My Grateful Son : Dedicated To All Mothers

Hi there!

Today I'm not going to write matters related to English but just want to share a happy mother's feeling towards a grown up son. My son, Ashraff Sany has just registered in Foundation of Engineering Course at UiTM Puncak Alam . Being my eldest son, this gives me the first experience being away from him for quite a long time . Ya...he has been away from family for almost 2 months ! 2 months that I feel like 2 years ...and hardly describe how much the family and I miss him. Hardly believe to see my husband is much more "in blues' than I . Almost everynight he calls Ashraff to ask his condition and his new experience over there. Now, after I and a half months past, things are getting much better. We are more adaptable to the situation, so do my other children,Alya,Ilya,Ihsan and Isqhandar . No more everyday calls, no more night sobbing and no more blues .

2 days ago, I got a call f

rom Ashraff informed me that he had received the allowance from Kementerian Pengajian Tinggi amounted about RM1600.00. He said that he is going to pay the hostel fee of about 400 with the money . I advised him to spend wisely and be grateful for getting the money. He convinced me not too worry too much of him as he knew what's best for him and he said he had grown up and mature enough.

After isyak prayer last night I heard message beeping tone from my Nokia handset . I didn't get the phone straight away as I wanted to finish folding my 'telekung'(prayer attire)and need to put it back nicely at its place . Then, slowly I picked up my phone which was on my bed to check my inbox message . The message was from Ashraff . This is what he wrote : Salam Ummi, hope you are fine. I've just transfered RM200 into your account.Have you received? I was so shocked to see the message! Hardly describe my feeling at that time,unbelievable...elated...touched,everything mixed-up !

I didn't call him instantly,instead I replied his message asking what's the money for? Again what he answered,deeply touched my mother's feeling and at the same time I was very thankful to GOD for granting a grateful son like him. This is what he wrote to me : Umi, the money is for you.Sorry,not much.For you to use for daily spending and for 'adik2"(younger brothers & sisters)....

What makes me happy and thankful is not because of getting money but my son's attitude and his sense of responsibility. For me, his allowance is his pocket money to spend for studies and his daily food. In fact, with today's cost of living that amount would be not enough to spend for 3-4 months. Anyhow I really appreciate his gift and sincere thought to me. I will never stop praying for my son's success and hope to be a success mother too ! I do believe this is the same prayer of all other mothers too...

To all children,please be reminded : Once making your mother happy ,GOD grants you with full of blesses and success.

Essential Sharing : Correct Usage of English by Fadzilah Amin

Hi there !

This time i would like to share essential knowledge which i got from reading Mind Our English Column by Fadzilah Amin in The Star dated 30 June 2011. Since long this column has been my inspiration and guidance in my journey as English lecturer. These are for everyone to share :

Wrong : He drank two cupsful of water
Correct:He drank two cupfuls of water

Wrong : Two spoonsful of sugar
Correct:Two spoonfuls of sugar

Wrong : Your prompt attention on the above matter is much appreciated
Correct: Your immediate attention to the above matter would be much appreciated.

Explanation : The sentence should not be written in the present tense, since it is a request that has not been fullfilled yet.

Wrong : Kindly let us have your advise to the above matter in order for us to proceed accordingly.
Correct : Please let us have your advice on the above matter in order for us to proceed accordingly

Explanation : 'Kindly' is old-fashioned and was often used when someone was annoyed with someone else.'advise' is a verb,'advice' is a noun

That's all for this time. Hope this brief sharing may benefit many of you.

POPULAR ERRORS IN ENGLISH

Hello there,

In this entry i want to talk about errors! Ya...forming errors in speaking and writing english is very common to us. However, if the errors are too obvious which can easily spotted by others especially in speaking,it is very embarassing!

Amongst the popular errors made by many users/speakers are in the use of :

1. Question Tags

QT is not really a question.It is a way of making conversation by asking the listener to agree with us.

We didn't play very well today,did we?
Daddy went to work this morning,didn't he?
I've got ten fingers,haven't I?
It's a lovely day,isn't it?

