The Wonders of Silhouette Photography.

This is silhouette photography.






To photograph silhouettes,the contrast between the subject and the background has to bee extensive. So the light has to shine from behind of the subject.

Silhouettes are a wonderful way to convey drama, mystery, emotion and mood to the viewers of your photos. Objects silhouetted against the setting sun or a halo of light are breathtaking. Art silhouette pictures are a great way to make your photography portfolio stand out.

So, anyone for silhouette photography?

A RED LETTER DAY for the Family

By lunch time , my daughter phoned back.

She passed her CAT examination and is now formally attending Part Two of the ACCA professional course.

So we had a small celebrations in the evening after dinner. We cut some cup-cakes in celebration of this happy occasion. Its' not everyday that we can have a red letter day. This has been a great red letter day for us!

Now A Royalty supports ENGLISH

So, a royalty is now speaking up for English. Is this a case of better late than never?

At the International Conference on Education for All Raja Dr Nazrin Shah today stressed the importance of the English language. He believes that English is of paramount importance in the twenty first century workplace and said “It is the lingua franca of world commerce and world finance and those who are proficient in the language will enjoy many advantages in global work place.” He added that many employers are using English proficiency as one of the defining factors in selecting workers.As such, he he advocated that every teaching and learning method be harnessed to enhance the English proficiency of every student.

He then lamented that teachers should be better trained and standardised test be introduced at all school level to determine the English proficiency of their students.

“Teachers are the most important determinants of the quality of the education system. The quality of the education system cannot exceed the quality of its teachers and yet most education systems do not have the best.

But the best education systems do. In Finland, all new teachers must have a masters degree.

“South Korea recruits primary school teachers from the top 45 per cent of graduates, Singapore and Hong Kong from the top 30 per cent. In these countries, teaching is a high status profession,” he explained.

Raja Nazrin was explaining how English proficiency is one of the four key aspect of the education system which needs to be given special attention if Malaysia is to meet the demands of a knowledge and innovation economy.

It is rather sad that Raja Nazrin’s comment came after the government had already decided in July 2009 to end the policy of teaching mathematics and science in English in both primary and secondary schools effective from 2012. The two subjects will be taught in Bahasa Melayu in national schools and in Tamil or Chinese for vernacular schools.

He also commented that the Malaysian education system needs to reduce the amount of content being taught in classes because this has led to the neglect of the competency skills needed for the 21st century.

“The curriculum is full of teachers and university instructors disseminating information to students who are passive recipients.

“Often times, schools teachers and university instructors lament the fact that they are given insufficient time to complete the syllabus. Educationists fear that reducing the content will deprive learners, not realising that in this case less will, in fact, be more,” he said.

He added that students will benefit more if they learn inquire and gather information by themselves especially with the advancement of the information technology.

Raja Nazrin told the audience that Malaysia must shift from its examination oriented education system because this has led to the neglect of many of skills and competencies needed for a knowledge and innovation economy.

He said that the examination-oriented system has led schools focusing on high achievers at the exclusion of underachievers who unfortunately comes from poorer socio-economic background.

“While the numbers As scored by learners is important, it is equally important to ensure that all students master the knowledge and skills required for them to function effectively and efficiently in the workplace of the 21st century,” he said.

Raja Nazrin added that the current teacher-centered strategies will have to give way to more learner-centred strategies.

Only through this can the required skills be developed for the 21st century, he stressed.

He explained that wealth of a knowledge and innovation economy can only be derived from the exploitation of the intangible assets of its people such as experience, skills and knowledge.

“It could only be achieved if the education system is able to turn out students who are well introduced to the knowledge, skills and attitude to work in a knowledge and innovation based economy,” he said.

Are we too late to change the mind of PM Najib?

A REAL Spiderman from India

So what do you know?

We have a real life Spiderman from India to challenge that famous French men.

Jyothi Raj seems has this amazing ability to be glued to walls and to hang upside down on a vertical surface without using any safety equipment.






The 22-year-old, who lives in the south of India, discovered his incredible climbing ability four years ago while scaling bamboo scaffolding. It was there he realized he had an uncanny ability to place his hands and feet in exactly the right areas for a speedy climb.

Climbing the local fort in Chitradurga, Jyothi claims he feels no fear as he reaches heights of up to 300ft without using a harness. Look at the pictures of his supernatural feats.

