Forum-Sing to the Dawn (Group 1)

Question: ‘This novel teaches us many lessons about life.’ Based on the novel that you have
read, discuss the lessons you have learned based on one incident. Support your answer with
close reference to the text.

ROUND 1

Moderator (Alia):
Assalamualaikum and good afternoon to everyone. We are here to listen to a forum on the
lessons in the novel Sing to the Dawn.

The story is about a young Thai village girl named Dawan. She is fourteen years old. She wins
the coveted scholarship to go and study in the city school. Her father disagrees about Dawan
go to the city school. Cousin Noi and the chief monk also discouraged her to do so. However,
she managed to solve her problem as she talked face to face with her father to convince him
to let her go to the city school.

As you can see the novel has many lessons that we can practice in our daily life. I would like
to introduce our panels for today’s forum. From my right we have Aina, Abi, Syafizam and
Alif from 5 Engineers. They will be sharing their opinion on the lessons based on the novel.
Let’s start our session now.

Aina, in your opinion, what is the lesson that we can learn from the novel?

Speaker 1 (Aina):
Thank you, Alia. There are many lessons in the novel but the main one is we must care for
our family members.

Moderator (Alia):
So how about you, Abi? What lesson did you learned from the novel Sing to the Dawn?

Speaker 2 (Abi):
I learned that we must support our friends.

Moderator (Alia):
And how about you, Syafizam?

Speaker 3 (Syafizam):
So based from the novel, we also must help people who is in need.

Moderator (Alia):
Alif, do you mind sharing the lesson that you learned from the novel Sing to the Dawn?

Speaker 4 (Alif):
Thank you for giving me this opportunity to share my opinion, Alia. I learned from the novel
that siblings must have a good relationship.

Moderator (Alia):
I value and appreciate all the opnions. Those are some of the lessons that we can get from
the novel Sing to the Dawn
ROUND 2

Moderator (Alia):
Then, let’s continue with the next session. So what is your evidence to elaborate your
opinion earlier?

Speaker 1 (Aina):
In my way of thinking, we should care for our family members like Cousin Noi care for
Dawan in chapter 9. Even though Noi and Dawan are only cousins, that doesn’t stop Noi
from helping Dawan to dress her wound after Kwai pushed her at the marketplace. This
action shows that Noi care for Dawan as a family to her.

Moderator (Alia):
That was a good evidence, Aina. What about your evidence to support the lesson you state
earlier, Abi?

Speaker 2 (Abi):
In chapter 9, my evidence to show that we must support our friends is when Bao support
Dawan by giving her words of encouragement after she saw how disappointed Dawan was
after the temple visit. This scene obviously shows how supportive Bao was as a friend to
Dawan. She even let her new found friend to free a bird in the cage for free.

Moderator (Alia):
It’s a great evidence, Abi. Next, let’s hear the evidence from Syafizam.

Speaker 3 (Syafizam):
Thank you, Alia. The evidence in chapter 9 to support the lesson we must help people who is
in need is when Dawan stop her brother, Kwai, from hitting Bao when Bao called him
hypocrite. Dawan risk her safety for Bao and step out to protect Bao from being hit by Kwai.
She ended up was pushed by Kwai to the ground and injured herself.

Moderator (Alia):
I totally agree with your evidence, Syafizam. How about your evidence to support your
opinion, Alif?

Speaker 4 (Alif):
My evidence to support that siblings must have a good relationship is when Kwai was at the
bridge after the incident at the marketplace in chapter 9. Kwai felt guilty rushed over his
body for stepping in his sister way to further her studies in the city school. He decided to
stop fighting over the scholarship with Dawan and ask their father to let Dawan go to the
city because he don’t want their relationship as siblings ruined over small thing.

Moderator (Alia):
Wow! That was another great evidence that can support the lesson. Thank you for all the
answers. Since the time is already comes to the end, I would like to ask all the panels to sum
up their points by concluding the topic today.
ROUND 3

Speaker 1 (Aina):
From the lesson I stated earlier which is we must care for our family members, I think all of
us should practice this lesson in our daily life because they are our blood ties and family
always comes first.

Moderator (Alia):
Yes. I agree with that, Aina. Abi, can you give few words to conclude our forum today?

Speaker 2 (Abi):
Of course, I would love to. We must support our friend because they need encouragement
and support from the people around them to achieve their dreams. We as a friends should
be supportive towards others.

Moderator (Alia):
I also agree with that conclusion. Next, let us hear what you wanted to conclude from the
topic we discuss today, Syafizam.

Speaker 3 (Syafizam):
In a nutshell, we must help people who is in need because we will get back what we give.
Maybe one day if we are in trouble, people may help us back because we helped them in the
past. We also will be respected for doing good things.

Moderator (Alia):
Thank you for your conclusion, Syafizam. Last but not least, the interpretation from Alif will
wrap up our forum for today so let’s hear what he wanted to say.

Speaker 4 (Alif):
Overall, we must have a good relationship with our siblings is because they are our flesh and
blood. Siblings grow up and do everything together so it is important to have a good bond
with them and love them.

Moderator (Alia):
Thank you, Alif for the ending. A big thanks to our panels for willingly to share their opinions
for today’s forum topic and also for all the audience for lending us your ears till the end of
the forum. To sum up, there are a lot of lessons that we can learn and practice in our life
from the novel Sing to the Dawn by Minfong Ho. I hope you all gained something it. Till then,
a very good day and thank you.