These are a few correct form of QT that should be used in speaking. Unfortunately, I always come accross English users especially Malaysians who are very keen on using the QT "isn't it". In fact, 'isn't it' is used in all situation,but the usage is wrong. These are examples of mistakes done :

I think she's very pretty, isn't it?
This lecturer is so boring,isn't it?
She has lovely voice,isn't it?
Those kids are so cute, isn't it?

Ha..ha! Can you spot on the errors? They're very clear, right?

So,watch out! Get rid of making the same errors.It's very annoying and embarassing!

Bye-bye for now, till i write again on more errors in next entry.

LEARNING ENGLISH IS TOO EASY

Learning English is neither difficult nor too easy ! The most important thing to do in mastering the language is never give up and keep on trying... Of similar important is always aware of the rules and regulation of the language particularly grammatical rules. Let's give attention to the first rules here :

1. Forming Plural Nouns

Not all plural Nouns end with ' s '. ( pen - pens , book - books, animal - animals, etc )
There are Plural Nouns end with 'ies', 'ves', 'shes', 'ches', 'ses'. 'xes'. The changes depend on the last letter of the Nouns, for example ;

baby - babies
ferry - ferries
thief - thieves
wife - wives
bush - bushes
dish - dishes
glass - glasses
class - classes
box - boxes
tomato - tomatoes
potato - potatoes
radio - radios
zoo - zoos

Irregular Plural Nouns

The plural form is totally different from the root word. Learners are highly advisable to memorize this pattern of Irregular Form.

Child - Children
foot - Feet
Man - Men
fish - fish
ox - oxen

Remember this rule, till i write again the other important rules on my next entry. Bye-bye... see you again !

THE POSSESSIVE NOUNS

Hello There! The next important matter in learning Nouns is The Possessive Nouns. All know that PN refer to a person possesses something. The person who has the possession can be singular or plural. The rules to note the possessive form lies on Singular Noun or Plural Noun.

For Singular Noun, the Possessive Form must be written as follows :

My mother's friend is Jean.
My friend's house is not far from here.
The girl's shirt is wet.

For Plural Noun, Here are the Possessive Forms :

My friends' houses are far from here.
My parents' cars are not yet washed.
The students' assignments are on my table.

Possessive Form for Irregular Plural Nouns :

The children's toys are on the floor.
Books about people's lives are interesting to read.
This store sells women's clothing only.

Important Reminder :

Don't use apostrophe 's' ('s) to show PN of non-living things.

The book's cover is not attractive. ( Wrong )
The cover of the book is not attractive. ( Correct )

The bus's wheel . (Wrong)
The wheel of the bus. ( Correct )

I vs ME

Throughout years of teaching, the most common mistakes done by most students are wrong usage of pronouns I and Me. The rules for these two pronouns is very simple ; I refers to Subject, whereas Me is the Object. Hence, in constructing sentences which involve these two pronouns, the said rules must be applied.

Look at how I and Me is used in these sentences ;

My brother and I used to go to school by foot when we were young. ( I as Subject )
My brother used to teach me how to ride bicycle when I was young. (Me as Object )
He told Mariam and me to wait for him at the library. (Me as Object)

The usage of I and Me also confusing in comparison types of sentence. Remember ; In comparison sentence, I (Subject ) is used not Me. Look at these examples ;

He is older than I .
You are as tall as I.
Who did it? Not I.

