for the Movement Control Order (MCO) which began on March 14 in Malaysia.
“It was quite worrying to be on that bus for that long with no visible S.O.P. onboard when I boarded, so I took my own precautions with hand sanitizer and mask. When I arrived at Heathrow, it was very quiet because there were not many people. It felt a bit weird to see one of the world’s busiest airports to be that quiet. Checking in for my flight was very quick as there was no long queue. It feels good to be back in Malaysia and be taken care of by the Ministry of Health.”
Home after the quarantine is with her parents in Klang, a town next to the Shah Alam municipality where Amni’s alma mater is located a short distance away. The proximity, plus positive feedbacks from people she knew who had studied the Teaching of English as a Second Language (TESL) at MSU, had factored into her choice of Management and Science University (MSU) to study for a Diploma in Education (TESL) at MSU’s School of Education and Social Sciences (SESS).
“I had always been interested in language and English was one of my strongest subjects in school. I like teaching and wanted to share my knowledge with kids. I’m exploring my options in the media field, where another interest lies. Especially with communication skills, as required in training to be a teacher of English, what I gained at MSU was good preparation for my current studies.”
MSU Bachelor in Education (Hons) - TESL
MSU Bachelor in English Language and Literature Studies (Hons)
MSU Diploma in Translation and Interpreting
MSU Diploma in Public Relations and Entertainment Management
MSU Bachelor of Public Relations Management (Hons)
MSU Bachelor of New Media (Hons)
MSU Story: You’ll never regret going on the Global Mobility Programme!
MSU Story: Expanding my global perspectives in Ireland
MSU Story: Living her dream in Oxford through MSU