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Phrasal Verbs
2008-02-08 17:20:00
A phrasal verb is defined as a verb plus a preposition or adverb which creates a meaning different from the original verb. The use of phrasal verbs in an essay offers a way of adding variety to our writing. Besides, native speakers use phrasal verbs most of the time and students of English should make an effort to learn as many phrasal verbs as possible so that they are at their disposal when needed. The following are examples of phrasal verbs. 1 add up = make sense I don’t believe in his story because it does not add up. 2 blow up = explode or suddenly become very angry The bomb had blown up before a team of experts could come to defuse it. As soon as John saw the mess in the house, he blew up and his sons got scolded. 3 call on = visit When I went to Kuala Lumpur yesterday, I called on my relative who lived there. 4 do without = manage without something one wants or needs We have to do without a house maid because we can no longer afford one. ...
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Friendship Award
2008-02-08 17:10:00
Friendship Award This is the friendship award which I received from blogger friend Ricka.Thank you Ricka for passing on the above award to me. I really hope there will be a strong bond among bloggers. In fact, we should treat each other like good friends, walking the path of blogging as long as time and life permit.Long live friendship among bloggers.
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Auspicious Food to be Served during Chinese New Year
2008-02-07 17:36:00
Today is the second day of Chinese New Year . I would like to talk about food preferred by the Chinese during Chinese New Year . To the Chinese, a good beginning is important. Hence during Chinese New Year, every child is taught to utter only good words to others including his parents. In order to remain auspicious, food is also carefully chosen to achieve this end. As far as food is concerned, the Chinese will choose food that can bring good fortune or happiness to them. For example, they will take fish whose pronunciation is akin to “yu” (pronounced something like “we” in English) which means surplus. In other words the Chinese believe that eating fish on Chinese New Year will enable them to have a lot of gain in terms of money through doing business or rendering services to others.In restaurants, "yee sang", a dish consisting of raw fish is popular among Chinese as it is deemed auspicious. This is because "yee" or "yu" which originally means "fish" has the same pr...
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Friendship Meme
2008-02-07 17:10:00
I received the above meme from Jaja and Sheng. Thank you Jaja and Sheng for appreciating my blog and passing the friendship meme to me.I believe that friendship among bloggers help to spur us on to write about what interests us. The posts that are generated will be read by fellow bloggers or net surfers who come to our blogs through search engines. Hence we have to think and plan before putting words into our blogs so that visitors will gain something from our posts.Happy blogging to all.N.B. A meme is a unit of cultural information, such as a cultural practice or idea, that is transmitted verbally or by repeated action from one mind to another.
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Chinese New Year
2008-02-06 17:09:00
Today is Xin Nian or Chinese New Year (CNY). I would like to wish all Chinese A Very Happy Chinese New Year. This is a day that children are looking forward to because they have a lot to gain. First they will get hong bao from their parents, brothers and sisters who are married and relatives. Next, they get immunity from scolding as parents will definitely not tell off their children on this day lest bad luck should befall the latter. The most thrilling thing is being able to play with firecrackers (banned in Malaysia) or fireworks. They will also be able to savour all types of biscuits, cakes and dishes. For adults, they will be visiting their relatives with their children tagging along. It is an exchange of hong bao as parents of both families will give the red packets to the other party's offspring. In Malaysia, open houses hosted by political leaders are very common. Tourists sometimes attend them too to feel what it is like to celebrate CNY through the food ser...
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Reunion Dinner
2008-02-05 17:12:00
Today is chu xi or Chinese New Year Eve. It is a day when family members will gather for the annual Reunion Dinner . Why is it termed Reunion Dinner? Well, throughout the year members of the family are busy with their own things and have no time to meet. Some may even be working outstation or overseas. However, on this day, everyone will try his best to get back to his parents' house to be together again. This is indeed reunion for the family. Dinner for everyone present will be served then. Parents will be too happy to see their sons and daughters who are away most of the time chasing wealth or devoting their time to their own families, back home at least on Chinese New Year Eve. Some parents will quietly place hong bao or red packets containing money under the pillows of their children as ya sui qian or money to ward off evil for the year. Their intention is good as they want their offspring to be safe throughout the new year. Some modern parents do not know about the sig...