FunnyCrazyStory (FCS) Technique In Improving Vocabs

Having and knowing vocabs is the most essential thing in learning English besides knowledge of English Grammar. Throughout my years of teaching, I find out those students who fail in English or not credit in English is due to having very lack of English vocabularies. They do not even know the meaning of simple English words like comfortable, intelligent, prepare, describe and lots of other easy words. This has caused them to face difficulties in understanding English and even worse they totally lose interest in studying English. No matter how good the teacher is and how hard the teacher tries to teach , it's not easy to gain interest and to motivate students with very limited vocabs

One of the most popular ways taken by teachers and students to improve and to increase the word power is through asking students to read books or magazines or articles and from the reading, students are told to list down the new vocabs that they get and write the meaning in English and also in their mother tongue.Students need to do this consistently and they may need to memorize the words too in order to remember.
It's undeniable that the above way able to help students to increase vocabs as they do lots of reading and writing up the words can help them to remember better and faster. However, this technique could be improvised to a better ,easier and funnier way in order to make it more effective and more joyful. A technique which i named as "FunnyCrazyStory" (FCS) technique is a much more interesting and faster technique in empowering vocabularies, especially amongst students at elementary and intermediate level. You can read the following tips on how to practice the technique.

FunnyCrazyStory (FCS) Technique

1. Get lists of new words either from books/articles/magazines or you can just get words from dictionary. Be consistent with the number of new words per day. You can set your target to learn 20 or 30 words per day or may be lesser. It's better to have less but consistent rather than many but inconsistent.

2. Same as the above way, you still need to list down the words together with the meaning either in English or in your mother tongue or much better to write the meaning in English and put the meaning in mother tongue in bracket. For example the word ; "marvellous - fantastic,great,incredible (hebat). After listed all the words, the next step is the most interesting,fun and challenging !!!

3. Use your creativity and imagination to form short and simple story from the listed words. It's far better if your story is funny and crazy as it stimulates your mind to remember more effectively. Here's one example on how you can work out this technique ;

fable - short story
fabled - famous
fabless - a company which design microchips
fabliau - a French tale
fablon - plastics for covering table tops
fabric - material for cloth
fabricate - invent, with deceitful intent
fabulate - tell invented stories
fabulist - a person who compose fables
fabulous - wonderful , extraordinary

(These are list of words taken from a dictionary)

Story
"A fabulist (a person who composes fables) fabulates(tell invented story) fabulous(wonderful) fabliau (French tale)fable(short story) which is about a fabless (a company which designs microchips)invents fabricated(invent with deceitful intent)fabric (material for cloth)that can be used as fablon (plastics for covering table tops)."

Look... how easy and catchy the story is and the most important thing is FCS technique is very fun and enjoyable to do for its effective and speedy way to empower new vocabularies. But remember, you have to practice this often and consistently.

Good luck & have a try ! You will see the result in a very short period!!!

Government Moves To Upgrade The English Mastery Among Students in Malaysia

New year 2011 has just stareted and now it's already end of January. It has been long time i do not write new post on my blog. Lots of new issues regarding education matters including English subject matters arises in the country especially pertaining the transformation of curriculum, teachers and other issues.

One thing that really attracted me is the serious move of our government to enhance and upgrade the language proficiency of Malaysia students by spending lots of money to ensure this intention is a success. By introducing the new curriculum for primary level which is KSSR , the government with full expectation to see the curriculum will be much more effective and benefited the students.

As an English educator at private sector, I am not fully involved in all the transformation initiated by the government but how much I wish I could contribute in line with the government moves to assist students in upgrading the language proficiency.

It's of everybody's hope to see the initiative done by government and all parties involve in the implementation will bloom with success and able to reach objectives.
Somehow rather I'm a bit awkward to see some private institutions do not take serious on the effort taken by government concerning english language matters. They hesitately give support and encouragement to any english language enriching activities done by students and lecturers. Worst of all, these private sectors just prioritize on business matters and money profit as they charge extremely high fees for English lesson but fail to provide condusive environment and relevant activities to help students to master better English. If there are efforts from lecturers or students to hold programmes and activities for this purpose , the efforts are not at all supported and appreciated for they think those are unimportant and irrelevant for not contributing anything in generating income.

This kind of mindset really sickening and torturing me as an English Educator who eagerly and ambitiously willing to offer a helping hand for the betterment of English language mastery among students in Malaysia.

I do pray all the initiaves taken by the government and all the parties who involve in the implementation will be blessed and will one day smile endlessly for the sweetness of the success.

Bravo and Good Luck To All of You...

