Learning English Language : Punctuation

Assalamualaikum WBT,

How do you do my absolute readers? I know, I hadn't update any entry here for these past days, I am so sorry. Too busy with life and making money, overness indeed.

What is punctuation?

Punctuation is the simple but yet the most important rule in constructing sentences. *Is that the real meaning. Well, honestly, I do not know, haha... I created that definition just now just to make sure that I understand the meaning of punctuation.

Capital letter ( Abu)
Full stop ( . )
Question mark ( ? )
Exclamation mark ( ! )
Comma ( , )
Quotation marks ('   ')
Apostrophe ('s)

To be honest, we are very much familiar with these punctuation right? We already know the punctuation. We even used it in our daily writing.

Now, I will write more on examples that you need to know, just to make it clearer for you.

1. Capital Letters

a. The first letter in a sentence.

He laughed out loud.
She is not here. Maybe she'll come later.

b. The first letter of proper nouns (e.g. names of people, countries, towns, etc.)

Ali lives in Kuala Lumpur.
Laila love to eat Black Forest cake.

c. The first letter used after quotation marks.

Amy said, 'Don't be scared'.
Siew Ling said, 'Please wait for me'.

2. Full Stops

Full stops are used :

a. At the end of a statement.

I need drinks.
I want to eat.

b. At the end of a abbreviations (short forms).

etc. = et cetera
eg. = example
i.e. = that is

c. A few works in Modern English do not have a full stop.

PWTC
KLCC
KL
PUNB

3. Question Marks

Question marks are used at the end of a question.

Where is my food?
What are you doing here?

4. Exclamation Marks

The exclamation mark is used in exclamations which express surprise, shock, anger, fear, disappointment, joy,excitement, disbelief, etc.

I don't believe it!
What?!
Congratulations!
Oh, no!

5. Commas

The comma is used for three main reasons.

a. To separate a series of words in a list.

We need sugar, salt, tea and flour.

b. To show a pause in reading.

After closing his shop, Ah Seng went home.

c. To separate direct speech from the rest of the sentence.

'I want to go home,' Rohina said.

6. Quotation Marks

Quotation marks are put before the first word and after the last word in direct speech.

'Seng Fatt, bring in the clothes,' mother shouted.

7. Apostrophes

Apostrophes are used :

a. In contractions (short forms) to replace the missing words.

I am = I'm
We will = we will
should not = shouldn't

b. With possessive nouns to show ownership. The apostrophes is placed before the 's' ('s) for singular nouns and after the 's' (s') for plural nouns.

This is Mila's hat.
The girls' parents gave them their permission to go to Taman Negara.

So, that is all for now, hope the information will help you in writing because sometimes, we missed out the put such small things. As I said before, small but most important. We cannot end our sentence without a full stop, right?

Assalamualaikum WBT

p/s: Hope you read my writings and learn something.

Learn Equally.

Assalamualaikum WBT,

How do you do everyone? dear readers?

Well, I am so very sorry for not updating any entries here. Too busy, I have a few things need to be done and now, I can write my entries. Yes.

Now, I had the chance to actually look at my nephew's English text book and to me it was okay, but! as for me, there are a few things that need changing. Perhaps, too many pictures and words. Simplify things might be a good reason to begin with.

To me, after learning English grammar, the thing that really matters the most is the grammar itself. Meaning. in order for these non second language speakers to acquire the language such as English, they really need things that really simple but yet, understandable.

How?

Cut the pictures to like 50 per cent and simplify the layout of the book. To me its too crowded, but hey, it actually depends on the students, whether they want to learn or not. Right? Different people have their own opinions on what should or should not work. I am in no place to speak on that but at least, I know what I want, right?

Now, go and learn the English grammar, it brings great things too. Trust me.

Assalamualaikum WBT

p/s: learn equally. That will do.

Joke : Short Ribs

Assalamualaikum WBT,

How do you do everyone? Did you have great weekends? I hope you managed to get great holidays after week of schooling and today is Monday, (Again). Isn't that weird because we only got two days holidays (Saturday and Sunday) and five working days, I mean, its not fair right? We should have, three days of holidays and four working days, just to balance it out. Haha, not gonna happen, right? Too bad.

Now, I bought this old English grammar book and really want share it with you on the information that I have read but I need more time to extract all the information from the book itself. So, forgive me and please give me a little time to read more, okay? Lovely.

As for now, I will leave your here and keep reading amazing stuff because with reading, we will find new amazing words and trust me, you will need it in the future in constructing your essays or any written forms. Yes.