How to write varied sentences
2008-02-04 17:34:00
In my post on how to write grade A essays, I mentioned that it should contain varied sentences. Well, I would like to show you how a sentence can be written in various ways yet maintaining the same meaning in this post. Example 1 : Suddenly, he saw a snake by chance and tried to beat it with a stick. The above sentences can be rewritten in a few ways, such as: a) All of a sudden, he spotted a snake and attempted to strike it with a club. b) All at once, he chanced to see a snake and hit it with a stick. c) Suddenly, a snake came into sight and he beat it with a club. Example 2: His comic act made us laugh incessantly. We can rewrite the sentence above in these ways: a) His funny act had us in stitches. b) We could not help laughing when we saw his comic act. c) We broke into laughter which could not be stopped when we saw his funny act. Example 3: We went straigh...
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How to use the present perfect tense
2008-02-03 17:06:00
The present perfect tense poses problems to students of English. The blogs of quite a number of blogs I visited made mistakes regarding the use of the above tense. Let me make it easy for readers on how to use it correctly. 1 When an action has been completed and you do not want to tell when you did it, you can use this tense. e.g. I have taken my lunch. Explanation: I could have taken it a minute ago or half an hour ago or some other time prior to this. 2 Present perfect tense also goes with prepositions ‘for’ and ‘since’. e.g. I have lived here for five years. I have lived here since five years ago. I have lived here since 2003. The following mistakes are often seen in students’ essays. 1 I have received your letter yesterday. (wrong) I have received your letter already. (correct) I received your letter yesterday. 2 I have finished the work before you come. (wrong) I had...
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Another Example of Wrong Usage in English
2008-02-02 17:23:00
I was browsing some shoes in a hypermarket when I noticed a paper box with the following label. The phrase ‘at cheapest prices’ is wrong usage here. It should have been ‘at lowest prices’. Some of my students make mistakes similar to the above example. e.g. The price of the shirt that I bought was cheap. (Wrong ) There are two ways to correct the above sentence. a) The price of the shirt that I bought was low. b) The shirt that I bought was cheap. Another adjective that is often wrongly used is ‘fast’. e.g. The car is traveling at a fast speed. The above sentence is wrong and can be rectified as follows: a) The car is travelling at a high speed. b) The car is traveling very fast.
More About: English , Usage

Big Bang Record
2008-02-02 17:07:00
I got this tag from Tessa and I would like to share this tag with the following: Lorie, Peng, Marie, and Jeslyn. You do not have to be tagged to play along. This game is simple and so are the rules.1. Copy from *Start Copy Here* through *End Copy Here*2. Add your site(s) to the list. Just be sure to post at each site you add.3. Tag or don’t tag, your choice, however, the more tags you create the bigger the list will grow.4. Let me know your blog’s name and url by leaving me a comment HERE. I will add you to the master list. (If you would like a scroll box code, leave me your email address and I will email it to you.) Scroll Box Example. (I decided not to use the box for the Big Bang for ease of copying.)5. Come back and copy the master list back to your site, often. This process will allow late-comers to get as much link benefit as the first ones in. 1-Attitude, the Ultimate Power 2-Juliana's Site 3-Rusin Roundup 4-Grow Rich Along With Me 5-Comedy Plus 6-lynda's loft 7-Amel...
