Bahasa Baku and my blogs

Now I am writing 3 blogs. This blog is general in nature. One of the other two called 'Learn the Correct Bahasa Melayu (http://bmcorner.blogspot.com) is about Standard Malay and general mistakes put right. It is written in English. My new blog 'Halaman Bahasa Melayu Cikgu Yeoh" (http://halaman-bahasamelayu.blogspot.com) is teaching Malay (Bahasa Melayu) to beginners and those interested in mastering Bahasa Baku and it is written entirely in Bahasa Melayu (Malay),

I can't be writing daily for three blogs as my tuition schedules are quite tight. Hopefully I will pen one of the blogs per day so as to keep the readers coming. Sometimes, I can't decide what to write but after pressing the 'New Post' button, ideas seem to keep coming.

For today, it is general talk about my blogs and how I intend to do about them.

Yesterday, I did attempt to back link 'Learn the Correct Bahasa Melayu' blog and found a few schools linking it under 'Bahasa Melayu' and 'Learn Bahasa Melayu'. Thanks for using my materials for educational purposes. I am too willing to share my knowledge in bahasa Melayu with any reader for that matter. Our language is progressing and there are changes as shown in the Kamus Dewan, regarding the spelling and new entries. Tatabahasa Dewan also does a good job by standardizing grammatical aspect of the language.

I was first attracted to learn Bahasa Baku from Awang Sariyan. Nowadays, Cikgu Abdul Ghalib Yunus, the Munsyi Dewan is the 'pakar rujuk' (consultant) when it comes to using the correct bahasa Melayu. Personally I benefited a lot from both of them although I had attended two sessions of Bahasa Baku when I was teaching Bahasa Melayu in Sek Men St Theresa, Sungai Petani, Kedah.

Let us hope that one of these days, we will be all be using Bahasa Baku in all our written and printed works.

My Malay Blog

Readers who are interested in learning Malay or bahasa Melayu can go to my new blog entitled 'Halaman Bahasa Melayu Cikgu Yeoh' which I started to write three days ago. It is written entirely in bahasa Melayu.

My aim of writing the above blog is to help promote bahasa baku or standard Malay. It is my sincere hope that more users of the language will use it correctly and grammatically, in accordance with 'Tatabahasa Dewan Edisi Ketiga' - the official grammar book for use in schools and the media.

For my first post, I write about 'Penggunaan kata pemeri 'ialah' dan 'adalah' (The usage of 'ialah' and 'adalah'). In my second post, I deal with 'Kesalahan Umum Penggunaan Bahasa' (Common mistakes in language usage), starting with the absence of prefix 'meN' in statements. As for today's post, I touch on 'ayat inti' (the basic sentence structures). Exercise and answers are also given for readers for self-assessment. If readers want to ask questions about Malay usage, they can key in their queries in the Chat Box and I will answer them in my post.

Just surf to http://halaman-bahasamelayu.blogspot.com to view my new Malay blog.

So much for my new blog.

Happy Wesak Day

On this auspicious day, I would like to say 'Happy Wesak Day' to all Buddhists all over the world. It is a day the Buddhists will reflect on the teachings of Gautama Buddha.

Simply put, Buddhism is a way of life. The Buddhists will try to emulate what the Buddha does - be compassionate to all beings, animals included and practise loving kindness to everyone around them.

On this day too, many Buddhists will opt to release birds, tortoises and animals about to be slaughtered to practise 'saving lives' as a way to prolong lives for themselves as well as showing compassion to others. According to the working of karma, if one saves lives, his age will be prolonged.

I would like to repeat the basic teachings of Buddhism in this post. According to Gautama Buddha, human beings suffer because of three things - avarice (greed), hatred and delusion. Hence we should all try to eliminate all these three so that we will say 'goodbye' to suffering.