That is all for now.

Assalamualaikkum WBT

p/s: I have this one joke.

A midget doctor was invited to a young female home and she was living with her old sarcastic mum. And they were having dinner. The mum invite those two for dinner at the dining table, 'Let have dinner now'.

The midget doctor asked, "So, may I ask, what are we having?"

She answered hesitatingly...

"Short ribs".

A little bit on MUET.

Assalamualaikum WBT, 

Hi everyone... hi dear reader and hi dear English language practitioners.. *do they have that? hahaha.... never mind.

Now, in a few entries back, I did write something on Malaysian University English Test or also known as MUET. Before we go any further, it is better for us to know more on this test. MUET was started in year 1999 by Malaysian Examinations Council which in Malay language is Majlis Peperiksaan Malaysia (MPM). 

Alright then, what are the components that MUET has?

In MUET, we have FOUR components that the candidates need to fulfill in order to pass with great marks. There are,

Listening (800/1)

Speaking (800/2)

Reading (800/3)

Writing (800/4)

Each of these components has it own marks, both Listening and Speaking is 45 marks, Reading comprehension is 120 marks and Writing is 90 marks. The scores are graded in 6 Bands, with Band 6 the highest and Band 1 the lowest. 

The fee for MUET is RM101 and candidates register via MPM website. From year 2012 onwards, there will be three sessions, March, July and November, per year.

For your information, MUET is required when you want to enroll to university. Usually, when you want to take your Degree. It is actually depend on the courses that you want to take, for example, if you want to take English courses, you need to obtain the Band at least, Band 4. Different university has different  MUET Band requirement. So, the best Band that would secure your position for enrolling would Band 3, but then again, it depends on the university. 

Okay, some of us might have trouble in learning English, but you need to actually learn it. Start small, then improve then. It is the same with MUET, know when you want to take the test and work from there. Focus on what you bad at and improve that. Just focus on that. 

Let say, you have the best marks in Reading Comprehension, and Listening. Not that you need to forget about those two components, no, but you have to give more attention to Writings and Speaking and  so forth. You are the one who know yourself better than any other human in the world. 

All you need is to focus and practise as much as you can. Exercises really help in this kind of situation. And be calm, do not nervous. I took MUET 2 times in 2007 and once in my university years. I did okay, not as fluent-ish like now, but I did okay. Alhamdulillah.

Now, that would be in the different entry when I will tell you on who I learned English language and what did I do to improve myself, okay?

I think that is all for now.

Assalamualaikum WBT

p/s; Keep learning and good luck!

 

 

Learning English Grammar : Active and Passive Voice.

Assalamualaikum WBT,

Do you know what bothers me a lot when I learn English language?

Active and Passive Voice, even in Malay language, I really had trouble constructing these kind of sentences. I just do not know why. Really, yes. 

Now, as for to actually understand the Active and Passive Voice, I will try my best and also learn together about this monster. hahaha...

Look at these two sentences,

Somebody stole the jewels.

The jewels were stolen.

Which is active voice? Yes, the first is active voice that describes a sentence where the subject performs the action stated by the verb.  In passive voice sentences, the subject is acted upon by the verb.

In Active and Passive Voice, there rules that we need to obey, otherwise it will not in the active and passive voice. Before we go any further, bear in mind that, Active and Passive Voice is not as hard at it looks, in fact, it is easy to learn, okay? Now, we can actually separate the sentences.

 As for Active Voice, we usually had no problem recognising them because it is a straight forward sentence with not many things to be remembered. 

As for the Passive Voice, there are certain formulas that you really need to remember, I will list them here along with some examples.

1. Verb 'to be' + the Past Participle

Examples :
The book was written by Noam Chomsky.
The kid was made by my brother.

2. Simple Present Tense : is or are + the Past Participle

Examples :
Those pots are made out of clay.
Pearls are found in oysters.
The hall is swept every morning

3. Simple Past Tense : was or were + the Past Participle

Examples :
That house was built ten years ago.
Two children were killed in the accident.

4. Perfect Present Tense : has been or have been + the Past Participle

Examples :
Do not touch the door. It has just been painted.
You can have your books back. They have been marked already.

Now, all you need is to remember how the word form of Past Participle. There are different forms what you need to remember. You can find them through reading. Once you know the form then you can apply it in any sentence but remember, once you choose to write in Passive voice, everything in your writing must be passive voice. Usually, people would go with either one. It is all through reading you just can find these. Yes.

