March 17, 2010
March 16, 2010
A Mock Test for Form One English: Valerie Bloom's River is....
Well, I would assume you have read Valerie Bloom's lively poem called, "The River".
She has described the river from its source to its mouth in such colourful language.
So we shall have a small revision of what is the 'River' according to her.
Fill in the blanks.
1.In stanza 1, she describes the river as a thing in motion all the time. She compares it to a
i. ..............................
ii................................
iii..............................
Why? Valerie explains that this is because it does not choose.................place to set up camp.
2. In stanza 2, the river is moving from one side to another. It curves as it bends. This is apparently obvious more at the lower contours where the river has less strength. So she calls it a ...................... as it moves in twists and turns through the valley and hill.
3.In stanza 3, the river is now called a .................because it buries its treasure under its bed.
4. In stanza 4, Valerie starts describing the noises made by the river. She says the river gurgles and hums. What does she compare it to? Is it the sounds of a ................sucking his ..................?
5. In stanza 5, the poet says that apart from gurgling and humming in stanza 4, the river is also a ..............who likes to dance. His song can be heard in the nearby ...................................
6. In stanza 6, there is now a change in tone. The poet says that a river can be dangerous. She calls the river, a ........................ When the river is enraged, it gobbles up trees and anything in its path including ........................you!
Tick the correct spelling
7. Someone who like to keep things in big quantities is more than a mere collector. We call that person a
a. horder
b. hoarder
c. .hoardder
d. haorder
8 We need to bite and chew our food. We should avoid swallowing or ................it up.
a. gobblering
b. grobbling
c. gobling
d. gobbling
8. The poet says that the river is a monster when it is hungry and .................
a. waxed
b. vexed
c. hexed
d. wexed
9. The river cannot stay in one place. It moves around. One of the words the poet uses to describe this action is that of a
a. wonder
b. wanderer
c. wanderrer
d. wanderler
10. As a winder, the river ...............and turns.
a. twiz
b. twists
c. twissts
d tuists
She has described the river from its source to its mouth in such colourful language.
So we shall have a small revision of what is the 'River' according to her.
Fill in the blanks.
1.In stanza 1, she describes the river as a thing in motion all the time. She compares it to a
i. ..............................
ii................................
iii..............................
Why? Valerie explains that this is because it does not choose.................place to set up camp.
2. In stanza 2, the river is moving from one side to another. It curves as it bends. This is apparently obvious more at the lower contours where the river has less strength. So she calls it a ...................... as it moves in twists and turns through the valley and hill.
3.In stanza 3, the river is now called a .................because it buries its treasure under its bed.
4. In stanza 4, Valerie starts describing the noises made by the river. She says the river gurgles and hums. What does she compare it to? Is it the sounds of a ................sucking his ..................?
5. In stanza 5, the poet says that apart from gurgling and humming in stanza 4, the river is also a ..............who likes to dance. His song can be heard in the nearby ...................................
6. In stanza 6, there is now a change in tone. The poet says that a river can be dangerous. She calls the river, a ........................ When the river is enraged, it gobbles up trees and anything in its path including ........................you!
Tick the correct spelling
7. Someone who like to keep things in big quantities is more than a mere collector. We call that person a
a. horder
b. hoarder
c. .hoardder
d. haorder
8 We need to bite and chew our food. We should avoid swallowing or ................it up.
a. gobblering
b. grobbling
c. gobling
d. gobbling
8. The poet says that the river is a monster when it is hungry and .................
a. waxed
b. vexed
c. hexed
d. wexed
9. The river cannot stay in one place. It moves around. One of the words the poet uses to describe this action is that of a
a. wonder
b. wanderer
c. wanderrer
d. wanderler
10. As a winder, the river ...............and turns.
a. twiz
b. twists
c. twissts
d tuists
Bolehland and Chickens
It can only happen in Bolehland Malaysia.
Acting on a tip that the chickens sold in some supermarkets up north were not halal, JAKIM together with Domestic Trade officers and members of the press went to a chicken processing factory in Negeri Sembilan to find out about its slaughtering method.
A face-off with the factory owner caused him to shutter down the factory trapping JAKIM and the investigating entourage inside.
