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I made him do it
2008-05-07 18:03:00
Certain verbs must be in the present tense after specific verbs such as see, make, and let. The following are examples of the above rules. 1 I see him jog in the morning every day. 2 She saw me buy a book at the bookstore yesterday. 3 The teacher makes us line up outside the classroom before school dismisses. 4 I made him do it himself. 5 The guard usually let me enter the condominium without a pass. 6 I let my younger brother walk by himself. [Words in italics are in the present tense.]
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Sleep early for health's sake
2008-05-06 18:04:00
I read an article by a local doctor who specializes in preventive medicine. According to him, we should sleep early, preferably at around 11.00 p.m. because between 11.00 p.m. and 3.00 a.m. our liver will enlarge to two to three times to do detoxification work. If the liver is overloaded with toxins it will not function properly and this condition will lead to hypertension, diabetes, sinus problems and so on. Hence, we should try to sleep as early as possible for the body to discharge and do repair work so that we can last or live longer.
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Row your boat and don’t pick a row with me
2008-05-05 18:51:00
They refuse to throw away the refuse In English, a word may spell the same but pronounced differently. In the above sentence, the first ‘refuse’ is pronounced as ‘ri fius’ whereas the second one is pronounced as ‘rare fius’. Here are further examples of this group of words. 1 He wound his watch on his left hand which has an untreated wound. [The first ‘wound’ is the past tense of ‘wind’ which is pronounced something like ‘wine’ except the end sound. It means to twist the spring in a watch. The second ‘wound’ is pronounced as ‘woo won’t without the t sound] 2 The boy who is sitting in the third row had a row with his best friend. [The first ‘row’ is pronounced as ‘roe’ but the second one is pronounced as ‘row’ as in ‘brow’. 3 Lead present in water will lead to poisoning if consumed. [The first ‘lead’ is pronounced as ‘led’ whereas the second one is pronounced as ‘lid’] 4 Th...
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How do you do?
2008-05-05 05:35:00
There is a difference between 'How are you?' and 'How do you do?' When you meet someone, you may say 'How are you?' if you have not seen him for a long time. He should then say 'I'm fine. Thank you.' However, when you are introduced to someone whom you have not met before, you should say 'How do you do?' What do you think he should answer? Well, he should repeat what you have uttered, that is, 'How do you do?'

How to use 'uninterested' and 'disinterested' correctly
2008-05-03 18:30:00
In this post, I will show how to use ‘uninterested’ and ‘disinterested’ in sentences. First, we need to know the meanings of these words. The meaning of ‘uninterested’ is ‘not interested’ whereas ‘disinterested’ means ‘impartial, fair or neutral’ Let’s look at their usage in the following sentences. 1 It is no point asking John who is uninterested in our project to join us. 2 She seemed bored at the meeting because she was uninterested in what was being discussed. 3 A disinterested teacher is asked to act as the judge of the contest because she does not know any of the contestants.

What I like
2008-05-02 18:02:00
When I sit down to think of what I like, I realize that I take a liking to too many things. They are: 1 Science – new discoveries 2 Languages – English, Malay, Chinese, Japanese 3 Computer software – those that help me edit audios and videos, convert from one format to others, etc. 4 Religion – Buddhism 5 Health – facts about our bodies and how to remain physically fit. 6 Qigong – Zhineng Qigong 7 Tai Chi – Shibashi 8 Blogging – can’t stop since I started this blog. 9 Listening to talks on Buddhism 10 Surfing the net 11 Travelling – hoping to travel often

