“At first, it was just a quaint fishing village, but in 2015, when the Forest City mega project started, there were a number of contractors from China coming in,” he said.
Muiz, who had picked up Mandarin while training as a teacher years ago, observed how the fishermen at the village in Gelang Patah struggled to communicate with the foreigners when they visited their wet market to buy fish and vegetables.
The language barrier had a huge impact on the fishermen, and hampered their day-to-day business.
“Seeing this, I started looking around and researching for material and people who could help me,” said Muiz, more fondly known as Cikgu Muiz.
“I then drew up a three-month syllabus, involving simple spoken Mandarin, to teach the children and the villagers.”
After the initial three-month run, Muiz decided to build upon the syllabus with games, lessons and activities for both the children and adults.
He also started outdoor activities, including trips to fishing ponds and markets, to enable his “students’ to learn and speak simple Mandarin.
However, his programme has since come to a halt because of the various movement control orders.
Muiz moved to Batu Pahat this year and has been unable to travel across the district to Johor Bahru, which is a two hours’ drive.
“I had initially planned for the classes to run for three years at least. But the pandemic broke out after only one year and they were interrupted,” he said.
But he has set his mind to resume the programme as soon as possible. “I want to see the children and villagers succeed.”
He is proud that his programme has been accepted by the villagers. The twice-a-week classes became a whole-community event where parents would bring food and drinks while waiting for their children to finish class. At times, they, too, would listen in on his lessons.
It earned him a nomination for the Taylor’s College RISE (Remarkable Impact in Student Education) Educator Award.
“I want the children to be able to achieve bigger ambitions,” he said. “I want them to grow up to be more than just fishermen.
“After this first project is done, I have plans to expand it to other villages.”