About dictionaries on my handset

After a rest of well over a week I am back blogging. I felt relieved for not having to come up with something to write about during the lapse. That explains why bloggers like to blog once in a while so that they will not run out of ideas. I usually like to write about something original and hence it is not an easy task to accomplish. Anyway, I shall tell you how I spent those days I was away from the blog.

I was actually obsessed with the new Nokia 2700 classic that I redeemed with my Citibank credit card points. I exchange 58,000 points with this handset and I have no regret. It comes with a 2 mega pixel camera, bluetooth, slot for microSD up to 2G, mp3 and mp4 players. It even has voice commands which I have yet to try. My dowload of mp3 songs play well with the built ini music player. The mp4 player can play converted avi files. You have to use Nokia PC Suite to do the conversion.

As an English tutor, I take an interest in the English dictionary. Although it has one English-Chinese dictionary, I prefer the English-English dictionary. Hence I purchased the The Advanced Cambridge Dictionary online for RM52 and is worth it. Now I am carrying an English-English dictionary with me all the time. I prefer Cambridge dictionary because the explanation of the meaning of words is simple. Morever, there are sentences for almost all the words in the dictionary.

The 170,000-word dictionary is sufficient for my use. I checked quite a number of difficult words and they are all there. The Name Technology sold me an Malay-English and English-Malay dictionary for RM15 but the words are not sufficient. It is a Java dictionary. The better Kamus Pro can only run on Windows Mobile. I do not mind paying RM48 for the dictionary had it been programmed for Java based handset like mine.

Impromptu Speech

Impromptu Speech

When I was studying in a well-known school in Penang, I joined the English Literary and Debating Society. One of the activities was impromptu speech. I like to participate in this activity. For one thing, I got to train myself to be calm when facing an audience. For another, I learnt to express myself on the spot on a topic given by the teacher advisor.

This training put me in good stead when I became a teacher. This is because as a teacher, one has to stand in front of many pupils, about 40 in number in most Malaysian schools, when delivering the lessons.

When I am driving, I like to do impromptu speech for the fun of it. You may think that I am mad but good speakers usually have to rehearse in front of a mirror many times because he presents his talk to an audience.

I encourage my students to talk on any topic offhand in class. It was quite successful for Sixth Formers when I had the chance to teach MUET (Malaysian University Entrance Test) them before I retired as a government teacher.

Panting for breath after reading

When I was studying in Form 1, my English teacher was Mr Ang Chek Ming. Through him, I learnt the intonation of English words. He was very forceful when he spoke. He encouraged us to listen to English news broadcast over the radio. I could not catch what the newsreader was reading at first. Later, I was able to follow the news. According to Mr Ang, if we really pronounce every word correctly, we will be panting for breath at the end of reading a long passage.

I tried what he had said and I was panting for breath after reading quite a long passage.

On learning English

I read with interest a letter written by a Malay lady about how she managed to master English even though she came from the kampung (village). The letter was published in one of the local English dailies. Her teacher stressed pronunciation, spelling, dictation, poem recital and acting. Although she spoke no English at home, her teacher spoke to her in English. So did her friends.

You need a lot of practice in English to be able to master the language. Her case just shows that learning a language involves knowing how to pronounce each word correctly, spell it correctly and speak the language as often as possible.

How to master the English language

Now that English is getting more and more important, people have been asking me how to master this language. As I have said in my earlier post, to learn a language one must have a strong interest in it. Hence if you want to have a good command of English, you must be keen to learn the language.

Next comes practice. You need to practise speaking the language. Find someone who does not speak your language but English and try to converse with him in English. You must be brave enough to express yourself in English, ignoring any grammatical errors you may have made because as beginners we tend to make mistakes. Some kind souls will correct your spoken English in a way without offending you. For example, you may say, "I did not came here yesterday." and your friend will repeat, "Oh, you did not come here yesterday."

You need to practise writing the language too. Try by imitation. Scan through the newspapers and find a section whose words you understand. Copy out a paragraph and rewrite many times. Through constant practice, you may have a hang of the language in this way.

Listening to English is a must. You can always tune in to radio broadcasts and listen to news presented in English. Make it a daily habit to listen to the news and soon you will be able to understand most of words spoken. This will help you in your pronunciation, too.

To put it in a nutshell have a strong interest in English and start speaking, writing and listening to the language without fail every day and you are on your way to mastering the language.

Happy learning English.

Fun with words formed from a single word

There is a language game that my students like to play. It is forming words from a long word given. For example, if I give them a word such as 'dictionaries', they can come up with the following words:
act, action,dot,cite, tin, on, at, is, eat, ate, diction, ado, tie, ran, rise, arise, rose, sea, sit, sat, disc, date, rate, rote, doe, cries, dries, die, it, its.

I time them for the speed of forming 30 words such as the above.

Who says language study is no fun?