However, one of the reporters managed to escape and a rescue police party from nearby Rembau quickly came by help defused the situation. The halal certification for the factory has been suspended.
What a way to go, Malaysia Boleh!
Acting on a tip that the chickens sold in some supermarkets up north were not halal, JAKIM together with Domestic Trade officers and members of the press went to a chicken processing factory in Negeri Sembilan to find out about its slaughtering method.
A face-off with the factory owner caused him to shutter down the factory trapping JAKIM and the investigating entourage inside.
However, one of the reporters managed to escape and a rescue police party from nearby Rembau quickly came by help defused the situation. The halal certification for the factory has been suspended.
What a way to go, Malaysia Boleh!
Excel: A Struggle to Remember
My, my it has been a year or more that I last did a performance report for an agency.
So, I am back at it again.
There are things that are advantageous this time around. For one, the template is accepted and all I need is to do a fresh analysis comparing the 2009 figures with the year before it.
After reviewing the first report, I suddenly realized that I needed a refresher in EXCEL to be able to do the charts and tables once more. This will take sometime for sure for an 'old goat' like me.
Anyway, persevere I must as the first draft must be completed soon. Moreover, I have to get back to my counterpart at the agency to request him to provide me some more reports and fact sheets that are required.
So, I am back at it again.
There are things that are advantageous this time around. For one, the template is accepted and all I need is to do a fresh analysis comparing the 2009 figures with the year before it.
After reviewing the first report, I suddenly realized that I needed a refresher in EXCEL to be able to do the charts and tables once more. This will take sometime for sure for an 'old goat' like me.
Anyway, persevere I must as the first draft must be completed soon. Moreover, I have to get back to my counterpart at the agency to request him to provide me some more reports and fact sheets that are required.
March 14, 2010
The Passing of Peter Graves
Peter Graves is dead.
Renown for his role in 'Mission Impossible' TV series, he was a consummate actor and was a joy to watch when an episode starts to roll before the credits as he listens to a self-destructing tape-recorder.
We all loved Peter Graves. Yes, is was not impossible for him to leave us. He died yesterday at his home in Pacific Palisades.
Apart from the 'Mission Impossible' series, he starred also in “Airplane!” and Billy Wilder’s “Stalag 17”
We say good-bye to another brilliant actor of the silver screen.
Renown for his role in 'Mission Impossible' TV series, he was a consummate actor and was a joy to watch when an episode starts to roll before the credits as he listens to a self-destructing tape-recorder.
We all loved Peter Graves. Yes, is was not impossible for him to leave us. He died yesterday at his home in Pacific Palisades.
Apart from the 'Mission Impossible' series, he starred also in “Airplane!” and Billy Wilder’s “Stalag 17”
We say good-bye to another brilliant actor of the silver screen.
March 13, 2010
Bunglings in Business English
Tan Shiow Chin wrote this interesting article,"Blunders in Business English" in the SUNDAY STAR today.
In this write-up she wrote about British Council Malaysia Professional Development Unit (PDU) trainer Alex Cummins and his advice in the field of business English.
My comments will be in parentheses.
Let us read her news article.
" Enclosed herewith”, “for your kind perusal”, “revert to”, “the above matter refers”, “furnish me with details” — have you ever used one or more of these phrases in your writing?
If you have, then you run the risk of sounding pompous and old-fashioned, says British Council Malaysia Professional Development Unit (PDU) trainer Alex Cummins. He said that some of the phrases are overly-formal and are hardly used outside Malaysia.
“Some of the phrases are old-fashioned. It is not to say that they are wrong, but if you go outside of Malaysia, they are not really used,” he said.
He added that while business communication should be about breaking down barriers. Using such phrases actually creates a distance between the sender and the recipient of the communique because of their extreme formality,he added.
Cummins was sharing the common errors Malaysians tend to make in business English based on his three years of experience training for the PDU in Malaysia.
During his presentation at the launch of the PDU 2010 public workshops series in Kuala Lumpur recently, the trainer opined that while Malaysians are great linguists and generally fluent in English, it is the little errors that stand out, particularly from a business point of view.[What does he have in mind? what modern Simple English phrase are good substitutes].