Now, you can search Active and Passive voice and do some exercises there. Pick good websites okay? It is okay for you open more then one website, it is for you own good. Do not afraid to make mistakes, hello, no on is perfect, okay?

Assalamualaikum WBT

p/s: keep reading. Read what ever you want, but make sure you read all the way, okay?
 

Learning English Grammar : Relative Pronouns.

Assalamualaikum WBT,

Do you believe in this sentence?

"The more we read, the more we don't know".

I believe in that actually. The reason why, it is almost like, when we know something that we did not know, we actually will tend to read more and of course, the more we read, the more we don't know, right? Yes. It is right.

The reason why I wrote this is because, I read a English grammar book last night and I came across many interesting fact that I did not know. I used all those sentence structures correctly but I did not know what tenses or form they belong. I was like,

"ah... I know now.. it is this and this is that and that is that". And whatnot.

Seriously, when you read something that really catches your attention just because you think you know it, but actually you are learning a new thing, its okay then. You actually learned something, that is very good for yourself.

Now, I am going to write a bit on English grammar on this entry, just to refresh our memories, okay?

Relative Pronouns. 

What is relative pronouns? 

Relative Pronouns is used to begin an adjective clause. It refers to the noun directly in front of it.

One amazing famous example of relative pronouns is used in the first book of Harry Potter by amazing author, J. K. Rowling. In the first chapter of Harry Potter and The Philosopher's Stone, The Boy Who Lived.  

As you can see that, she used relative pronouns to make another clause. Even though it is not as long as in the example given in certain book, do you think that it is a perfect sentence? meaning a full sentence? Well, I do not know, you may guess it by now right? Let us divide and name all the word.

The - Determiner

Boy - Subject

Who - Relative pronouns

Lived - Adjective

And why is Lived is an adjective? It is because, Who Lived explains about the state of the boy. The Boy Who Lived. Of course you understood the meaning of this right?

Now, I want to give you another example that might simplify things up. 

The man who killed the snake is Mary's uncle.

You can also write this down and put is tree diagram. It is better that way actually. You can see it clearly. Later on, I will try to come out with the tree diagram and it is actually very fun to learn using tree diagram.

Well, that is all for today, thank you, hope you'll learn something.

Assalamualaikum WBT

p/s; learning through website is not that hard, right?

My Bad Habit. Sigh.

Assalamualaikum WBT,

One thing you should know about me is, I am a very shy person. Sometimes, I have this very bad insecurity about myself. Yes, I am a very fat but sometimes, my friend said that, I am not that fat, just the perfect fat on people. Meaning, acceptably fat. HOWS that? I do not really know. Hahaha..

Never mind about that, please! Do not let those words even come to your mind. Hahaha... Now, to be honest, I have this one stupid habit that I really want to get rid off. 

What is it?

Well, you surely have the old teachers, I mean, your teachers from your, let say, past life? hehe.. no, from your primary schools, secondary schools or even from tertiary education, right? University, college or something like that...

Now, what would you do, IF, you bumped to you least favourite teacher or most favourite? What would you do? Honestly?

Honestlyyy... I have these experiences quite a lot these days, I just do not know why, but I am very glad and I really want to change that. Really. Meaning, before this, whenever I saw my teachers, I just ran away, why? It is because, as I said before, I have this insecurity about me that really bugged me. I do not know why, maybe when we bumped, they might asked me, the Gold crusted question...

"Where do you work now?"

Because of that, I tend to ignore them and I felt really, really bad about that. Really. Trust me. It kills me whenever I cannot show them my amazing colours when having conversation. Trust me. I have been doing this for years.

And I want to change that. It is not easy, but I think, I have to face the reality, where it sucks but I have to let it true. We cannot hold the stream because the water will just keep on coming, all we need to do is, let it sails.

Yes, from now on, whether they recognise me or not, I will greet them and shake their hand, and answer the questions asked. No worry. Yes. I will face it.

Assalamualaikum WBT

p/s: sorry not grammar yet.

EEP 2011 : My Personal Experience.

Assalamualaikum WBT,

As promised, I will at least write ONE entry per day in English as a medium to improve my English language. Now, I have a story that I would love for you to know about.

In the year 2011, when I was in the university, we had a programme called English Enhancement Programme and it was conducted by the Faculty of Languages and Communication. As far as I am concerned, the faculty team *the first team, lecturers were very committed with the programme because they were sacrificing their times to ensure that the participants have the best time learning English language.

