How to prevent cheating by students

Whenever teachers give tests to students there will always be students who try to cheat when the answer scripts are given back to them. It is especially so for questions where students are required to fill in blanks. Some students do not know the answers and hand up the scripts without filling in anything for the blanks. If the teachers mark a cross against each blank without an answer, students who like to cheat will enter the right answers when these are discussed in class. Then they will bring the scripts to the teachers for marks claiming that the teachers have marked the correct answers as wrong.

As an experienced teacher, I know how to prevent this from happening. I will mark a double cross for blanks without answers. Later if students come to me for marks I will call them liars and they will not insist on demanding marks from me anymore because they are cheating and I know it.

Expressing future tense in another way

In English, besides using 'shall' and 'will' to express future tense, we can use 'going to' to achieve the same effect. Let us look at the following pairs of sentences which bear the same meaning each.

1 a) I will go to your house tonight.
b) I am going to your house tonight.

2 a) It will rain soon.
b) It is going to rain soon.

3 a) We shall start a youth camp soon.
b) We are going to start a youth camp soon.

Backing up to different media

When was the last time you used your saved disks to retrieve some data? I had this experience of not using the backup disks for a long time only to find that they could not be accessed anymore. The reasons may be because I had changed to a DVD ROM but the earlier disks were saved using CD ROM or the disks are of poor quality and easily scratched.

To prevent the above mishap, I have changed my tactic of saving important data. I use different media to do the job. The same data are put in hard disk, USB drive and CDR's as well as DVD's. In this way, should any of the medium fail me, I still can count on the other media.

The secret to longevity

When someone leaves us, we begin to miss him. When he is around, we take him for granted. This is what we experience when Michael Jackson left us for good last Thursday. Let us cherish our loved ones and do whatever we can to make them happy.

When a baby is born, he has to undergo another three stages of life, namely growing old, being sick and death. According to the teachings of Buddha, nothing is permanent, including the life of a human being. Our lifespan is destined and there is no way we can do about it if we don't practise the dharma. However, if one saves lives or does something so that deaths to beings can be prevented one can lengthen one's life to a certain extent. A man who can live very long now can be due to the good deed of saving lives in his past life or lives.

Taking vegetarian diet is considered a way of saving lives because we do not eat meat which comes from beings such as cows, chickens, goats and pigs. Hence we can live longer if we go vegetarian in food and save as many lives as possible. Of course we still have to do good most of the time to realise this wish of ours.

Watching Michael Jackson on black and white TV

The death of Michael Jackson on Thursday due to cardiac arrest is a loss to the world of entertainment. I still remember how I watched Jackson Five in Jerantut, Pahang some 35 years ago. At that time, colour TV had not come to Malaysia and still we enjoyed the black and white shows of Jackson Five, with Michael Jackson as one of the singers.

We glued our eyes to the idiot box in the house of Uncle Tee, the father of my student Tee Guat Hoon who was studying in Form 2 then. I was teaching her Integrated Science. During weekends and sometimes weekdays my housemates, Tan Ching Hong, Boo Cheng Kee and I would be at the Tees to watch television shows. The Jackson Five show was one of our favourites. The other shows included Sixth Sense and Rockard Files (whose main character, the private eye used to call his father by the name, much to my surprise as Chinese like me won't call our father by his name).

Later, my impression of Michael Jackson was that he looked like a girl with very fair skin. At one time, I knew that 'Beat It' became a hit. I enjoyed watching him dance while singing. He was so fast and agile. Frankly speaking, I am not a fan of Michael Jackson but on and off I chanced to listen to his songs and dances on TV screens at home.

The use of infinitives after certain verbs

In English, we sometimes get confused as to why certain verbs are in the present tense even after the earlier ones are in the past tense. The ones people misunderstand as verbs in the present tense are actually the infinitives. I can think of two verbs that suit this situation.

The first verb is 'recommend'. Look at the following sentences to see how infinitives are used after the verbs be they in the present or past tense.
1 I recommend that you see a doctor to diagnose your illness.
2 I recommend that he take up a driving course for his convenience.
3 She recommended that I go for a computer course.
4 She recommended that he seek a specialist for treatment.

If you look at the verb in Sentence 1 and 2, you will find that the verb is in the present tense. The infinitive in the first sentence is see while the infinitive in the second sentence is take. It is wrong to write 'I recommend that he takes up a driving course for his convenience.'

As for the third and fourth sentence, the verb is in the past tense, yet the infinitives are go and seek respectively. It is incorrect to say 'She recommended that he sought a specialist for treatment' or 'She recommended that he seeks a specialist for treatment.'