The Great SILENCE on SPEAK ENGLISH DAY!

A dog chasing its own tail. What an apt analogy,this!

While the government has driven the last nail into the coffin for the continued teaching of English for Science and Mathematics at schools-at its own behest; the other important sector-the Civil Service seems to going the other way around.Thta, in a nutshell, is Malaysia Boleh! It is more enduring even than PM Najib's 1Malaysia!

Yes,INTAN started it many years back with its "Tuesday is Speak English Day!". But whatever became of it? It was mere sloganeering, the best thing the Malaysian Civil Service is good for.

So, on July 17, MAMPU,the Malaysian Administrative Modernisation and Management Planning Unit started its own English Day.“Monday is English Day. Just Speak!” screams the colourful posters posted via email to its 400 staff.You find them also pasted on the walls of lifts and notice boards.

It may be a great effort on the part of some overzealous big bosses but the end result will be the same. Almost nothing. There are few winning horses helming government departments. At best, they are second best; promoted all the years on other reasons and not merit. This is due to the prevailing political-ethnic psyche governing the civil service.

Expect another mammoth campaign down the drain.

English can be improved only if there are institutionalized carrots in the system.MAMPU must think of fusing this aspect into the promotional criteria of all civil servants. The examinations for English proficiency must be conducted by a third party. It must be both an oral and a written test. The British Council may not be the best. Soem of our retirees are better. Hire them to work in the Curriculum Division and they will match the British Council any day.

An English Monday or a Tuesday is piecemeal. It is just like asking a smoker not to smoke on these days and they they are at a liberty to smoke on the other 5 days. Such foolhardiness. Language is never acquired in this manner.

Let us get close to the buzz on this English Mondays at MAMPU.

Now, everyone is encouraged – in e-mail messages, prayer recitals, announcements and meetings – to speak English as much as possible that Monday. [I would really love to hear the azan and sermon spoken in English!]

“We want to boost the competency of all staff in speaking English,” a Mampu spokesman told The Straits Times.["If wishes were horses, beggars will ride them"]

The Retirement Fund Incorporated, or KWAP, which handles the pensions of some one million civil servants, is reaching for the same goal by taking a fun approach.

Investment and fund managers play a game of Scrabble or two to improve their vocabulary. Regular public speaking and book review sessions are held.[These are great way, mind you.]

Employees also write investment papers, presentations, the minutes of meetings, and blog entries in English. It is quite a switch from Malay, which is used throughout the rest of the government.[I wonder, whether this is sustainable, long term.]

“For an investment company, it is very important that your English is up to the mark, because all the investment reports and analyses are in English,” KWAP chief executive officer Azian Mohd Noh told The Straits Times. “There are no two ways about it, you have to master your English.”[You are a realist. I only hope you can see it through.]

It even invited the British Council to test the staff and conduct courses in articulation and grammar.[INTAN with retirees from the service can do as good but cheaper.]

Such measures have paid off. According to Datuk Azian, some 70 per cent of KWAP employees speak English well. Another 20 per cent who understand the language shy away from speaking it.(This, I got to hear!"

“We still need to do more. English is important. If you work in the financial sector and deal with international counterparts, it will be a setback (if your English is not up to par),” she said.

Over nearly four decades, Malay has become important for political reasons and is now a very sensitive issue.

English was the medium of instruction in schools until it was replaced with Malay in the 1970s.

The soft push for the use of English at the workplace has been prompted by criticism that the standard of English has declined alarmingly since.

As a result, Malaysia’s global competitiveness has suffered, with many graduates possessing inferior English language skills, critics say.

Along with its decline in schools, English has also been neglected by most civil servants. With Malays making up 80 per cent of civil servants, many, apart from higher-ranking officers, prefer to use Malay daily. Thus there is some resistance to programmes that require them to speak English.

One Mampu worker joked that it would be a “Silent Monday”, referring to the fact that many would prefer not to speak to avoid speaking in English.[What a realist!]

“My English is a little rusty,” she said. “Most people still speak in Malay, but I guess in a more formal setting like a meeting, they converse in English.”

There is no penalty if an employee switches to his mother tongue, so the move is just a gentle nudge to ease civil servants into grappling with the language, broken or otherwise.[There is no such thing as broken English or Manglish,hear?]

