Salam Ramadhan

About a month I didn't write anything here, maybe I don't have an idea to write or my task at workplace is getting harder and time consuming. This month is Ramadan where Muslims all around the worlds begin fasting; actually this is a 16th day of fasting.

All the day before this was always gloomy; it is cause by my child not really getting health these days. He got a flu and fever three times on this month. It really mess me up, I got to apply leave to bring him to clinic for treatment. Night is also not always long as usual. I have to wake if my child cries.

Ramadan this is very cheerful for me, it is the first time for me and my wife to break fasting and “sahur” together. I hope this year I greatest Ramadan for me and my family.

Finding a crèche

Yesterday, mother-in-law and I went to Kak Zaimah’s house to discuss about my boy. I planned to send my boy there while I in working day. Unfortunately, she wasn’t at home because she went back to her village. I told her daughter to envoy my message to her mother that I was going to send my little boy.

I need to discus about fee and time to send to her house. I have surveyed the price of the crèche before. Not so bad, it was about RM150 to RM 250 per month. That mean I have to spend about RM500 monthly for my little boy.

Although there was a risk to let my child in crèche, I have to do it because I don’t want to bother my mother-in-law. She also has other chores to do at home. Ermm.. I mean it is a household chore and she’s also missing her other grandchild in Johore. She visits her grandchild once in a while.

Lately, my wife is really busy because she’s heading to involve in new ICT project. I was pity at her. But I can’t really help her. All I can do is to give a support and cheer her in whatever condition. Good Luck for her.

Wrote a letter

I was stuck on doing application for uitm-PLK, I read clearly the passage of the condition of application. They need a transcript of diploma. Oh no… I know several of my classmate have already take their transcript by I’m the one who not doing it yet. I try to gain any information about this on mailing list and I got few of it.

I called CIAST to request the transcript but the response is very bad. I have to wait for long time to wait another people to pick up the phone. I spoke to En. Suhaimi, he asked me to write a application letter to Head of Bahagian Pengurusan Latihan.

This morning, I spent about 2 hours to write a letter; actually I don’t have any idea what the letter look is like. I just open Ms Word and just type whatever flying in my mind. Hope the reason I put on it is acceptable. I will fax the letter in this evening.

Went to Jasin

I went to Jasin this morning to withdraw money from bank to buy a honey bee. Recently, I start to take honey before go to bed so that my body not feeling cold when I’m sleeping. After that, I went to BSN to deposit money for Uitm e-application for Disember 2007 intake.

It’s a little bit disappointed because Uitm didn’t offer the course that I want to apply this semester. After discussing with my wife, I decided to apply a social science course. Actually, I also have a passion in a social science. The career opportunity is also wide in this course.

After deposited some money, my stomach is grouchy. So I stop at Haja Café to buy some food. I take away my food and eat it in my office with my partner. That all for today’s story. I don’t have any ideas to write anymore.

My goal

This year, I have setting up several goals to achieve. I have achieved two out of three main goals for this year. From the beginning of the year, strong efforts have taken to finish the goal.

My first thrust is moving a workplace from Terengganu to Malacca, I begin this effort from end of August 2006 and the it is achieved on January 2007, After three month amendment, I begin working in Malacca on April 2007.

Second goal is passing a MUET examination. I filled up a form of application for MUET exam on January 2007. The MUET have held on March and I got a result on July. Fortunately I pass the exam with band three. It was not excellent but I’m satisfied with that result. Maybe I will retake the exam on end year of 2008.

Lastly is to further my study, this goal not achieve yet. I plan to fill up the form of application to public universities in the end of this year. It was for January 2008 intake. I plan to do a part time study. The course that I want to choose is Business Administration (International Trade). I hope that I will achieve this goal.

Mastering writing skills

This article is taken from thestar.com.my

ASK an average student these days to write in English, let it be at school or university and he will find it an uphill task despite having learnt the language for many years.

Sad to say, “cut and paste” is becoming the norm in academic work these day and this can even be found in students’ written work at the higher level.