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The goods are really good by international standard
2008-02-01 17:23:00
In English, the addition of 's' to a countable noun turns it into plural form. e.g. boy (singular) -->boys (plural) Likewise, a plural verb becomes a singular one when 's' is added to it. e.g. sing (plural) --> sings (singular) What I intend to discuss in this post is the change in the meaning of a word when an 's' is added to it. Example 1 - mean / means The word mean can be stingy or refer to whereas means takes the meaning of financial resources. e.g. He is very mean as he is reluctant to donate to any cause. I like the car but I don't have the means to buy it. Example 2 air / airs The air is the gas surrounding us but airs means 'false ways of behaving intended to make others feel that one is important'. e.g. We cannot live without air. He likes to put on airs wherever he goes. Example 3 water / waters Water is what flows in the river and what comes out of your tap. On the other hand, waters denotes an area of water regarded as u...
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Learning English through the Bible
2008-01-31 17:04:00
Remember the post where I described my experience at the Students Exchange Programme camp which I took part in when I was in Form 3? Well, two of the facilitators of the above camp were a couple who were with the American Peace Corps. I could not remember their names. They were lecturing at DTC (Day Training College for teachers) at Hamilton Road then. Their rented house was just opposite the college. I visited them a few times after the camp. During one of the visits, the male American gave me a Bible – the New Testament in plain English . It was just like a treasure to me as I liked the English in the Bible. I read through the Bible, understanding most of the words as it was written in plain English. Quite a number of words I learnt from reading the Bible. Later I enrolled for a Bible Correspondence Course to know more about Christianity. All the printed matter that I received helped me to improve in my English greatly.Hence you see, even a Bible can act as a medium for us...
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Annual Household Report in Dewa Realm
2008-01-30 17:07:00
Today is the 24th day of the twelfth moon according the lunar calendar. On this day, most Chinese will be sending their zhao jun (Kitchen Dewa ) off to Dewa Realm to have an audience with yu wang da di (the Jade Emperor). The Chinese believe that he will report on the happening of the house he dwelt in to the Jade Emperor for the past year. Hence the Chinese usually offer nian gao (Chinese New Year cake) to him in the hope that he will say good words about them to yu wang da di. The Kitchen Dewa will be with the Jade Emperor until the fourth day of the Chinese New Year. This custom of sending off zhao jun to the realm of the dewas has been practised since our ancestors' time. To me it reminds us to behave ourselves all the time as our act is under the surveillance of dewas, Gods or whatever you want to call them. It keeps us on our toes every now and then.
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How to use 'borrow' and 'lend'
2008-01-29 17:19:00
When you ask the permission of the owner to use his thing, you borrow it from him. If someone requests your permission to use your thing and you hand it to him, you lend it to him. Students often make the following mistakes in sentences regarding these two words: 1 Will you please borrow your book to me? 2 I borrowed him a pen just now. 3 Please borrow me your pencil. 4 May I lend your mobile phone for a while? 5 Who has lent my calculator without telling me? The above sentences should have been: 1 Will you please lend me your book? 2 I lent him a pen just now. 3 Please lend me your pencil. 4 May I borrow your mobile phone for a while? 5 Who has borrowed my calculator without telling me? To remember the correct usage, the following guide may be of use to students of English: a) When you get something from someone for temporary use, use ‘borrow’. ...
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How to make 'nian gao'
2008-01-28 17:12:00
Whenever Chinese New Year is coming, the Chinese New Year Cake or nian gao is a must for the Chinese. Nian in Mandarin means ‘year’ and ‘gao’ means ‘high’. Nian gao has the meaning of ‘Rising Every Year’. For those who are working, it means getting to a higher position every year. The making of nian gao is quite time consuming as you need 10 hours of steaming to produce the right colour of the cake. The ingredients consist of only glutinous rice and white sugar. Proportionally, 2 parts of glutinous rice is mixed with 3 parts of sugar. For example, 2 kg of glutinous rice goes with 3 kg of sugar. Initially the rice is soaked for five to six hours before grinding after which it is mixed with sugar. The mixture is then poured into metal cylindrical containers lined with banana leaves and steamed with fire from burning wood for two hours. After that, the wood is replaced with charcoal for slower fire for another four to five hours to get the right brown typi...
