On 'menasihati' and 'menasihatkan'

For too long, the use of 'menasihatkan' has been rampant in Malay in writing and in print. I have always told my students that more often than not, 'menasihati' is to be used because it should be followed by a person. Hence you say 'Saya menasihati adik agar menjauhi dadah.' [I advised my brother to stay away from drugs.]

If you want to use 'menasihatkan', then you have to have 'perkara' or some matter after it. For example, you can write a sentence such as the one below:
Saya menasihatkan cara-cara belajar dengan berkesan kepada Ali. [I advised Ali on ways to study effectively.] Notice that 'cara-cara belajar dengan berkesan' which is 'perkara' (matter) is used after 'menasihatkan'.

It will be grammatically wrong to write 'Saya menasihatkan Ali agar tidak merokok.' [I advised Ali against smoking.] Instead, write it as 'Saya menasihati Ali agar tidak merokok.'

From January this year, two teachers namely Cikgu Ghalib Yunus and Dr Ghazali Lateh have been writing about the wrong usage of Malay words in Minda and Skor, both suppliments of Straits Times on Tuesdays and Wednesdays respectively. Teachers and students should read about them to learn how to use 'bahasa baku' (standard Malay).
Well done, Cikgu Ghalib Yunus and Dr. Ghazali Lateh. Besides Awang Sariyan, you are the two championing the correct usage of the Malay language that I know.

The twins that I meet in class

In the course of my career as a teacher, I have the pleasure of teaching twins. As always, I will have to find a way to differentiate in order not to mistake one for the other.

Last year there was a pair of Indian boys in my Fifth Form Malay class. It was easier to recognise them because although both looked alike but they parted their hair on different sides, one on the side and the other on the right.

This year I have a pair of Indian girls in my Form 3 Malay class. I still have difficulty telling them apart because I have yet to spot the difference in features to differentiate them.

Usually, their language achievement differs as one will be better than the other although they are identical twins.

I like changes once in a while.

We like changes. For example, we don't want to wear the same dress day in and day out until it is the uniform that we have to put on.

I notice that my wife will change the position of things she has put after some time. This is yet another example that we like changes.

From this year onwards, all Form 1 and Form 4 students in Malaysia will have to study a new set of literature components for English and Malay. As I am teaching both subjects as a tutor, I like the changes in contents. For so many years I have been telling the same stories, reading the same poems and dramas to my students. Sometimes, I found it boring to harp on the same cord. At least for now, I have a chance to them myself before I can discuss the contents with my students.

Never try more than twice

With the advent of computers, consumers depend heavily on them in their daily lives. Take banking as a example, we are allowed to do internet banking for our convenience. We can pay bills, transfer funds to other accounts and ever reload our mobile phones.

To do Internet banking, we are required to opt or ATM card. Having requesting a six-digit Internet PIN from an ATM, we can go to the bank's website to complete our Internet banking registration.

We need to remember our ID and password. The trouble is sometimes we simply cannot recall our password on the spot and resort to guessing. That's when we render our Internet banking account being deactivated. From experience, I know that we can only tried twice for the password. The third time trial with wrong password will make our account inaccessible until we phone the bank to reset it for us.

Hence, whenever you find that you have entered th wrong password, try another time and stop. Try the next day or refer to the correct one by getting it from where you hid it.

How to find data easily from many files

MS Word only allow us to find words in a single file. However if we want to find different things from other files, we have to open them to do so.

One way of solving the above problem is to put all the files together and give it a name. Now, we can open this long file and the one we are working in. To find things we open the long file and copy them to the one we are working on.

I put all past year questions in a single file and if I want to find questions on nouns then it is easy for me to access it because I won't know from which year I should locate it.

So much for an idea to find words or items we want in Word documents.

Paper fans anyone?

Today in the mid of my Malay lessons, the electricity was cut off due to some short-circuiting which could not be repaird straight away. It was terribly hot in the room with 13 of my Form 1 students complaining of the heat.

Then one girl started to fold a fan using her A4 writing paper. As it was a good idea I gave everyone a piece of A4 paper and they learnt how to fold a fan from the girl. At least by waving the fan in front of them, they could tolerate the heat. As for me, I also used one of the fans made by the girl.

Sometimes, dealing with a situation such as this calls for innovation and the girl was really innovative.

How to cram many books into a book shelf

When I had to forgo one cupboard, I was left with no choice but to throw away about 250 books. Even that I still the spaces in the bookshelves insuffient for my books. Later I thought of an idea of economise space. What I did was to place those books which I will not be referencing at the book. I could place four books back to back in this way and had enough to place a row of books on the front.

If you ever have too many books to be put into limited spaces in the bookshelves, use the above method.

So much for cramming books into limited spaces in the bookshelves.

For Lack of Space

Being a apartment dweller, space economy is of utmost importance. I realized ever since I moved into my condominium. I have too many books and too few racks or cupboards to keep them. As I buy more and more books, I have to dispose of old and outdated books which I bought for my English and Malay lessons.

This afternoon, I got rid of nearly 250 books because I shifted books from three shelves into two. I think that is the price one has to pay for opting to live in a high-rise unit with about 850 square feet space to move around.

Playing half-completed downloaded avi files

In my earlier post, I told readers how to play partial movie files. In this post, I would to share with readers another media player which is even better. It can play a movie avi file that is incomplete because we haven't finished downloading it.

I downloaded the trial version of NeuView Media Player from the Internet and had it installed. Then I tried to play one of my half-completed downloaded movie avi files. It worked. Those who would like to download this software can go to the following site to get it.
http://www.softpedia.com/get/Multimedia/Audio/Other-AUDIO-Tools/neuview-media-player-professional.shtml

Happy watching half-completed downloaded avi files.

An innovative way to communicate

I watched with much interest the event of throwing mandarin oranges by girls on television on Yuan Xiao Jie or Chap Goh Mei. Modern girls surely have their innovative way of communicating with others even in a traditional occasion such as the Chap Goh Mei (the 15th night of Chinese New Year)

Before parting with their 'kam' (mandarin oranges), they have written their names and contact number on them with white correction liquid such as Liquid Paper. In so doing, the men who happen to collect the 'kam' thrown by them will be able to contact them and get to know them, and hopefully love will blossom.