CHOIR DAY COMPETITION AT MASTERSKILL KB

Very happy to organize the Choir Competition Amongst Programmes for the first time at Masterskill Kota Bharu.

The event was held on 21st April 2010 which involved the participation from all Diploma Programmes of Masterskill Kota Bharu.

At first I don't have high confidence on these students. But after continuous practices and consistent effort they could make it. Congrats !!!

THE MEANING OF 'MERDEKA'

Yesterday 31st of August,2010, the whole Malaysians celebrated the 53rd Merdeka Celebration. Ya... Malaysia has been free from being ruled by others for 53 years!!! Such a long years.....

On early yesterday morning too, my 10 years old son cheerfully came to me and eagerly asking " Ummi, today is Merdeka right?" I replied " yes dear, why?" With sparkling smiles and shining eyes he yelled at me " Hooray Ummi, now we can shout Merdeka! Merdeka! Merdeka!"

I was smiling looking at his action. After he finished shouting Merdeka for 3 times, I hold his shoulder and asked him " Ihsan, do you know the meaning of Merdeka?" Instantly he answered "Of course, I know. Merdeka means our ountry is free from Japan, from .........em....em...em. I don't know others but I know only today everybody can shout Merdeka! Merdeka! Merdeka."

He is just a little boy who wants to share the excitement of Merdeka without fully understand the meaning of Merdeka. At least I'm a bit relieve when he knows that Merdeka means free from other rulers. If not as a mother, I feel ultimate guilty for not imposing sufficient knowledge to my son.

As Malaysian, I'm truly proud for the 53rd celebration yesterday with full hope that our country will remain harmony and grow more developed and more prosperous with the spirit of 1 Malaysia.

'HAPPY MERDEKA TO ALL'

Air Asia Flight To KL

Me and my kids on Air Asia flight . Exciting! Amusing ! Fantastic and Fun....

Oh.... what a pity my eldest son Ashraff could not join us this time! Don't be sad my dear, you must be with us on next vacation.......

Cuti Cuti Malaysia

My twin girls, Alya and Ilya really enjoyed themselves during family vacation in KL.

They were so clever in giving nice pose in every snap we took!

Ahhhh.... energetic girls !!!

Family Vacation

My youngest son, Isqhandar Sany was very excited on his first flight to Kl.

From the photo, he looked so calm on his pose at SOGO Food Court, KL.

SOME LANGUAGE TIPS .....

Sometimes the usage of preposition "in' and 'at' is very confusing and may cause errors when they are used in sentence. Here are tips on using these two preposition which I quoted from The Star, 19 August 2010, written by Fadzilah Amin.

'At' is used when the school is named. For example, 'I am studying at Sekolah ABC'.However, either 'at' or 'in' can be used when saying a child is still attending school, e.g. "My daughter is only 16 and still in/at school".We can also use either when talking about certain school activities or phenomena, like 'sports in/at school' or "bullying in/at school'.

Other language tips.....

The word 'to' belongs to two different word classes or parts of speech. When used in 'to sing','to play', etc, it is an infinitive marker and is used with the base form of the verb (without the -ing) in sentences like 'I like to sing/play'. But 'to' can also function as a preposition before nouns, pronouns, noun phrases and gerunds, which are -ing forms of verbs functioning as nouns.

In 'I'm looking forward to meeting you', 'meeting' is a gerund. The 'to' before it is a preposition , not an infinitive marker. So it can be used before a gerund.

Common Errors...

Urinate is not allowed in the bathroom ------ Wrong
Urinating is not allowed in the bathroom ------ Correct

Please flush water after used ---------- Wrong
Please flush the toilet after use ----------- Correct

Do you remember when you feel it? -------- Wrong
Do you remember when you felt it ? --------- Correct

Do you know why you choose it ? ----------- Wrong
Do you know why you chose it ? ------------ Correct

Be Grateful

I'm deeply touched with what I watch on TV and read from newspaper. It was a lifestory of 82 years old single mother who has been struggling for a living and at the same time has to take care of 4 mentally retarded growned up sons who totally rely on her for not afford to work on their own. How strong and courageous she is for bearing the hardship alone and for mother's love she dares to sacrifice for her sons even up to her old age.