To part with avarice, we have to practise dana or donating things to the needy. We can donate a ringgit a day to a beggar if we can't afford to give more. Some people will cling to their money for dear life and they suffer because they are always worried that the money will be robbed by some bad guy. Are you going to take with you the money you own when you pass away? If it is no, then you should donate it to those who need it to survive or alleviate their suffering.

In order not to hate others, we have to treat others with love no matter how badly they treat us. I know this is not easy. However, if you think in terms of the karma theory then you will find it easy to do it. If someone always says bad words about him, do not hate him. On the contrary, forgive him because in your last life (the Buddhists believe in past lives) you must have done the same thing to him. Why harbour hatred towards others when you can radiate love to them?

As for delusion, we have to understand the true nature of things in this world. All things are impermanent. They do not stay the same forever. The car you bought yesterday will have wear and tear after a week. The water you put in a glass will become less after a few days even if you do not drink it. If we can understand the impermanence of things then we will not cling to things and loved ones so much. In this way we will have less suffering should the things we own get lost or destroyed and our loved ones leave us suddenly. In other words, we should practise detachment of things and loved ones.

I hope my simple explanation of the gist of Buddhism will help others to understand Buddhism better. For very detailed teachings, one has to consult a monk.

Once again, Happy Wesak Day.

Happy Teacher's Day

Today is Teacher's Day. I would like to wish all teachers in Malaysia a very happy Teacher's Day.

As a teacher, Teacher's Day is the day I look forward to. When I was teaching in Jerantut, Pahang, teachers would be entertained to a variety show put up by the pupils. Sometimes teachers would join in the fun by playing the guitar and singing. Sometimes I was surprised to see pupils who were quiet in class showing their talent in singing and dancing.

As for my teaching days in St Theresa Secondary School in Sungai Petani, I cannot forget the sumptuous curried chicken brought to the school for the teachers from Koh Choon Hong, the son of Sek Kiang Restaurat (I hope I remember the name of the restaurant correctly) which I savoured with greed for more. The pupils in the school performed marvellous Chinese traditional dances too.

In the last school I taught in, that is Methodist Boys' School, I did enjoy watching the sketches put up by the scouts and the singing of some talented pupils. I also joined in the games with the pupils.

I did receive presents from my pupils. They were mostly pens but I like cards with sincere words poured out by the pupils. The appreciation shown really put me in the air for quite some time.

Once again, Happy Teacher's Day to all engineers of the soul.

The difference between 'pedalaman' and 'pendalaman'

In today's post, I am going to talk about the difference between 'pedalaman' and 'pendalaman'.

According to Kamus Dewan 4th Edition, 'pedalaman' is said to be 'daerah yang jauh dari pantai (yang terletak di ceruk pelosok atau di hulu negeri' which simply means 'inland area' or 'remote area' You can make a sentence such as the one below using this word.
Kemudahan asas di kawasan pedalaman serba kurang.
[There is litter basic amenities in the remote area.]

As for 'pendalaman' it is 'perihal mendalamkan, tindakan (proses) mendalamkan' or 'the act of deeping' in English. An illustration of its usage is seen in the following sentence:

Pendalaman dasar sungai itu dilakukan untuk mencegah berlakunya banjir di sana.
[The deepening of the river bed is to prevent the occurrence of floods there.]

So much for the difference between 'pedalaman' and 'pendalaman'.

Look before you leap

I fell three days ago for tripping over a stone on the tarred road in the parking lot of my condominium thanks to being not mindful.

You see, I was turning my head to the left while continuing my walk and when I realised that my left foot had kicked something protruding from the ground, it was too late. I tried hard to balance myself but failed and I landed with my right elbow touching the rough and jagged surface causing it to bleed because of abrasion. I quickly ran to reach my unit and had it washed with Dettol solution and pressed with gauze to stop the bleeding after which acroflavine is applied to the wound. Bandaging was done after that. As I was a first-aider before, doing all these is not new to me.

It taught me a good lesson. You must 'look before you leap' that is watch your steps when you walk so that you won't trip over anything and be in my plight now with the wound still hurting.