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How To Write a Grade A Essay
2008-01-27 17:08:00
With my experience as an English Language teacher, writing an essay that fetches high marks is no easy task because certain criteria are used to gauze Grade A essays. Firstly, your essay must be able to sustain the interest of the examiner. If your writing fails to attract him, your chances of getting good grades are slim. Secondly, varied sentence structures must prevail in your essay. It will be monotonous to read the same type of sentences again and again. Sometimes let them be short. At other times longer sentences should be used. Invert your sentences must you do occasionally. Add in conversation to render your story more convincing. Next, you must show your command of the language by using appropriate vocabulary at suitable places. All sentences must be grammatically correct. Right paragraphing, punctuation and spelling counts too. Hence you must first write a very good and interesting introduction to arouse the interest of the examiner. The next task is to...
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Tones in Cantonese
2008-01-26 17:05:00
This post is written in response to a question posed by blogger Chinese Language Lesson concerning my post entitled 'How I Learnt Cantonese ' in the comment column. He asked me whether there are tones in Cantonese as in Mandarin. Well, Cantonese has the four tones too for inflection but it has the least 4th tone. The following examples will clarify the existence of tones in the above Chinese dialect. Numerals after the words represent the tones. Example 1 Cantonese: Lei2 hui1 pin4 tou3? English : Where are you going? Example 2 Cantonese: Khuoi2 hou2 sar4 ch'an3. English: He is very stuck up. Example 3 Cantonese: Li tou hai mat ye tai fong? English: What's this place? Example 4 Cantonese: T'eng4 yet3 choi1 lai3 guo1. English: Come again tomorrow. Example5 Cantonese: Pin4 guo1 wa3 hai3 kum2 kay2? English: Who says it is like this? In English, if I adopt the same tone s...
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Shopping Cart Software
2008-01-26 14:37:00
As competitiveness come into play in doing business online, Internet-based companies need sophisticated software to help them beat their competitors. With this in mind, the ashopcommerce.com offers such a service to initiate an online business. This website offers Shopping cart software, shopping cart and ecommerce software to fulfill the need of new business ventures on the net. If new online businessmen are to succeed in the cyber world they should avail themselves of the above software to reap great harvest.
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Tags and Awards
2008-01-25 17:21:00
Tags are very common among bloggers. They help them when they need to post and have nothing to blog about. For me, I will do the tag but still post something unless I write the tag in such a way that it looks like my normal post. One thing I need to clarify is that tags that come to you may have been passed to you already, as have happened to me because I received the same tag twice. Personally I was negligent too when I passed on one tag to my blogger friend only to find that she has done it earlier. Hence before transferring a tag to a friend, we should do some homework such as going to his or her blog and browse through at least the current month's posts to avoid the above occurrence. Some bloggers like to create awards and give them to friends and ask them to pass them on to those who deserve them. I was given such an award yesterday. Though I wanted to turn it down, I accepted it out of courtesy and respect to my blogger friend. Here again, homework needs to be done so...
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Making Money through Blogging
2008-01-25 15:59:00
Besides enjoying blogging, bloggers actually have a chance to make money through their blogs. One such company that enables them to do so is Smorty. Smorty is a service connecting advertisers with bloggers. Advertisers can pay bloggers to write opinion posts with links back to the advertisers site. Usually, advertisers ask them to write opinion about their products or services. In this way, they get paid to blog. If advertisers want to reach consumers of the bloggers with huge readership, blog advertising through Smorty is an ideal way to achieve this end. Blog advertising has become the future trend as new blogs appear daily and those who blog for money has a source of income. Smorty acts as the bridge between advertisers and bloggers, enabling products or services be known to blog readers through back links that lead to the advertisers’ sites
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2008 Contract Tag
2008-01-25 05:17:00
2008 ContrractI got this from Edith and I thank her for passing this to me.And here's the contract!After serious and cautious consideration...your contract of friendship has been renewed for the New Year 2008! It was a very hard decision to make. So try not to screw it up!!!My Wish for You in 2008May peace break into your house and may thieves come to steal your debts. May the pockets of your jeans become a magnet of $100 bills. May love stick to your face like Vaseline and may laughter assault your lips! May your clothes smell of success like smoking tires! May happiness slap you across the face and may your tears be that of joy. May the problems you had forget your home address! In simple words ...May 2008 be the best year of your life!And I want to pass this tag to Frank and k.s.lye
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BLOG with GIRL POWER AWARD
2008-01-25 04:42:00
I would like to thank Marie for passing me this award. Frankly speaking I don’t know whether I deserve such an award because I am a man. However, the designer Twinkletoe has said that it should be shared with friends who possess some girl power which includes the ones specified. I am all for equality for men and women because capability knows no sexes. Equal education opportunities given to women make them at par with men in practically all fields. start here: copy and paste and share it to your friends who's possessing some girl power Girl Power - young women's scope for own decisions- the ability of or opportunity for women to make decisions for themselvesand shape their own lives- a self-reliant attitude among girls and young women manifested in ambition,assertiveness and individualism I'm giving this award to my friends:Jojo and Mei PhingHope you all will like it.