That the summary question had to be dropped from the MUET paper, I suppose, was not that students were not analytical enough to write summaries but they found it just impossible to summarise passages in their own words.

They end up producing the same sentences found in the reading passages despite being instructed not to do so.

Without writing skills, students would not be able to even paraphrase a simple paragraph in their own words, let alone write an original piece of work.

Proper coaching on how to write well in English should start at school. Students should be advised not to be nonchalant about acquiring skills for writing, especially when they are in the academic set-up.

Students should realise that what is indispensable in writing is for both the thinking and writing processes to be interlaced to produce something meaningful.

Thinking is an activity of the mind that generates and develops ideas, and therefore it should precede writing.

The teaching of writing to students should also be approached as a problem-solving activity.

Students who write better are more flexible in that they do not operate within the limits of rigid rules but rather concern themselves with the rhetorical situation – the audience, the circumstances that elicit the discourse and the constraints.

Studies have shown that students who have been exposed to a lot of reading find it less of a burden when it comes to writing, as they function in writing without being conscious of the grammar process.

The poor students have been found to be more concerned with the surface features – interrupting their thinking by editing their writing prematurely.

When they write, they write in an inter-language – they think in their native language and the English structures follow that of their native language. Most of our weak students have not overcome this problem.

For those students who are strung-up when asked to write, it would help if they conform to some explicit safe rules that have been proven effective in writing.

Teach them to write non-stop with no self-censorship, stop, read, reflect and sum up what they have written.

They need to be taught to invent, take risks and write down their ideas quickly in raw form without concern for grammar yet.

They should not limit themselves to the confines of style or form.

Though they may lack the right words to express, teach them to develop different points of view to the task and ensure that they understand the concept first.

Students need to be taught to build up their confidence before they can start to write well.

Dr M.A. NAIR,
Universiti Tenaga Nasional
Bandar Muadzam Shah, Pahang.

Monday is Beautiful

I got up from bed a little bit late this morning, so I don’t take a morning exercise. After having a breakfast, I wait for my mother, she sent a little brother to the school. My wife goes to work about 7.35 am. It’s a little bit late for he because she has arrived before 8 at office.

My boy and I patiently waiting for my mother, she arrived at home at 7.50 am. After give my boy to her, I prepared to go to work and arrived at office about 7.59 am. After that, I go to the weekly assembly. The director was on delivering his speech when I arrived.

My class starts at 8.30 am. Monday is a very tight day for me. I have a class from 8.30 am till 3.30 pm. It was a practical class, so much time needed. I bring along a newspaper. When waiting my student finishes doing their task. I can read newspaper so that I’m not bored.

Attack on teachers

Recently, there are many reports on the media accusing teacher as a violent people. There are several cases link to the teacher had been made a police report by student’s parent. There no media in Malaysia who decline the report like this. I feel very frustrating because teaching profession is very high principles.

What should the teachers do to deal with the students who insult them? The parent also should not defense their child; it must be a reason for teacher to act like that. The teacher not dealt only with one child, but it almost 30 to 40 students per class. It was a big crowd.

There many honored service the teacher have given to our society. If the teacher don’t discipline the students, who else will do it for the sake of our country development. The media should turn their report. Don’t write a report just to get the publicity. Write the good thing for our nation. We don’t want Malaysia to be colonized again.

Car Repair

I went to repair my car this morning. Before that, I had to take care of my boy because my mother went to hospital to collect her medical examination result earlier this morning. She arrived at home almost at 10.00 am.

I bought a news paper to avoid me from feeling bored at repair center. I bought a The Star news paper. The cover page news is about murder of children Shearwel Ooi Ying Ying. It was a really cruel criminal. The girl is only a child.

After waiting for two hours, my car have repaired and it costs RM180.00. Then I feel confident again to drive my car. Actually I change a car’s timing belt. It a really hard to do because I saw the foremen is trying really hard to repair it.

A class starts now

A class starts now

After 3 week holiday for a student, today they come back to start a class. I also get the timetable for teaching also on this day. Actually the timetable is release last week. But I have a several activity, and then I don’t mention that a timetable is on my table.