Then, they conducted this one Training of Trainers where they selected the Bachelor of English students as facilitators for this programme. It was great fun, the activity itself was amazing. You know, when you have the passion and you are willing to learn, you will not have enough time to think about what is not good for you, instead, you will just go with it. Well, I felt that, I enjoyed the activity and everything was great.

Then, we were back to the university where we have to share our knowledge and experiences with the participants. We were very eager to share what we have done. Yes. We also sacrificed our times to actually conduct this activity. I was chosen to become the head of facilitator for an activity called English Lounge, where, basically its all about speaking and interacting with each other.

At the first week, we received great feedback from the participants who came to our activity. They enjoyed the activity as a whole and somehow, they have a little faith in themselves in learning English language. Then, week two, week three, week four, the numbers of students were decreasing. Then, in the end of the programme, we only have ONE participant who came to the activity and we had to emerge to get the class going. We had too. 

I was not sure whether there was postmortem or what, I was not sure and I do not remember the postmortem programme. To be honest, this EEP programme was amazing! It is like the extra classes for English language. It was not burdening the students, no, it is just the mentality of the participants that made things worse. Now, let me tell you, most of the students who were selected to be in this programme were the ones who were weak in English proficiency and they had trouble with English language. We too are not as great as the native speakers at the beginning but we learned! and alhamdulillah, some of us are as near as the native speakers.

I myself had troubles with English language. Stroumble. Hehe, but as the time goes by, I improved myself just for the sake of learning. I learned. Passionately. So, for those who were doubting yourself, I advice would be, its good to doubt yourself but make sure that is not that long because doubting yourself for too long, its wrong. Okay? 

It is not that difficult in learning English language. All you need is love because when you love your learning, then nothing is impossible, okay?

Assalamualaikum WBT

p/s: sometimes, things are not going your way, but dont lose faith.

Life is Hard. Living is Harder. All You Need Is Faith.

Assalamualaikum WBT,

Hi, how to you do readers? I really hope that you still have the patient or the urge to learn English language as I am. I love learning and reading, in fact, I was searching for articles and researches done by amazing academia to feed my brain. Yes, I am looking at several topics such as English teaching, English grammar, effects, affect and also a little bit on Malaysian education especially MUET.

Do you know what MUET is acknowledge in several countries including Singapore, United Kingdom and Japan? Its big right? Yes, amazing right? Now, you all know that STPM is also acknowledged one the hardest exams in the world, well at least before it became semester, something like that. I was too a Form Six student and to me, to have such amazing experience back then, it was very wonderful.

Okay, let me tell you something, I was actually not from the school, I was not entirely from Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Dong (SMKD), I was just there for two amazing years, just for Form Six but I made quite a number of friends. I actually was from Sekolah Menengah Agama Dong (SMAD), yes, I went to religious school and everything was chaos back then. I realised that I am not a person that really could memories all those kalimah like the others. So, I decided to go to SMKD and took my STPM there, and this one teacher actually very proud of me. I had never in my entire life someone said something nice to me at that time. I still remember what she said,

"I am very proud of you because you managed to get A2 for you English subject and you came from sekolah agama. Its wonderful".

Yes, the English teacher of SMKD said that, she was Teacher Junaidah. Why? It is because she knew that how difficult being a religious school with all those subjects both religious and core; she has a daughter that also went to religious school. The same school.

At that time, I did not know what to do and I just, well, I said thank you and at the early period, I did not know what to do and I had trouble blending in with them. I was very bland, I could say. I did not know the systems, the recess time, how things work and whatnot. It was quite difficult for certain times, but then things got better. I managed to mingle around and see things clearer. It was good. 

I too have my favourite subject during that period. I love MUET and I love BM and also Business. I scored in MUET, well, at least I managed to pass the BAND 2 requirement to further the studies at tertiary education. I managed to obtain BAND 3 for that time and for the course at university, I managed to get Bachelor of English with Communication (Hons) at Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin. What a wonderful four years there. Love it. Met great friends and people.

But as you can see, to actually learn English language without proper outside-class-practice is surely hard. Amazingly hard. My parents do not speak English language, my family do not speak English language but I always tell myself one thing, "Keep reading and look for dictionary". And, alhamdulillah, I managed to get good grades.

And now, after reading Postgraduate Studies by MBA Edge, it makes me wonder many things but one thing in particular, after two years of doing part time work, after two years of soul searching, I asked myself, 

"How about furthering your studies?"

InshaaAllah, I will think about that thoroughly and my dad actually had ask me this question about 1 and half year ago, about furthering studies and taking Masters and my answer that time was no because I was busy in soul searching but now, I am not making this as my last choice, NO! something, the best things come when in big stress. You think that you are happy with doing what you love and the fact is, you have something better which is, I do not know, contributing to other people by doing what you love, teaching, maybe?