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How to answer a question that begins with “Do you mind ….”
2008-01-24 17:13:00
If someone says “Do you mind opening the door for me?”, what do you say to him if you want to help him? The correct answer should be, “No, not the least” if you want to help him. If you say, “Of course, I will do it right away.”, you are contracting yourself. This is because you do mind opening the door, yet you say you will do it. On the other hand, if you say “No, not the least” you mean you do not mind opening the door for him at all. Hence, the next time anyone begins a question with “Do you mind ……”, you had better answer “No, not the least,” if you want to do as is asked and if you really do not want to do it, say “Yes.” Examples of such questions are as follows: 1 Do you mind my sitting beside you? 2 Do you mind posting this letter for me? 3 Do you mind if I borrow your comb? 4 Do you mind paying for me first? 5 Do you mind doing this homework for me?
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The Importance of Rechecking
2008-01-23 17:12:00
Many a time, we regret for not checking our answers again before handing in the answer scripts to the invigilator. This is one of the occasions when rechecking is important. There may be spelling errors, shading of answers in wrong places for objective questions or miscalculating for maths in one's answer script. In life, we need to fill in various forms. We have to do it carefully, especially spelling of names, identity card numbers and other details. Insertion of data in the forms is not enough, we have to recheck our entry to make sure no errors occur. In travelling, rechecking of date, time of flight and check-in will prevent one from missing the plane. Before giving out medicine to a patient, the nurse in charge should recheck the name of the medicine and dosage to avoid administering wrong medication which can have disastrous effect. There are still many more occasions when rechecking is absolutely important and necessary. Hence we should make rechecking ...

Thaipusam Celebration in Penang
2008-01-22 17:09:00
Today is Thaipusam which is celebrated in honour of Lord Subramaniam by the Hindus, Indians who practise Hinduism. For this year, the crowd in Penang is expected to increase to 100,000 people. The road with the largest number of stalls lining both sides of the road is Jalan Kebun Bunga. These stalls will be decorated with pictures of deities with colourful lights. A silver chariot carrying Lord Muruga from a temple in Penang Street will go all the way to the hilltop temple near the Penang’s Botanical Gardens. The 14 km procession will be participated by devotees carrying kavadis with their cheeks pierced with skewers. Their bodies will be hooked here and there too. These are the ones repaying favours granted by Lord Subramaniam, one of the Hindus’ Gods. Others will be taking along milk to be offered to Lord Subramaniam. Thaipusam is celerated to commemorate the day when Lord Siva’s consort gave a vel (spear) to his son to vanquish evil on the full moon of the Tamil m...