So, at the early this morning, I go to institute assembly and after that, I start to make preparation for first class. My first class is student semester three for subject Server Administration.

Today, I just told the student to tidy up the class first. And then they have to install the operating system. I told them to make a dual boot system because these laboratories also use by En. Noorlizam, for Web Design subject. He wants to use a Windows Operating System meanwhile I need to use a Linux Operating System.

So today, the only do the preparation for two subjects. The Web Design subject will be teaching tomorrow. The class will end at 3.30pm, after that the student will proceed to library.

Learning and remembering vocabulary

This article is taken from bbc.co.uk

A variety of techniques
It's important to use a variety of methods to help you to effectively learn new vocabulary. Different strategies work better for different learners. Try out a few ways of recording and remembering vocabulary and decide which works best for you.

A bilingual notebook
A bilingual notebook can be very useful. Have words in English on one side of the page and words in your own language on the other. Test yourself on the train or bus in the morning. A good vocabulary notebook should also contain other information about the word or phrase you're trying to learn: for example the pronunciation, what part of speech it is (is it a verb or noun) and what words it's commonly used in combination with.

Organise your vocabulary in categories
It's easier for most students to remember words in groups. For example you could write all the things you find in a kitchen on one page. You could also make a vocabulary map or network of related words.

Use your new vocabulary
When you make a note of new words try to use them. If you use a word frequently you are more likely to remember it, especially if you can personalise it. Try writing and remembering a sentence about your life which uses the word.

Use word association and mental images
Some people try to remember words by associating them with something from their own language. The example we heard in the programme was a woman trying to learn Arabic. She said the word for hospital is 'mustashfa', which she thought sounded like the English word 'moustache'. So to memorise the word she imagined hospital workers with moustaches.

Try recording yourself
Someone suggested recording their new vocabulary and then playing the words back to themselves. This also has the advantage of allowing you to practise your pronunciation.

Songs
Songs are a very memorable way of learning vocabulary.

MSR Inaugural Ceremony

The MSR Inaugural Ceremony has successfully carried out this morning. The Inauguration was held by ILPS Director. I and my colleague had prepared a reception and protocol for this event.

In his speech, The Director told a student take thinks that MSR is not a common week, but the student must think MSR is a motivation week. A lot of work, speech and advice will be given in this week.

The Institute also will not compromise if the student makes an offence. A stern action will be taken to the student who break the law and maybe they will be dismiss from Institute.

A video of Staff Introduction had view in the end of the ceremony. I create that video all by myself. But a simple error have been detect on that video. But it not is affecting the ceremony. After ceremony, we have an indifferent meal.

MUET Result.

Today, I got a result of my MUET examination. I got a band three, it’s not so bad but I need to do more effort because I thought that band 3 is not a satisfactory result. But I’m not felt disappoint for this result.

If I have a chance next time, I will retake this exam as an indicator to my proficiency to English language. I love English very much and I must work hard to master it. From this day, I will strive to remember at least 5 words per day. I hope this will increase my vocabulary.

Another challenge in English is speaking. I would try to speak with everyone else especially the one who close to me. Learning English is a never ending learning. Hope there will be someone who will help to achieve my goal.

Speed Reading

This article taken from mindtools.com

Speed Reading helps you to read and understand text more quickly. It is an essential skill in any environment where you have to master large volumes of information quickly, as is the norm in fast-moving professional environments. And it's a key technique to learn if you suffer from "Information Overload."

The Key Insight

The most important trick about speed reading is to know what information you want from a document before you start reading it: if you only want an outline of the issue that the document discusses, then you can skim the document quickly and extract only the essential facts. If you need to understand the real detail of the document, then you need to read it slowly enough to understand it fully.

You will get the greatest time savings from speed reading by learning to skim excessively detailed documents.

Technical Issues

Even when you know how to ignore irrelevant detail, there are other technical improvements you can make to your reading style which will increase your reading speed.