How to use 'interested' and 'interesting' correctly
2008-05-01 18:13:00
Although ‘interested’ and ‘interesting’ belong to adjectives, they differ in their usage. The following are examples of how to use them correctly. 1 He is interested in history of places he will be visiting. 2 The history of the places he will be visiting is very interesting. 3 I managed to get him interested in my project. 4 She gave me a very interesting account of the event there. 5 Johan is a very interesting person. Note: ‘interested’ means ‘wanting to give your attention to something and discover more about it.’ ‘interesting’ means ‘arresting your attention because something is unusual, exciting, or somebody has a lot of ideas.'
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How to use 'despite' and 'although' correctly
2008-04-30 18:10:00
In my previous posts, I talked about how to use ‘so that’ and ‘so as’ correctly. In this post, the use of another pair, namely ‘despite’ and ‘although’ will be discussed. 1 ‘despite’ is used in front of a noun phrase. Example 1: Despite the heavy rain, the boys continued playing football. Example 2: He came to work despite being sick. Example 3: She still works there despite the miniscule salary. 2 ‘although’ is used in front of a clause. Example 1 Although he was sick, he still went to work. Example 2 Although it was raining, the boys continued to play football. Example 3 Although he failed in the exam a few times, he still wanted to sit for it.

How to use 'so that' and 'so as'
2008-04-29 18:02:00
Many students find it difficult to use 'so that' and 'so as'. In this post, I would like to show readers how to use them correctly. 1 'so that' is followed by a clause Example 1: You must study hard so that you can pass the exam with flying colours. Example 2: The fat lady needs to exercise so that she can remain slim all the while. Example 3: The teacher speaks slowly and clearly so that her students will be able to understand her lessons. [A clause consists of a subject and a finite verb.] 2 ‘so as’ is followed by an infinitive. Example 1: John works hard so as to earn a lot of money. Example 2: She copied the text carefully so as not to make a single mistake. Example 3: He studies hard so as to pass his exam with high grades.

The joy of teaching
2008-04-29 16:21:00
When I was a boy, I dreamt of becoming a teacher. This dream was realised when I graduated from a teachers' college in 1973. I really enjoyed teaching in Jerantut, Pahang where I mingled well with students. Seeing improvement in my students really made me happy because all my effort was paid off. One year, I was asked to teach Form 4 and 5 Science in Malay. It was hard work as I had to translate text from English into Malay for my class because not reference books in Science in Malay were in the market then. To ensure their success in the SPM exam, I volunteered to give extra class to the hostellites at weekends. Imagine my joy when the school's results in Sains Am (General Science) improved from 5% to 25% and the Principal Encik Yaakub Isa personally thanked me for doing a good job. This job satisfaction was beyond description. I was so close to the students that they did not feel shy to ask me questions about Science when they encountered difficulties i...
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When to use the indefinite article 'an'
2008-04-27 18:11:00
The indefinite article is used: 1 to state the occupation of a person e.g. He is an engineer. 2 in front of words with vowel sounds e.g. An apple, an elephant, an iron, an owl, an urn, an unused pen, an hour, an honour, an heir, an honest boy Although the following words begin with vowels, there are no vowels involved. a university, a uniform, a one-arm bandit, a unicorn
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How to download videos from You Tube
2008-04-26 18:04:00
Sometimes after viewing certain clips from You Tube , you would like to save them in order to view them again using media player later. To do this you need to download the video clips from You Tube. In this post, I will share with readers how to do it. 1 First, you need a downloader. The YouTube-Download er is ideal for this purpose. Click here to download it free of charge. 2 Next go to YouTube site and choose the title of the video clip you like to download. Right click the title and click Properties. 3 Under Link Properties and beside Address is the url of the video clip. Highlight it and right click. Go to copy and click once. 4 Start YouTube-Downloader and place this url into the box below Enter video URL. [If you have started YouTube-Downloadr already, the url will be entered automatically.] 5 Click OK and the software will download this video file for you. The software also allows you to convert the flv files to other formats. ...
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The story of body size
2008-04-25 18:10:00
I enjoyed serving as a temporary teacher in Heng Ee Secondary School, Penang for a stint of three months. I was very young then. I was asked to teach Malay, replacing a trained teacher who had gone on a Malay course – a requirement for teachers who were trained in English before as the medium of instruction would be changed to Malay. Cycling to work was a novelty for teachers because most of them drove to school. The headmaster allowed me to park my bicycle at a designated place away from the boys’. Came pay day and with the cheque I went to the Malayan Banking (now Maybank) to cash my cheque. The casher, being a busy-body, did not believe that I was a teacher as I looked more like a schoolboy than a teacher. She kept telling people that I was too young to be a teacher. Even when I was serving as a trained teacher in Jerantut Secondary School in Pahang, one teacher used to tell the others that I was one of the boys when I was running with the boys in Sports Practice session.
More About: Body , Story , The Story , Size