An internal e-mail said: “Only a number of personnel are really into this programme. Do not worry so much about speaking grammatically correct. Practice makes perfect.”[Fossilised mistakes will occur if not corrected!]

A chief clerk with a district land office in Selangor said that her command of the English language deteriorated after she stopped using it when she joined the civil service 28 years ago.

“Even today’s graduates can’t converse in English very well,” she said.

The clerk said that the state government had tried implementing English Thursdays and other programmes but that they never got off the ground.( Is it any wonder?]

But some insist that such programmes can succeed.(In a place called EREHWON,read backwards, please]

A former civil servant of five years said: “Even if they speak broken English, it’s good for them to build confidence.”[Psychological crutches?]

She said she often ended up doing a lot of administrative work when traveling on overseas assignments, even when the support staff were meant to handle it, because of communication breakdowns.[Hear,hear!]

“A lot of them can’t speak or write in English. That’s what happens when you keep speaking the same language,” she told The Straits Times.[Wah,sudah bangun,pun!]

But some analysts feel that the entire system needs a major overhaul, including using English in all official documents.

“You need at least one competent speaker in a government department for this sort of programme to work,” said analyst James Chin of Monash University Malaysia Campus. “If all of them are not competent, it will not work.”[Where does he get this premise?]

He pointed out that the English policy that was scrapped from schools last month failed because too many teachers were not fluent in the language.

“If department heads are not fluent, subordinates will follow what they do,” said Chin. “Until they get real English speakers in the civil service and allow the use of English in all official documents, instead of just Malay, it will not work.” – The Straits Times

Are we chasing rainbows here?

What an eye opener, don't you think?

Is the Bursa About to Undergo Correction?

A blogger, Sensesen thinks so.

So he has asked us to watch the following counters if we want to pick some on the way down. He has suggested chiefly the lower liner steel and construction-related stocks particularly Sino Huaan, Kinsteel, Perwaja, MRCB, Ranhill and UEM Land.He expects these as top technical picks to out-perform the broader market.

An overpriced Wall Street is currently expected to undergo deep correction before the second leg up theory of Warren Buffet can take place. As such Bursa and Far-East markets are unexpected to follow suit. Nonetheless, Sensesen expects profit-taking to be shallow given that most investors would have sold on the rally the previous few weeks, and are looking to buy back upon a more significant correction. He anticipates core blue chips to consolidate while buying interest shifts towards lower liners on active rotational plays.

On blue chips, investors should consider buying on dips, defensive gaming stocks Genting Bhd and Genting Malaysia given that the H1N1 virus scare has pressured share prices down to bargain levels. Sensesen also suggest that we look out on Kencana and Wah Seong, as well as to buy DNP, Hovid, Leader and RCE Capital on any profit-taking dips.

As for the KLCI, immediate support upon correction is set at 1,180, with 1,171, then 1,164 and 1,156 acting as stronger support platforms. On the upside, the significant upside hurdle will be at the 1,200 psychological level, which requires a bullish breakout to aid further upside towards 1,220, and then 1,248, which represents the 61.8 per cent FR of the fall from 1,525 all-time high to 801 pivot low, acting as a major resistance.

It makes sense,Sensesen!

Wonderful Way of Teaching English Using Realia.

I have often heard of English teachers bringing their pupils to the actual places to teach them words. While I was a co-teaching TESOL to would be teachers, I was told of a guy called Reuben and how he went to the Mont Kiara condominiums on his motorbike from Cheras to teach expatriate Korean and Japanese kids there. We we told of hi exploits bringing these children a tn Indian restaurant to explain to them what were the foods which has English equivalent.Words like prawnw wwere taught by pointing at the cooked unshelled prawns and the various Indian vegetables using cabbage, lady's fingers and round eggplants.

This afternoon, while at the Tesco Supermarket in Kota Damansara, I chance to see a white man bringing a small group of Korean and Japanese kids around. He points at a type a vegetable and asked the students what that was. The students appeared wide eyed and so he gave the answers. This is celery I heard he peak. As he went around, I heard him say 'leek','spinach''round cabbage' and so forth. So I stopped and asked him whether he was a teacher and those were his students. He said he was. I told him I am also a teacher and that I was taught the same method to teach using realia. I then sought his permission to take a photograph as he continued teaching. He agreed. I will post the picture here soon.