Most people learn to read the way young children read - either letter-by-letter, or word-by-word. As an adult, this is probably not the way you read now - think about how your eye muscles are moving as you read this. You will probably find that you are fixing your eyes on one block of words, then moving your eyes to the next block of words, and so on. You are reading blocks of words at a time, not individual words one-by-one. You may also notice that you do not always go from one block to the next: sometimes you may move back to a previous block if you are unsure about something.

A skilled reader will read many words in each block. He or she will only dwell on each block for an instant, and will then move on. Only rarely will the reader's eyes skip back to a previous block of words. This reduces the amount of work that the reader's eyes have to do. It also increases the volume of information that can be examined in a period of time.

A poor reader will become bogged down, spending a lot of time reading small blocks of words. He or she will skip back often, losing the flow and structure of the text and overall understanding of the subject. This irregular eye movement makes reading tiring. Poor readers tend to dislike reading, and may find it harder to concentrate and understand written information.

How to Use Tool:

Speed reading aims to improve reading skills by:

• Increasing the number of words read in each block
• Reducing the length of time spent reading each block, and
• Reducing the number of times your eyes skip back to a previous sentence.

Reducing skip-back:
To reduce the number of times that your eyes skip back to a previous sentence, run a pointer along the line as you read. This could be a finger, or a pen or pencil. Your eyes will follow the tip of your pointer, smoothing the flow of your reading. The speed at which you read using this method will largely depend on the speed at which you move the pointer.

You will be able to increase your reading speed a certain amount on your own by applying speed reading techniques.

What you don't get out of self-study is the use of specialist reading machines and the confidence gained from successful speed-reading - this is where a good one-day course can revolutionize your reading skills.

Key points:

By speed reading you can read information more quickly. You may also get a better understanding of it as you will hold more of it in short term memory.

To improve the speed of your reading, read more words in each block and reduce the length of time spent reading each block. Use a pointer to smooth the way your eyes move and reduce skip-back.

Why giving up citizenships?

According to the Deputy Minister, Ministry of Home Affair Datuk Tan Chai Ho, it is about 106,000 Malaysians who giving up their citizenship and they live in other country such as United State of America, Australia, Singapore and Indonesia. Malay recorded as a largest percentages followed by Chinese and Indian. Malay state at 70%, it is about 79,199 individuals.

Women are majority who migrate the other country, the main reason of this is a marriage. The Prime Minister of Malaysia urges that Malaysians who giving up their citizenship will not give it back to them if they want to be Malaysians. He said, the door has been closed for them who don’t want to be Malaysians.

Why this matter is happen. Is it something wrong with education system? There are many Malaysian who not love this country and bear to leave this country and giving up their citizenship. Policy Maker! It’s a food for thought for you.

Expanding your vocabulary

This article is taken from Thestar.com.my

ONE of the biggest problems all language learners face is how to learn and remember vocabulary. Depending on individual learning styles, techniques that work well for one person may not help another person at all – one may have to see a word or phrase, another hear it spoken and yet another must write it down. Yet without vocabulary you will never be able to communicate so it is a problem everyone must come to terms with.

What do you need to learn?

The Subject Matter

Think about the context you use English in. If you spend time learning vocabulary associated with films or shopping, you may find it interesting, but don’t forget your immediate needs.

The type of vocabulary you need may be predetermined by your future career if you want to work in tourism or sales and marketing.

You may need specific vocabulary for exams.

Sound

Listen to a word before you see it whenever you can. The way a word is written is often different from the way it’s pronounced. Learn how to use the phonetic chart to make learning the pronunciation of new words easy.

Know how to use all the functions of your dictionary.

Spelling

Learn some of the more common spelling rules such as ‘i’ before ‘e’ except after ‘c’ (as in “receipt”), or change the ‘y’ to an ‘i’ and add ‘es’ (as in “spies” for the plural of “spy”). There are exceptions but it’s a good start.

Learn suffixes such as -tion and -ment. This will help you spell and deduce the meaning of new words.

Learn either American or English spelling, depending on your needs, and know the differences.