Doing dana does not need to involve money
2008-04-24 18:01:00
To practise getting rid of greed, Buddhists often do dana in the form of giving food and robes to monks, donations to the needy and so on. If you don’t have much money, can you do dana? As a matter of fact, Buddhists can do dana without involving money if they do not have extra money to spare. There are a number of ways this can be done. 1 If someone is organizing a donation campaign to collect money to help some fire victims and you have no money to donate, what you can do is to wish that the campaign will be successful. That very thought that it will succeed constitutes dana. 2 Someone is too scared to walk through a dark alley. You can do dana by accompanying him or her to walk through it. Your help in overcoming his or her fear is a form of dana too. 3 If someone is so sad until he wants to end his life and you manage to talk him out of it through your knowledge of Buddhism, you do dana too – saving a life through dharma.
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American English
2008-04-24 04:47:00
My country Malaysia was once colonised by the British. Hence the English that is taught in school has been British from then until now. With the advent of television, students in this country are exposed to more American films than British ones. As such, American English creeps into their essays as they don't know how to differentiate between British English and American English. In this post, I hope to be able to enlighten local students on the differences between the two. For one thing, they differ in the spelling of certain words. These include colour/color, favour/favor, favourite/favorite, sulphur/sulfur, and travelling/traveling. For another, pronunciation differs too. For example, 'chance' is pronounced as 'chair ends' and 'can't' is sounded like 'care endt'. The terms referring to things also differ. The following are some the words which mean the same, the former being English and the latter American. 1 biscuit - cookie 2 lift - e...

Everyone of us has Buddha nature
2008-04-22 18:05:00
When Gautama Buddha achieved enlightenment, he uttered, "How strange! All beings have Buddha nature but unfortunately they are clouded by avarice, hatred and delusion." If all human beings are able to get rid of the three states of the mind, they can achieve Buddhahood. We tend to ask for more, when we are given something. This is reflected in the proverb 'Given an inch, want a yard.' The Chinese proverb is even more fantastic. A greedy person is likened to ‘a snake who wants to swallow an elephant’. Hence our greed is insatiable. As for hatred, it will never end as hatred begets hatred. It is only through forgiveness that one can get rid of hatred towards others. If we treat the one whom we hate as the one who has done something so horrible to us in his last life that we hate him when we meet him again in this life, then we should exercise forgiveness and pardon him. From then on, don’t hate him anymore. It will lighten your mental burden too if you rationalize in ...
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Acupuncture aids healing
2008-04-21 18:03:00
I have gone for physiotherapy to treat my tennis elbow five times till now. Most of the time, the lady would apply acupuncture points to help in the healing process besides the usual electrical current, ultrasound and cold compress. One day, he inserted two pins into my elbow side and lower arm near the elbow, I had this feeling of sharp pain when she was twisting the pins. According to her, this was the feeling I should get as she had poke at the right acupuncture points. The pain after the insertion of the pins lasted two days and on subsequent trips to the clinic she only used pressure to massage the meridian points. Frankly speaking acupuncture really aids healing.
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How to express the same situation in English
2008-04-20 18:07:00
In English , we can use 'so' followed by 'do', 'does', 'did' or verbs to be to express similar situations. The following are such examples. 1 They like to dance. So do we. 2 She goes to market daily. So does he. 3 John attended the meeting. So did I. 4 An acid is sour in taste. So is vinegar. 5 She was absent yesterday. So was I. 6 We were there last Sunday. So were they.
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How to use 'whom' in English correctly
2008-04-19 18:01:00
The use of 'whom' usually poses problems to students of English .In this post, I would like to show readers how to use 'whom' correctly. 1 'whom' is used to ask for the object in a sentence. Example 1 Statement: He gave a present to John. Question: To whom did he give a present? Example 2 Statement: I scolded her yesterday. Question: Whom did you scold yesterday? 2 'whom' is used in front of preposition in a compound sentence. Example 1 He is my friend. I usually discuss things with him. He is my friend with whom I discuss things. Example 2 The teacher is here. You gave your address to her yesterday. The teacher to whom you gave your address yesterday is here. 3 'Whom' replaces the object in a compound sentence. Example 1: The man is my uncle. You saw my uncle just now. The man whom you saw just now is my uncle. Example 2: The lady is an air hoste...