“It is the errors in small things that have become so fossilised that they are almost looked at as not wrong,” he said. [As long as the current bosses are trained in the 1960s, this terms will still be current and acceptable].
An example he gave was the common mistake of using “staffs”, “informations” and “advices”. [These are grammar errors. A non issue here].
As the words “staff”, “information” and “advice” are single uncountable nouns, they already imply the plural, and need not have an “-s” added to them.
“These are some of the most common errors we come across in e-mail writing,” Cummins shared.
Another area he touched on was that of pronunciation.
While he does not expect non-native English speakers to have perfect pronunciation, he said: “There are four areas I feel that often really affect listeners’ ability to understand what the person is saying.”
“They are long and short vowel sounds, consonant clusters, word stress and sentence stress.”
Cummins pointed out that the pronunciations of “man” and “men” are particularly troublesome for Malaysians.
“Our workshops can teach you how to use the phonetic chart in the dictionary, so that you can look up how to pronounce the words yourself, rather than having to keep referring to a teacher,” he said.
Meanwhile, he shared that words with consonant clusters — like “crisps”, “grasp” and “glimpsed” — are difficult for non-native speakers to pronounce, as most other languages do not have such clusters.
As for word stress, Cummins gave examples of words like “purchase” and “career”, where Malaysians tend to put the stress on the second syllable (eg “-chase”), rather than the first (eg “pur-”), which is correct.[Do take note of this].
Native Malay speakers also tend to sound very monotonous and flat while speaking English because of the difference sentence stresses in both languages. This particularly affects business presentations.[Yes, it is happening among the younger set of managers].
“Malay is syllable-timed with the sentence stress coming regularly (based on the number of syllables), while in English, it is stress-timed and the stress is on the content words,” he explained.
Earlier in the event, PDU director Jamie Mann shared that his unit provides corporate training to organisations and interested individuals in Malaysia.[Yes, and pay a bomb!]
“We believe our main strength is our training team."
“All our trainers come from a training background, and some have an English teaching background.
“They’ve also worked in a number of countries and have experience adapting content to the local context,” he told the audience in his speech.
The unit provides three types of training: soft skills workshops, customised business English courses, and business communication skills courses.
This year, the unit will be conducting over 70 one- or two-day courses in both Kuala Lumpur and Penang, based on about 30 themes.
“We try to make it a fun experience, as the more memorable the training is, the easier it is to remember what you learnt and put it into practice once you are back at work,” Mann said.
He added that the material for the workshops was specially developed for the Malaysian context.
“We’ve been working for a few years to fine-tune the material for Malaysian English speakers,” he said, while adding that the workshops were also suitable for native speakers.[Yes, it does take time,doesn't it?"]
In this write-up she wrote about British Council Malaysia Professional Development Unit (PDU) trainer Alex Cummins and his advice in the field of business English.
My comments will be in parentheses.
Let us read her news article.
" Enclosed herewith”, “for your kind perusal”, “revert to”, “the above matter refers”, “furnish me with details” — have you ever used one or more of these phrases in your writing?
If you have, then you run the risk of sounding pompous and old-fashioned, says British Council Malaysia Professional Development Unit (PDU) trainer Alex Cummins. He said that some of the phrases are overly-formal and are hardly used outside Malaysia.
“Some of the phrases are old-fashioned. It is not to say that they are wrong, but if you go outside of Malaysia, they are not really used,” he said.
He added that while business communication should be about breaking down barriers. Using such phrases actually creates a distance between the sender and the recipient of the communique because of their extreme formality,he added.
Cummins was sharing the common errors Malaysians tend to make in business English based on his three years of experience training for the PDU in Malaysia.
During his presentation at the launch of the PDU 2010 public workshops series in Kuala Lumpur recently, the trainer opined that while Malaysians are great linguists and generally fluent in English, it is the little errors that stand out, particularly from a business point of view.[What does he have in mind? what modern Simple English phrase are good substitutes].
“It is the errors in small things that have become so fossilised that they are almost looked at as not wrong,” he said. [As long as the current bosses are trained in the 1960s, this terms will still be current and acceptable].