Strength and related words

Know how strong a word is. When learning the word “big”, find out what words are associated with it, such as “huge”. You can then use the word effectively and build your vocabulary at the same time.

Antonyms

Knowing the opposite of a word will expand your vocabulary range and you will be less restricted. When you learn a new word, be inquisitive and systematically find out the antonym.

Word Type

Always find out whether the word is a noun, verb, adjective or adverb. This helps you to place it correctly in a sentence.

How to learn?

Context:

A word on its own won’t help you communicate. Always put a new word into a sentence.

Learn vocabulary in chunks. We talk in expressions so learn it that way.

Record yourself:

Say a word in your own language onto a tape. Leave a gap of a few seconds and then say the English word. When you’ve finished recording, listen back, fill in the gaps and hear the answer.

Split your learning:

Learn a new word every day. Always look over ‘old’ words to revise what you know.

Take a subject per week and build up your vocabulary logically.

Be realistic about how many words you can learn in the time you have.

How to remember it?

Word building implies not only exposing yourself to new words but also retaining them in your memory.

Make your own personalised dictionary. Draw pictures of nouns if you are a visual learner.

Stick post-it notes around the house.

Look at new words several times and use them as soon as possible after learning them. Hearing a word once isn’t enough to actually learn it.

Brains drain.

What is the meaning of brain drain? Based on article on Wikipedia, brain drain or human capital flight is an emigration of trained and talented individual (human capital) to other nation or jurisdictions. This is due to conflict, lack of opportunity and other where they are living.

Why this is happen in Malaysia? Are we done prepared the facility enough to give to this talented individual? Brain drain happen because we are Malaysian’s who not thankful to our country. We don’t ever think about Malaysia’s development and loyal service.

Malaysia needs a talented people out there to achieve the national mission. Our government today is stressing in poverty eradication by capacity building and human capital. This mission will not realize if we all Malaysia don’t contribute to our country.

What age do we live?

We live in the age of engineer, not a poet anymore. This is my new philosophy of live. I used to live in the poet age, but I think, being a poet is not living in a real world. We live in the cloudy and above the sky.

So, what the engineer do and doesn’t. I always put in my mind that we must be live in a real world. Meet a real challenge and don’t get easy to frustrate. If fail for sometime, maybe next time I’ll success the other time, all the time. Failure is not a burden, but it is an opportunity to achieve successful life.

When we success in something, don’t ever to feel arrogant and selfish. Be nice and put a goal to achieve more from that. Put a milestone for the goal and try to achieve it one by one. Don’t ever forget to pray to the Almighty.

Math Challenge

I take almost a week to finish correcting Math Paper and insert the student mark into the CGPA system. I thinks it is not a really tough because before this. I correct paper for three to four papers by a semester. But, it is first time for me to teach a common subject like Math.

It is quite frustrating for me because the result of a student is not so good. Several student got mark below ten point per hundred. It is very poor mark. Instead, five of my student got A’s. Their achievement my make slightly happy, because the worse mark is the majority. If I were assign to teach this subject for next semester. I must give them a lot of exercise to them understands, not to memorize.

Actually, mathematic is a very nice subject. I love math very much and I love to make everyone love math. Because math will balances everything. Stimulate your brain and make our brain work. Next semester, I will ensure my student love math first. And then they will love to learn math.

Is it 1 sen valuable?

Do you keep one cent coins everywhere? I always ask this question to myself. Is it not valuable? Of course it still valuable in this current situation. But I'm not always carry one cent in my pocket or my wallet because it will bother my. It may heavy if we carry a lot of it.

My wife always carry one cent in her handbag. Everywhere she goes. Sometime, I feel that she is doing right things because when we at shopping market. If the goods we buy are cost a cent at it tails. She will pay it with one cent coins. Unlike with me, I always go to post office to pay a bill. When the like this, I feel it is important to carry one cent coins.

At the grocery market, sometime I feel embarrassing to use one cent coins. It is because there is no one else used it. It will cumbersome and everyone else must be seen at me with sympathy. J