Some Differences between Malay and English Grammar
2008-04-18 18:31:00
1 Position of Adjectives In Malay , the adjectives are placed after nouns instead of in front of them as in English . e.g. Rumah besar (Big house) 2 Countable nouns in Malay must be preceded by numerical coefficients (penjodoh bilangan) after counting words (kata bilangan) such as dua (two), kedua-dua (both), beberapa (several), and berpuluh-puluh (tens of) but there are no numerical coefficients in English. e.g. a) Dia membeli dua buah buku. (He bought two books.) b) Kedua-dua biji buah epal ini sudah masak. (Both apples are ripe.) c) Beberapa orang pelajar sedang dimarahi oleh guru mereka. (Several students are being told off by their teacher.) ) Berpuluh-puluh pucuk surat permohonan jawatan sudah ditulisnya. (Tens of application letters for jobs have been written by him.) In the above four sentences the words in bold are penjodoh bilangan which must be used in front of countable nouns which appear in italic. 3 There are no pronoun...
More About: Differences , Grammar , English Grammar

Some differences in spelling between American and Standard English
2008-04-17 18:07:00
1 ou is spelt as o in American English e.g. color (colour), favor (favour), favorite (favourite) 2 ph is rendered f in American English e.g. Foto (photo), sulfur (sulphur) 3 ll is spelt as l in American English e.g. Traveling (travelling) 4 ae is spelt as e in American English e.g. pediatrician (paediatrician), 5 tre is spelt as ter in AmericanEnglish e.g. center (centre), meter (metre) [Words in brackets are Standard English.]
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Something about English pronunciation
2008-04-16 18:02:00
As I live in Malaysia, I notice that most Malaysians are influenced by Malay pronunciation when they pronounce English words. The following are some examples of how Malaysians utter words in English as influenced by Malay. 1 c [soft k] in cat is pronounced as k [hard k] in dekat [near in Malay] 2 p [soft p] in pan is uttered as p [hard p] in depan [front in Malay] 3 k [soft k] in kit is articulated as k [hard k] in sedikit [a little in Malay] 4 t [soft t] in tap is pronounced as t [hard t] in tetap (fixed in Malay). 5 p in stop is uttered without parting the lips as in p in tutup [close in Malay] N.B. Soft k is pronounced as k as in kick with air coming out from the mouth. So are soft k, soft t and soft p. Hard k is pronounced without no air coming out from the mouth. So are hard t and hard p.
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Homophones
2008-04-15 18:04:00
Homophones are words that sound alike but are spelt differently. In other words, they are pronounced exactly the same but have different spellings. The following are some examples of homophones: 1 straight [not crooked] – strait [narrow waterway] 2 right [correct] – rite [ritual] 3 acts [things done] – axe [chopping tool] 4 very [extremely] – vary [change] 5 heal [to cure a disease] – heel [hind part of shoe] 6 plain [not fancy] – plane [a flat or level surface] 7 idle [not working] – idol [object of worship] 8 more [additional] – moor [swampy coastland]