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The Joy and Hiccups While Going Online
2008-01-21 17:20:00
Tag about blogging This tag that I received from JK made me ponder for awhile about blogging that I do every day. The four questions posed to me need to be answered. Those that I tag below will have to figure out answers for the same questions too. I hope they will play the game too. 1. How long have you been blogging? - I have been blogging for 48 days. 2. What inspired you to write a blog, and who are your mentors? – The joy of reading Kenny Sia’s blog led me to write a blog myself. Fellow bloggers whose blogs I visited are also my mentors as they act as references for what should be displayed on a blog. 3. What are the 3 things that you love about being online? – The first thing I love to do when I get online is to check my e-mail. I have a few friends who send me interesting news and warnings to certain pitfalls such as the credit card scam, healthy living, beautiful scenery and so on. Next comes a check on my blog. I love to see my visitors increasing every day and f...
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Redundancy in the use of certain words in English
2008-01-20 17:11:00
Students of English sometimes use certain words incorrectly because redundancy occurs. Such words include repeat, return, discuss, and reuse. 1 'repeat' means 'say again'. The sentence 'He repeated the answer again.' is incorrect. The correct one is 'He repeated the answer.' 2 The meaning of 'return' is 'give back'. Hence, it is wrong to say 'Please return back the book I lent you last week.' You should say 'Please return the book I lent you last week.' 3 'discuss' carries the meaning of 'talk about'. It is therefore wrong to write 'Let's discuss about our future plans.' Instead, change it to 'Let's discuss our future plans.' 4 If you reuse something you use it again. Redundancy occurs when we say 'You should reuse envelopes again.' It should be replaced with 'You should reuse envelopes.' So much redundancy in the use off of certain words in English.
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Have Bikes Will Travel
2008-01-19 17:11:00
When Yong Cheng Suan and I were posted to Pahang, a state in Malaysia as qualified teachers, we went there by train, then by bus. He reported to Convent Secondary School in Raub while I had to go to Jerantut Secondary School in Jerantut. Being adventurous we decided to go to Pahang, a distance of 640 km from Penang, by motorcycle after the first term holidays. You see, being buddies, we bought the same model, that is Honda Cub C70. His number plate was PN3532 and mine was PN3533. Very early in the morning, we set off from Penang, fresh and eager to be on the go. We travelled at about 50 km per hour and kept to this speed throughout the journey. It was quite risky travelling on highways with cars, buses and lorries brushing by our sides. We had to ride our bikes in single file because as vehicles which were travelling at high speed passed by us, it created a temporary state of vacuum drawing us to their sides. Hence we had to slow down to reduce this suction effect. Bal...
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An Interesting Story about Kelatanese Dialect
2008-01-18 17:03:00
The Malays in Malaysia speak different dialects although all use standard Malay at official functions. In Penang, the Malays use 'hang' to mean 'you' and not 'awak', 'engkau' or 'kamu' when speaking in their dialect. Instead of 'dahaga', they will say 'lapar air' (hungry for water) when 'thirsty' is intended. The word 'air' (water) is pronounced as 'ayak' too. As for Kelantanese dialect of Malay, 'makan' (eat) is rendered 'ma kay' verbally whereas the word is pronounced as 'makang' by the Malays in Terengganu, another state in Malaysia. If a road is named 'Jalan Fatimah', the Malays in Terengganu will say 'Jalang Fatimah' which has a bad connotation in standard Malay because 'jalang' means 'prostitute'. There is a famous story about the Malay dialect in Kelantan which I would like to share with you. It goes like this. A man from another state in Malaysia wanted to take a taxi to his hotel. The following was the conversation between t...
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The Kind Blogging Community
2008-01-17 17:18:00
I have been blogging continuously for over a month now and I find that most bloggers are kind-hearted. They usually oblige you when you ask them to exchange links with you. This is good for traffic that goes to our blogs. Since exchanging links with fellow bloggers, I find that traffic has been increasing to my blog. Even when no new visitors come, the bloggers that we link to will come for regular visits. Of course it must be a two-way traffic. Visiting our fellow bloggers enables us to read their new posts. Hence we lose nothing in doing that. Encouragement from fellow bloggers is important for us to continue our passion - blogging. This is true because we need to crack our head over what to write for our next post every now and then. My salute to you, fellow bloggers.
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