I shall now give another four examples of sentences using the verb suggest. The explanation is unnecessary as it is the same as the one for 'recommend'.
1 I suggest that you exercise regularly.
2 I suggest that he read more books.
3 She suggested that I join the same club as hers.
4 She suggested that he save some money every month for emergency use.

So much for infinitives used after certain verbs.

Skills needed in translation

I am interested in translation. From my experience, it is not easy to translate from one language to another. In order to do the job well, we must be well-versed in both languages especially the differences in grammar and idiomatic expressions. For example, in Malay, when we say that "Ali berasa gembira kerana dia akan mendirikan masjid keesokan harinya." we mean 'Ali feels happy because he is going to get married tomorrow." and not "Ali feels happy because he is going to build a mosque tomorrow."

On the other hand, in English the sentence "His comic act put us in stitches" should not be translated as "Kelakuan lucunya menjadikan kami dalam jahitan." in Malay but as "Gelagat lucunya menyebabkan kami tak kering gusi." By the way, 'tak kering gusi" in Malay means 'to laugh incessantly'.

From the two examples given above, it is obvious that a translator has to master the ins and outs of both languages so that he will not convey the wrong message through his translation.

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.

About the word 'pinjam' (borrow)

For today's post, I am going to deal with the Malay language. The word I will discuss here is 'pinjam' (borrow) and its derivatives added with imbuhan (affixes).

1 'pinjam' means borrow. You can make a sentence such as 'Buku cerita ini saya pinjam daripada Ali.' (This book was the one I borrowed Ali.)

2 'meminjami' means to lend someone something. Let us construct a sentence with this word to see how it is used. The sentence is 'Saya meminjami Ali sebuah buku cerita.' (I lent Ali a story book)

3 'meminjamkan' which means lend something to someone has the usage as in the following sentence:
Saya meminjamkan basikalku kepada anak jiran. (I lent my bicycle to my neighbour's son.)

4 'meminjam' means to borrow from. You can use it in a sentence as the one below:
Saya meminjam payung ini daripada Susan. (I borrowed this umbrella from Susan.)

5 'pinjami' is usually used in the passive voice. You see it in a sentence like the one shown below:
Hassan akan saya pinjami buku cerita ini. (Hassan is the one to whom I will lend this story book.)

6 'pinjamkan' is also found in the passive voice. This is one example of a sentence showing its usage.
Buku ini akan saya pinjamkan kepada Hashim. (This book is the one I will lend to Hashim.)

7 'dipinjam' means 'is borrowed from' and one can make a sentence such as the one below to show how it is used.
Buku ini dipinjam oleh Ali dari perpustakaan sekolah. (This book was borrowed from the school library by Ali.)

8 'dipinjamkan' which carries the meaning of 'was lent to' can be used in a sentence like this:
Buku ini dipinjamkan oleh Ali kepada Lina. (This borrowed was lent to Lina by Ali.)

9 'dipinjami' is tricky here. It must be preceded by the person who will receive the thing lent to him by another person. Let us see how it is used in a sentence.
Johari dipinjami Ali sebuah buku. (Johari was the one Ali loaned a book.)

So much for 'pinjam' today. If readers would like to read more posts on Malay usage of words, do indicate to me and I will oblige in future posts.

Reflection on Father's Day

I was really touched by the SMS I received from my daughter who is studying in Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman wishing me a 'Happy Father's Day'.

Today is Father's Day and I would like to wish fathers all over the world a Happy Father's Day.

On this day, let us ponder whether we have done our part to be a good father. I could not forget the days I spent with my wife taking care of Yee Khai, my eldest son in Sungai Petani 30 years ago. We had to wake up during the wee hours to tend to our bundle of joy when he kept crying. Once, we had a fright of our lives when he choked after my wife had finished feeding him with milk. We were desperate and did not know what to do. Luckily, we rented a house whose owner had a daughter who was a nurse. She quickly came to our help. Guat Lee (the nurse's name) simply grabbed our baby by the legs and put him upside down. Then she tapped him on the shoulder and he began to cry again. We thanked her profusely. Later when the same thing happened again, we knew what to do.

As a father, we have to listen to our sons or daughters to see what problems they face and try to help them as best as we can. As I was a teacher, guiding them with their studies posed no problems to me. I bought English story books for all three of them and they had no problems with English.

My elder son sat with me when I was in front of the computer. He learnt fast and before long, he could use the computer like an adult.

My hope now is for each of them to get a good job and live happily.