Year of the Tiger

Harapnya masih belum terlambat nak wish 'Gong Xi Fa Chai' kepada those yg menyambut perayaan Tahun baru Cina. Walaupon di kejauhan, terasa rindu jg dgn suasana kat tanahair pada hari2 perayaan mcm ni, especially tang cuti lama tu la, and tang dpt limau free gi mana2 hehe. Kat sini x de la cutinya, limau kalo nak sendiri kena beli :P

Motif letak gambar roti seketul kat atas tu? Well, ni kan the Year of the Tiger bak kata org cina. Kalo nak tahu, roti kat atas tu namanya 'Tiger Bread'. Bkn jenama dia tiger mcm biskut susu cap Tiger kat Msia tuh, tp jenis roti tu, like we have baguette, hot cross buns, croissant, etc, haa... yg ni namanya tiger bread, sbb badan nya ada stripe mcm rimau. Eh, x tipu ni, betul. Aku baru tahu 3 hari lps akan kewujudan roti ni, yg rupa dan rasa seakan bloomers. Kes kena kempen ngan member2 psl roti ni sedap berbanding yg factory made and commercial tu. Sila la cari di Tesco Malaysia, kalo intrigued dgn roti ni, sbb nya yg aku beli ni kat Tesco jg, tp kat Plymouth le hehe. Kalo readers yg mmg kat UK nak try tu, kat Morrison dgn Asda ada gak jual. GBP1 sahaja. Cuba la...

OK, ni dia Aisyah pakai baju kaum China. Apa nama baju ni ek? Bkn cheongsam kan? For the life of me x ingat apa nama... But doesn't she look like a right and proper little Chinese girl here? X de setitik darah cina pon kitarog (I wish we had, bole la feeling2 oriental gituh), Aisyah ni cap Jowo and Klate, diadun diuli molek2 dalam acuan, gitu la kuar nya rupe Aisyah heheh...




Speaking of Aisyah, skang ni dah menjadi habit aku tetiap malam mesti study dgn dia. Sebenarnya, best jg bed time reading session nih, feeling ala2 omputih gitu. I never bothered to read her the stories yet, sbbnya, her attention span is too short plus I don't think the stories interest her that much to begin with. Instead, I focus on showing her the objects in her books, and pronounce their names, so that she can learn them and expand her vocab.

Usaha ku mendatangkan hasil. Skang Aisyah kalo tgk buku dah x fokus dkt objek yg paling besar dlm page itu aje, dah mula nmpk object2 yg jd side kick duk kat tepi menempel. Cth nya kalo gmbr tu ada hot air ballon yg besar kat tgh2 page, dia dah mula noticed yg ada lebah kat tepi2 bunga, ada burung kat atas pokok, ada lembu kat tepi, etc, dalam page yg sama by showing it with her finger and sebut2 dlm bahasa yg dia sorg paham la.

As for speech development, she can say a few new words hasil kelas tusyen malam2 ngan aku. We're still working on getting her to pronounce 'Baby' as 'Bay... Beee' and she remembers sometimes, but sometimes she still slips and says it as 'Ba.Bi' (Aiyo!).

More words and she recognizes from the books and can imitate from me:

1. Cat - Ka
2. Dog - Do (mcm kita sebut Door)
3. Fish - Eesh
4. Cow - Taw
5. Bee - Bee (Yay, exactly tepat!)

Nampaknya si Aisyah ni baru bole sebut depan2. Ujung2 lum dpt. Sebut Cheese or Chips pon kuar as 'Cheee'. Shoes plak as 'Shee'. Yg paling jelas sebutan dia ialah 'No'. Kadang siap geleng2 kepala atau dgn nada marah lg. Tiada was-was sungguh. Hehe.

Menariknya, dalam sesi kelas malam ngan aku tuh, aku mmg nampak la konsentrasi dia masa nak sebut perkataan2 baru tuh, sbb nya masih tiada dalam database (otak) dia kan. Mula2 kita sebut ulang2, dia senyap je, then dahi dia kerut2 (analyzing) and then bibir dia kemut2 (finding the right vocal tract to follow agaknya), then baru la dia bole sebut dgn sebutan paling hampir (synthesizing). This really, really reminds me of the singing robots in our lab, hasil kajian my SV.

One robot plays the role of initiator, and the other plays the imitator role. The initiator produces a sound. The imitator tries to replicate the sound by selecting the same sound from its repertoire. If the imitator does not yet have the sound in its repertoire, it tries too guess a similar sound using a pre-defined algorithm. Next, the initiator compares the imitator's sound
with the one it originally produced. If the sounds are similar, the initiator-imitator communication is a success. Immediately after the game, both robots update their memories according to the result of the communication. After each round, the robots always add one new random sound each to their repertoire.
(Miranda, The Artificial Life Route to the Origins of Music, 1999).

So in our case, aku la initiator, Aisyah adalah imitator. Aisyah will try to follow my sounds as closely as possible. Kalo Aisyah x pernah dgr sound itu, maka dia akan produce sound yg paling hampir dia mampu bg. Apa pon, sounds yg baru ni akan tersemat di memori beliau, sampai la sound yg lebih hampir bunyi nya dgn sound original yg aku kasi tu dpt disebut, baru la sound yg x berapa mengancam td dipadam, and database beliau di update. Coolness! Pokoknya skang, aku la kena rajin ulang ulang dan ulang, sampai perfecto pitch dia hehehe...

Personally, aku rasa fascinating sbb bole tgk sendiri the cognitive theories yg di apply pada robots is actually the same as the ones that take place in humans, depan mata sendiri plak tu! Arts / Science imitating life sungguh... It just makes things that much more interesting, thus giving me the extra push that God knows I need to read them journals yg bertimbun x kan habis dibaca ittew :P

Ooo... I so love my research! (say it with me everyone, even kalo x berapa believable pon, moga2 masin mulut kita duk sebut2 gini, kerja kita akan jd lebih smooth sailing lepas ni, Amin...)