An example he gave was the common mistake of using “staffs”, “informations” and “advices”. [These are grammar errors. A non issue here].
As the words “staff”, “information” and “advice” are single uncountable nouns, they already imply the plural, and need not have an “-s” added to them.
“These are some of the most common errors we come across in e-mail writing,” Cummins shared.
Another area he touched on was that of pronunciation.
While he does not expect non-native English speakers to have perfect pronunciation, he said: “There are four areas I feel that often really affect listeners’ ability to understand what the person is saying.”
“They are long and short vowel sounds, consonant clusters, word stress and sentence stress.”
Cummins pointed out that the pronunciations of “man” and “men” are particularly troublesome for Malaysians.
“Our workshops can teach you how to use the phonetic chart in the dictionary, so that you can look up how to pronounce the words yourself, rather than having to keep referring to a teacher,” he said.
Meanwhile, he shared that words with consonant clusters — like “crisps”, “grasp” and “glimpsed” — are difficult for non-native speakers to pronounce, as most other languages do not have such clusters.
As for word stress, Cummins gave examples of words like “purchase” and “career”, where Malaysians tend to put the stress on the second syllable (eg “-chase”), rather than the first (eg “pur-”), which is correct.[Do take note of this].
Native Malay speakers also tend to sound very monotonous and flat while speaking English because of the difference sentence stresses in both languages. This particularly affects business presentations.[Yes, it is happening among the younger set of managers].
“Malay is syllable-timed with the sentence stress coming regularly (based on the number of syllables), while in English, it is stress-timed and the stress is on the content words,” he explained.
Earlier in the event, PDU director Jamie Mann shared that his unit provides corporate training to organisations and interested individuals in Malaysia.[Yes, and pay a bomb!]
“We believe our main strength is our training team."
“All our trainers come from a training background, and some have an English teaching background.
“They’ve also worked in a number of countries and have experience adapting content to the local context,” he told the audience in his speech.
The unit provides three types of training: soft skills workshops, customised business English courses, and business communication skills courses.
This year, the unit will be conducting over 70 one- or two-day courses in both Kuala Lumpur and Penang, based on about 30 themes.
“We try to make it a fun experience, as the more memorable the training is, the easier it is to remember what you learnt and put it into practice once you are back at work,” Mann said.
He added that the material for the workshops was specially developed for the Malaysian context.
“We’ve been working for a few years to fine-tune the material for Malaysian English speakers,” he said, while adding that the workshops were also suitable for native speakers.[Yes, it does take time,doesn't it?"]
Japan:School for Marriage
In search of Mr. or Mrs. Right?
Look no further because we will train you and package you to be marriageable material.
So claims the Infini school in Tokyo.
Let us read the Reuters Report just posted.
" Now, some dozens of Japanese are attending this newly launched school in Tokyo that aims to turn them marriageable.
The Infini school offers various classes for wannabe brides and grooms at a time when many people in Japan are either shunning the institution of marriage or are finding it very difficult to hook up with a partner.
The school, which is open to men and women, teaches students how to talk, walk and present themselves elegantly in a bid to capture the hearts and minds of prospective partners and their parents, who are often a major obstacle to successful unions.
Infini, which opened last month, now has about 30 female students. An almost equal number of males have signed up, but those who actually turn up to class are much fewer than their female counterparts.
“I had never even thought that my boyfriend’s mother could play such a big role in my relationship, but now I’ve realised I need to start thinking seriously about how to impress my future in-laws,” said Kozue Sugawara, 29, who joined the school after her previous marriage plans failed.
With women wielding increased economic clout and changing social attitudes toward marriage, more Japanese in their 20s and 30s are single than ever before.
Government statistics show nearly two-thirds of women under the age of 34 are unmarried, despite some 3,800 firms in Japan offering match-making services.
The average age of the school’s female students is 30 years.
“Before, people would find it easy to get married because families and society would connect them in some way, sometimes pushing them to get married. But nowadays, people have too many choices and cannot seem to make up their minds,” said Etsuko Satake, principal of the Infini marriage prep school.
Instructors provide critiques about students’ dress, posture and even details such as how they cross their legs or get out of a car. Men and women are taught different skills, which range from how to set a table well to how to be more emotionally expressive.