The story of this old mother makes me realize that there are thousands or millions or maybe billions and trillion of people are not as lucky as me. Even I'm not a billionnaire, but I obtain almost everything I want in life: happy families,healthy and cheerful children, sufficient food and drinks, a comfortable house for shelter and other necessities as human being.

I do believe that there are too many of other people who are as lucky as I or even much much luckier for being billionnaire or may be having too many extra things more than their basic needs.

So, let us be really thankful and grateful with what we possess and always willing to give our helping hands to those needies.

To the 82 years old single mother, I do pray and wish she and her sons will be helped and able to lead to a better and greener life.

MEMORABLE MOMENTS WITH COLLEAGUES

Having colleagues and building up good relationship with them is immensely important in working life, particularly as lecturer we have to share ideas and views about many aspects especially matters revolving teaching and students.

I believe we are still in the mood of New Year and still highly motivated and fully energised to carry out our daily routine and duties. I do hope that this year we are able to accomplish whatever wish that we've dreamt for and will remain strong and able to endure no matter bad or bitter obstacles that will confront us throughout the year.Remember this, 'Life is a promise, fulfill it '.

For me this quote really meaningful to us. Undeniably once we start living on this earth, from the day we were born, we did tie up a promise with our dear Creator. We were not sent to the world meaningless but instead with boundless duties and responsibilities as Caliph of the world.
Hence, we have to perform our duties the best as we could to ensure we do fulfill our promise to the Almighty.

"Good Luck To Me & All of You"

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2010

The new year is coming again and this time is 2010. As usual, everyone of us with full hope that the new year will bring us more blessings and gratitude. We do pray that everything belongs to us : our family,our career, our friends, our money, our asset and lots of ours will be in good condition and even much better and prosperous to ensure our happiness and laughter remains.

However it's not at all wrong for all of us to recite prayer that the new year will also be a good year for many others especially those people in Palestine, people in Somalia ,Sudan and other parts of the world who are not as lucky as us. They have been suffering a lot in surviving their own lifes and family.

To all readers of this blog, let us pray for the new year 2010 will count all of us mountains of blessings and our beautiful world is in peace and harmony.

PAST TENSE VS PRESENT PERFECT TENSE

English users always confused between these two tenses and also very frequent making mistakes in using these two. Here are simple tips to remember and differentiate between the two...

Past Tense - For action already completed in the past (yesterday,last week, last month,etc)
Pres. Perfect Tense - For action started in the past but still has effect in present (since....for)

Rozie broke her leg.(Rozie is ok now, no longer in hospital)
Rozie has broken her leg. (Rozie is still not ok, still get treatment in hospital)


Maria lived in London last five years.(Maria is not in London anymore,She was there 5
years ago)

Maria has lived in London for five years.(Maria was in London 5 years ago and now
still in London.)


Well, with these simple tips may help those who are in confused to differentiate between these two tenses.

Attending seminars and courses is part of educator's duty to enhance skill and knowledge.

The picture was taken during a teaching course for programme coordinators at Masterskill Kuala Lumpur.

In the picture

(left-right): Zaida,Rosa,Jamilah,Emey

Knowledge is imminently useful that we have to face the fact that we are useless and meaningless without having knowledge.In conjunction with the advancement of technology and communication system in today's life, obtaining knowledge has become much easier and faster.Now everything could be obtained as fast as a bullet train or even faster where it's just at our finger tips.By just flicking and dragging ones can get information throughout without boundaries.



English language is one portion of knowledge for it has its own benefit for the learner.Undeniably knowledge of english can bring people to the top of the world!!! I hope I am not overboard with this statement .I am indeed positive that in order to gain varieties of knowledge in the world ones must possess knowledge of english first. This is due to the sources of particular knowledge are written in english.Besides, those who have better ability to speak in english are very common potray as more successful and more accepted and respected by the community.



