- Culture
Shock
This is the most common of all.
Most of us madrasah students will surely experience this if they choose to go 'academic' afterwards. The worst is usually during the orientation days; the kind of games they host, the level of entertainment, the deafening audios, and such. The atmosphere is just too unusual and..... Odd?
Just FYI, in madrasah, males and females are segregated when playing games. We do not have body or skin contact with the opposite gender. The amount of entertainment is kept to a minimal and no, we do not blast loud music during events. Only soothing songs, instrumentals or nasyids/qasidahs (spiritual songs) will be played.
- Sneak
out of lecture to pray
This is challenging. We used to be connected to the masjid (mosque) or musolla (a space to pray) 24/7. We could even hear the adzan (call to prayer) and will proceed for prayers immediately. Its a routine that has been practiced for years, since the age of 7 (yes we study in madrasah for 10 - 11 years since primary 1).
Fun Facts: Madrasah used to have kindergartens as well back in the 90's.
In polytechnic, we need to find our own space and time to pray. If our schedule collides with the prayer time, we have no choice but to sneak out of lecture and rush for prayers. BUT YAAAY most of the schools now are musolla-ready. They even provide us with the necessities. Many thanks to the people/management who initiated this - you guys have made our lives a lot easier!
- Not
sports-inclined
Well, this does not really apply to the guys unless they too, got asked questions like
"Do you have CCA/sports in madrasah?"
As for the ladies, we often get questions about headgear and long pants.
"Don't you feel hot?" "Isn't it uncomfortable to run around in those?" "How do you go for a swim then?" Alright chill, let me give some enlightenment.
Firstly, yes we do have sports and CCAs in madrasah.
Regarding the hot issue, we feel hot at times but we are used to it so yeah no worries we are cool.
Comfort? Frankly speaking, we do not see any huge difference between wearing shorts and pants.
How do we swim? Have you ever heard of 'muslimah swimming gear'? Yeah, we rock that thing in the pool. Its pretty vogue y'know? Maybe you should get one too. ;)
- The
urge to converse in Malay
Madrasah is flooded with Malay students, so we converse in Malay 99% of the time. Honestly, it does feels a bit weird to have a mixture of races in class (polytechnic). In madrasah, we tend to speak Malay even during English lessons hahaha. It became a habit. Our teacher then jokingly came up with this cute punishment - pay 10 cents for every Malay word uttered. Lol.
But wait, we do enjoy picking up Mandarin words from our Chinese friends and trade them with Malay words. Win-win situation! That's the beauty of being in a multi-racial country yes? Definitely.
- Being
labelled as malaikat (angel)
The way you introduce yourself to a new friend is important in this context. They will surely have another impression of you the moment you mention 'madrasah'.
We are getting used to people labeling us 'angels'. Yes apparently we madrasah students do not sin at all. Thank you but you are being too nice we can't handle. (please sense the bigsarcasmhere)
- Education
stream confusion (express, normal academic or normal technical)
During freshmen year, one of the frequently asked questions is "are you 17 or 18 years old?" And when you say 18, BAAAM they will confirm plus chop thought that you took N levels & had to go to secondary 5.
Okay understood cos that's how the system works. But not for us though. It is actually compulsory for some madrasahs to do an extra year of curriculum (hence sec 5) as we have to sit for STE (a big exam by MUIS in Arabic/religious subjects) in secondary 4. It might be too taxing for us to do both STE and O levels in the same year. We do not practice education streams.
- We do
not have friends of the opposite gender
This is the funniest of all. Come on. Living in this cosmopolitan era, how could one not have any friend from the opposite gender? With the presence of social networks and all............
You get me right?!
So anyways, 4 out of 6 madrasahs take in both male and female students. We behave like normal kids, study the same subjects (with additional religious subjects) and are friends with everyone! I am not sure about secular schools but we were trained to be well-mannered and dress modestly.
But apart from those, we are no aliens. Just normal human beings.
Disclaimer: All the points above are purely based on my own experiences/opinions, supported by a number of friends who have mutual thoughts regarding this.