So, inshaaAllah, I will try to ask people around me about things that need to be done, haha.. but do not worry, I will try my best kay?

Assalamualaikum WBT

p/s: Other things can wait. Surely.

Keep On Learning English Language.

Assalamualaikum WBT,

Hi there, for this entry, I decided to write one something that really taboo. Well, at least some people might think its taboo, some not. 

Do you know that in the year 2016, English subject is a compulsory subject to pass with minimum E result to pass. This implementation was taken because of every year the percentage of SPM students failed in English paper is ridiculous. The Deputy Prime Minister, who is also the Education Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin bin Yassin said that 20% of the overall candidates of SPM failed the English paper. Imagine that, 20%? It is like out of 10 candidates, 2 candidates failed the English paper.

It seemed not many, but they surely need helps to improve their English. They need to improve, otherwise, if we see at the bigger scope, these students who failed in English might have some troubles with their job hunting and also, to further their studies.

Imagine that if they managed to get to Form Six or take Diploma? What would they do? Yes, people might say,

"well, they can learn it there (Form Six or Diploma), they will".

Well, as far I am concerned, these need supports! The reason why? We do not have the same background and the same educational background. For example, I myself, I come from a very rural village which none English speaking environment and I hardly see someone talk in English in my village, but I manage to survive that and gladly took Bachelor of English with Communication (Hons) from local university? I have my own story, I will write it later, in details.

What I am trying to say is, supports is needed to improve. To actually use Second Language (English language) as the medium in daily conversation is quite impossible in none English speaking environment, but with great support, nothing is impossible, right? All we need is supports.

I too had my very own problems during those days, just because I was very new to the surroundings, I tend to isolate myself just because I had my problem with English language. As time goes by, I came to realise that running is not the way to improve, I have to get myself together and face the cruel truth. So, I faced it, I learned from my bestfriends about English grammar and alhamdulillah, everything went well. I now be able to write in English, ever talk, converse using English language. Hows that? I learned from the best. Surely. 

To be honest, I learned proper English grammar when I was in 2nd semester and alhamdulillah, it builds from there and now, still, I am learning English grammar. I have with me always, English grammar book, not the fancy ones but the basic ones. I love learning it. Haha...

Learning process is not a one period process. It is actually a continuous process which is very long and needs the maximum focus. Learning is not easy, but you need to be smart to learn.

There you go, I will try my best to focus back with English grammar back in this blog and together we will learn English grammar, okay?

Assalamualaikum WBT

p/s: Keep on learning. Nothing going to stop you from learning but yourself.

The Important of English Language - Trenglish

Assalamualaikum WBT,

"When you have a lot of things to be done, all you need is focus".

This is actually very true.

Do you know, when we talked about resolutions, yes, its new year and it is never too late to have one or more resolutions. I too have my own resolutions, and for this blog, I want to write as much as I can to assist people to learn English grammar.

Why do I think I need to have such resolution? It is because, I believe that learning never stops. Never. This is one of the ways for me to help other people. Yes, there are other ways, but to be, blogging or social media is one of the best ways to make others know of what we have to offer.

Yes, I want too people to say that,

"ahh... I know this English grammar from The English Journey, they have information on English grammar. Its very helpful".

I want people to see that English grammar is very important these days, with the examinations and whatnot, I believe we are better than we are now. Do you know that, in Terengganu they have this programme called Trenglish, which is a programme that helps students with English language through many activities and camps. This is a very good programme, some of my friends also involved as the T-Help (Terengganu Hired English Language Personnel), they will help the English teacher enhancing the students ability in learning English language.

This is a statement I managed to get from the newspaper online, I have got two sources, The Star and The Sunday Mail,

“We need T-Help because it was found that all the 20 ETA teachers are not proficient in Malay and this poses a problem for them to communicate with students in class,”. This was said by the State Education Director Mr Zakaria Hussin. The programme is the state initiative to improve the number of proficiency among Terengganu students.

So, do other state practice the same programme? I think, when they see how important the programme is and when they see the result of this programme, then they will take action. As for now, they usually take the 'wait-and-see' method before taking any consideration to follow such act.

Through reading, I found out that this programme is using modules that really student friendly and it really helps students to improve their own English proficiency.

I think that is all for now. Need to some reading about English grammar and I will get back to you later today, okay? Lovely.

Assalamualaikum WBT

p/s. Hope on with me through this journey.