Students also simulate dates, during which their instructors grade their performance and point out what they did wrong.
The school charges an annual fee of ¥200,000 (RM7,528) for unlimited access to its classes.
And some students, such as 32-year-old Mei Oda, seem to think it’s an investment worth making.
“I’m looking for a man who makes more than ¥10 million a year, doesn’t ask me to live with his parents and takes good care of me,” said Oda, a contract office worker.
Experts say that with Japan’s economy plunged deep into recession, many women are taking a renewed interest in marriage and the economic stability it could provide, and are actively seeking a partner through “konkatsu” or spouse-hunting activities. "
Well, to some extent, Singapore has been quite successful in matchmaking. The Malaysia MCA initiative started well but today no one actually hear of this anymore because of the MCA do or die battle at its highest echelons.
My Take:
What is happening in Japan for its educated unmarried career ladies have happened in Singapore. It will also happen in Malaysia.
With modernisation,marriage services though perceived as 'unsavoury' and 'undignified' to high flying career women,sadly it may be just the thing for them. There is a lot of 'saliva swallowing' to be done when they drop their sights to more lowly qualified persons to marry.If they do not, they will be left unmarried till 'infinity'.
I believe it will criss-cross ethnic boundaries.
Look no further because we will train you and package you to be marriageable material.
So claims the Infini school in Tokyo.
Let us read the Reuters Report just posted.
" Now, some dozens of Japanese are attending this newly launched school in Tokyo that aims to turn them marriageable.
The Infini school offers various classes for wannabe brides and grooms at a time when many people in Japan are either shunning the institution of marriage or are finding it very difficult to hook up with a partner.
The school, which is open to men and women, teaches students how to talk, walk and present themselves elegantly in a bid to capture the hearts and minds of prospective partners and their parents, who are often a major obstacle to successful unions.
Infini, which opened last month, now has about 30 female students. An almost equal number of males have signed up, but those who actually turn up to class are much fewer than their female counterparts.
“I had never even thought that my boyfriend’s mother could play such a big role in my relationship, but now I’ve realised I need to start thinking seriously about how to impress my future in-laws,” said Kozue Sugawara, 29, who joined the school after her previous marriage plans failed.
With women wielding increased economic clout and changing social attitudes toward marriage, more Japanese in their 20s and 30s are single than ever before.
Government statistics show nearly two-thirds of women under the age of 34 are unmarried, despite some 3,800 firms in Japan offering match-making services.
The average age of the school’s female students is 30 years.
“Before, people would find it easy to get married because families and society would connect them in some way, sometimes pushing them to get married. But nowadays, people have too many choices and cannot seem to make up their minds,” said Etsuko Satake, principal of the Infini marriage prep school.
Instructors provide critiques about students’ dress, posture and even details such as how they cross their legs or get out of a car. Men and women are taught different skills, which range from how to set a table well to how to be more emotionally expressive.
Students also simulate dates, during which their instructors grade their performance and point out what they did wrong.
The school charges an annual fee of ¥200,000 (RM7,528) for unlimited access to its classes.
And some students, such as 32-year-old Mei Oda, seem to think it’s an investment worth making.
“I’m looking for a man who makes more than ¥10 million a year, doesn’t ask me to live with his parents and takes good care of me,” said Oda, a contract office worker.
Experts say that with Japan’s economy plunged deep into recession, many women are taking a renewed interest in marriage and the economic stability it could provide, and are actively seeking a partner through “konkatsu” or spouse-hunting activities. "
Well, to some extent, Singapore has been quite successful in matchmaking. The Malaysia MCA initiative started well but today no one actually hear of this anymore because of the MCA do or die battle at its highest echelons.
My Take:
What is happening in Japan for its educated unmarried career ladies have happened in Singapore. It will also happen in Malaysia.
With modernisation,marriage services though perceived as 'unsavoury' and 'undignified' to high flying career women,sadly it may be just the thing for them. There is a lot of 'saliva swallowing' to be done when they drop their sights to more lowly qualified persons to marry.If they do not, they will be left unmarried till 'infinity'.
I believe it will criss-cross ethnic boundaries.
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