Hidden Talent
2008-04-14 18:12:00
One year, on the last day of the school term, I allowed my boys to show their talent in drawing. I told them that it would be a competition. Hence I ruled 3 columns on the board and asked those who wanted to draw to come to the front. I was surprised to see the pupils who were very quiet and looked innocent in class could draw very well. There was untapped hidden talent among them. It was really an eye-opener for me. To show appreciation of the works on the board I gave grading according to my liking. They felt happy to have spent their time doing some creative work than listening to boring language lessons.
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To Uncle Tee's House We Went
2008-04-13 18:03:00
Teaching in a small town in the seventies could be boring at times. However, we had good rapport with parents whose children studied in the school I taught in - Jerantut Secondary School. During weekends, my housemates and I would usually go to one student's house to watch television. Mr Tee, her father, was a Social Welfare Officer. He always welcame us to his house. Hence going to Uncle Tee's house was our weekly routine. I still remembered how we enjoyed watching Rocker File, a series about private investigation in black and white as there was no colour television then. Jackson Five of which Michael Jackon was a member was also our favourite. One year I did not go back to Penang because I had fracture of my left wrist and I spent my Chinese New Year Eve in Uncle Tee's house, savouring the sumptuous dishes prepared by Mrs Tee. Later the Tee family moved to Kuantan as Mr Tee was transferred there and I missed the family very much.
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How to write a journal
2008-04-13 06:41:00
In my earlier post, I suggested keeping a journal as a way to improve one's English. Some people don't know how to go about it. Well, in this post, I will show readers how to write a journal. As I mentioned in one of my posts, a journal is different from a diary in that it expresses the writer's feeling and opinion about some current events or issues. Hence, try to think of something to write when an important event happens in your house, area or country. If nothing is important enough for you to write about, turn to the television program that you watch. Think of something to comment about in the program that you have watched. There will certainly be something that you can say about. Read letters to the editor in your newspaper to see how readers comment about issues that concern the public and nature. Writing a journal is good in the sense that it makes us think and put words on paper or in electronic media. The following is an example of a journal: I really cou...
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The past tense of 'must'
2008-04-11 18:28:00
How to you express the meaning of ‘must’ in the past tense. Well, it is ‘had to;. Look at the following sentences. Sentence 1: [Present Tense] I must wake up early in order not to miss the train. Sentence 2: [Past Tense] Yesterday I had to wake up early in order not to miss the train. Actually, ‘have to’ can be used to replace ‘must’ in the present tense. Hence, instead of saying “You must hurry as they are waiting for you right now.”, we can express it as “You have to hurry as they are waiting for you right now.”

The difference between 'famous' and 'notorious'
2008-04-11 05:57:00
When a person is famous, he is well-know everywhere. The word ‘famous’ refers to being well-known for good things done, such as performing an operation to separate Siamese twins successfully or inventing something very useful to us. On the other hand, if a person is known to have done something bad and everybody knows about it, he is notorious, that is famous in a bad way. A notorious robber is one who robs a lot of shops and all shop-owners know about him and is very wary about him. In short, ‘famous’ means ‘well-known for good things’ whereas ‘notorious’ means ‘noted for doing undesirable things such as robbing, kidnapping,etc.
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The good habit of maintaining cleanliness starts from school
2008-04-09 18:10:00
In Malaysian schools, every class has a duty roster for keeping the classroom clean and tidy. Each day, certain pupils are assigned jobs such as rubbing the board, sweeping the floor, arranging the desks and chairs. The surprising thing is there will always be paper and sweet wrappers on the floor for the duty boy or girl to clear the rubbish. One year, in my former school, a new Principal came. He was so fed up of pupils dirtying the floor with pieces of paper and tissue papers and sweet wrappers. What he did was to take away the waste-paper basket in each class. The pupils were told that the school would go paperless as far as classrooms and the school surroundings were concerned. Each pupil was responsible for the rubbish he or she was going to throw. He or she could pocket the paper and threw it into a big rubbish tong placed at a specific place in the school. Hence, in the duty roster no one would be assigned the job of sweeping the floor. To me the above measure is ...
More About: School , Good , The Good , Cleanliness , Habit

Watch your steps
2008-04-08 18:16:00
These past few days, my legs seemed to knock into something such as the leg of a stool, the side of the bathroom and other objects and suffered pain and bruises. One thing in common when it happened was that my mind was on something then and I did not watch my steps. In Buddists' term, I was not mindful. Being mindful of what we are doing is very important as it prevents accidents such as what I had encountered above. So readers, watch your steps wherever you go.
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