Throughout years of teaching english particularly in Kelantan state, a state which is renowned as less developed and poor mastery of english language, the teaching task is not always amusing and exciting but on the other hand has become extremely challenging and very prone to cause the teacher demotivated and demoralised.!!!English is not highly regarded as useful knowledge to be either appreciated or valued.

We may become the enemy of our own students if we do not know how to tackle and win their hearts. High skills and brilliant teaching techniques must be blended with the use of good psychology are immensely needed to attract their attention. Ultimately our students wouldn't even bother to lend their ears to us if we use fully english in class or force them to communicate in english.For them they dare to be scolded or punished rather than uttering out in english language.They are very pessimistic towards english that cause them to scare to death.The students have been very much overwhelmed with their kelantanese language and dialect which lead them to feel uneasy to accept english language.

These are just a few instances of how teachers confront with the challenge of teaching english in Kelantan. I used to have students who did not interested in learning english at all because for them it's a waste of time.They'd rather learn other languages as they're more beneficial and also more exciting.These phenomenon getting worse when there were also my colleagues obtain the same thinking and mentality which have caused those students to think they were right.

I used to feel so down,depressed,demotivated and confused !!! I was wrong for labeling english as knowledge that could bring people to the top of the world... yet the fact is without english knowledge people still could survive and smile to the whole world. I regretted myself for being an english teacher for giving the least benefits to students compared to teach other subjects like mathematics and sciences. In fact as an english teacher, it's very hard for me to accomplish satisfaction because majority of my students only gain a bit from the teaching...they still comfortable to communicate in their mother tongue language and as for grammar lesson they just know the name of tenses like present tense, past tense and future tense and claim that they never understand how to use these tenses in sentences or phrases.

Ahh....whatever it is we have to count the blessings...Every silver has its lining. God has fated me to be an english teacher and I'm very grateful for that. As a teacher I have to throw away all the negative thoughts towards my career and walk forward for a brighter future...May GOD bless me for what I've been doing to my students .

TEACHING ... A PROFESSION OR PASSION?

Teaching is a profession and definitely it needs passion and interest.I used to ask myself whether i've these in me. I'm still seeking for exact answer to this question even i've already devoted myself in teaching career for almost 17 years. Wow! what a long years... Sometimes I think time runs very fast leaving those moments behind me, before i'm able to hold and grip tightly every single experience as a language educator .



Throughout the days as a lecturer, my routine is do research and deep study on the topics to teach,plan lesson accordingly , updating myself with current issues from internet,newspaper or magazines and also prepare either inspirational quotes or light jokes to share with students.Very frequent also I have to listen to students' problems and be the problem solver of different kind of problems they possess from teen's problem to family problem. There are also times I devote to listen to them and share different types of stories just to let them feel belonging.

Till now...after years of teaching and educating, I am still loyal to my daily routine which I believe it is endless as long as I am called a language educator. I never know when I'm going to give a stop to all these....or may be these are called passion and interest.

A PIECE OF EXPERIENCE OF A SECTION C GIRL

It was May 1992 when I have just graduated after four long years of struggle to be pronounced as a graduate of English Language Studies. The title that I myself never ever dream to hold as I was really worried and unhappy with my English proficiency ever since I was at secondary school.
It’s still clear on my mind how I was humiliated and mocked by my friends for being placed in Section C for English class. I was so down for being discriminated and started to lose friends after became a Section C student. Students who were in section A and B were much luckier for being popular and liked by everyone.
I took the highest effort to be promoted to better group so that I could easily mingle with popular students and accepted as their friends. However it seemed that I was fated to be a section C student till the end of my secondary school day. On the other hand, many of my friends from section C were able to be promoted to section A and B and they simply regarded me as the dumbest student in section C.
Those were just piece of unforgettable experience of a section C student during school days. Despite all the bitter moments during these period of time, it has taught me to be tougher and stronger with full of spirit to improve my English ability and able to stand in the crowd as tall as the others.