Today, I am studying Preparatory Program for Overseas Universities (PPOU) in Institute of Liberal Studies, Universiti Tenaga Nasional (UNITEN). PPOU is an intensive, post-secondary, pre-university, preparatory program that prepares me to study abroad. In order for me to study abroad, I must pass my International English Language Testing System (IELTS) exam with good band. Thus, I have started to put rigorous efforts in improving my English language. There are four components in IELTS: listening, writing, reading and speaking skills. Do you want to know how I improve these four important skills?
One of the ways to improve my listening skill is by visiting the website, given to me by my English lecturer, like Randall’s ESL Cyber Listening Lab. While doing these listening exercises, I listen carefully and concentrate on many different conversations like phone conversations, hotel reservation, enquiries, lectures, speeches and others. I often visit these websites to do listening practice as practice makes perfect. Another way to improve my listening skill is by watching television programmes. Watching news like Nightline not only enables me to know the current issues in our country, but also helps me to listen and understand the content and thus to improve my listening skill. Besides that, I also watch documentary programmes like National Geography and Discovery to improve my listening skill besides increasing my knowledge.
What about my writing skill? My English lecturer said that the best way to improve writing skill is by reading a lot of good sample essays. Therefore, I read at least one sample essay per day and it has become part of my daily routine. Reading sample essays certainly has brought me enormous good. I not only can learn how to organize the points in an essay, but also can learn how to use various sentence structures to make an essay more interesting. I can also learn many new words and thus improving my vocabulary. I often visit website like IELTS blog given by my English lecturer to read many band 8 IELTS essays. Apart from that, I train myself by writing an essay every weekend to publish on my blog. This helps me to reduce grammatical errors and spelling mistakes when writing essays.
In order to improve my reading skill, I read novels and storybooks like Harry Porter and The Pearl. While reading novels and storybooks, I try to understand the message and the content of the stories. Besides that, I also read newspaper everyday not only to know the latest issue in our world today, but also to improve my reading skill. I believe that reading a lot of reading materials makes me want to read more and enables me to read thoroughly and thus increasing my reading speed and reading skill. Reading materials nowadays somehow have become part of my life as I see them everyday.
How do I improve my speaking skill? It is simple. I watch English movies and I able to learn how people from different place of origin use fluent English to communicate with one another. I can also learn many new words used by native speakers. Apart from that, I speak English with my family at home since I was little and it helps me a lot in improving my speaking skill. I also use English language to communicate with my friends and lecturers at university. Speaking English with others has become my usual habit and it is essential that I am about to study abroad in a foreign country where English is the medium of instruction.
In the nutshell, these are the steps I take today to improve my English language. I will continue to work hard and improve my four important skills to pass my IELTS exam with flying colours and thus placing me in one of the top ranking universities in Oceania.
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
My Eid Experience
A multiracial country like Malaysia with a myriad of races, religions and cultures celebrates a wide array of festivals. The Malays, the most dominant race in Malaysia, celebrate Hari Raya Puasa (Eid), a festival honoured by the Muslims worldwide marking the end of Ramadan, the fasting month. This year, the celebration is expected to be more spectacular and exciting. Although I am a Chinese and not celebrating Hari Raya, I somehow experience the celebration. Do you want to know how my eid experience was like?
On the first day of Hari Raya, I went back to Beaufort, Sabah to visit my family. I took a plane from Low Cost Career Terminal (LCCT) in Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) to Kota Kinabalu International Airport (KKIA) Terminal 2. When the plane finally landed in the airport, it was at night and it was raining cats and dogs. After claiming my luggage, I went to the terminal building to meet my family as they were waiting there for me. I was as happy as a lark. It had been a long time since I last met them. Then, we went back to Beaufort by my father’s car. On the way home, I saw many Malays’ houses beautifully decorated with colourful light bulbs. The houses were transformed into a sea of colour as the colourful light bulbs were twinkling repeatedly. Ignited oil lamps were also placed around the houses. The Malays think that oil lamps can make their Hari Raya celebration more hilarious. I also saw Malay children running and playing firecracker along the road. After about 2 hours, we finally reached our home. I really missed a lot of things at home. As saying goes, “no place feels like home”.
It was the second day of Hari Raya. After getting a good night’s sleep, I got a call from my Malay ex-classmate and he invited me to his house. At his house, I not only met my Malay friends, but also all my Chinese and Kadazan friends. All my Malay friends were dressed neatly with Malay traditional attire. My female friends wore baju kurung while my male friends wore baju melayu with a songkok or cap on their head. Various kinds of food were served on the table. They were Malay traditional food like lemang, pulut, ketupat, and kari ayam. My favourite food was the mouth-watering rendang. After having heavy meals, I had cookies and desserts with juice. Kuih lapis, the colourful layer cake was my favourite dessert. While we were eating cookies and desserts, we were also chit-chatting about where we study after our separation in secondary school. Some of my friends are currently studying in prestigious Malaysian colleges and universities while others further their study in government matriculation and Form 6. Finally, I got myself a green packet or known as duit raya from the old folks. Then, I bid farewell to all my friends and hoped that we will meet again some other time.
On the following day of Hari Raya, I still went to many other opening houses. With this, the Hari Raya celebration came to an end. It was indeed an exciting moment for me to be able to experience such a dazzling celebration. I will certainly never forget this wonderful experience.
On the first day of Hari Raya, I went back to Beaufort, Sabah to visit my family. I took a plane from Low Cost Career Terminal (LCCT) in Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) to Kota Kinabalu International Airport (KKIA) Terminal 2. When the plane finally landed in the airport, it was at night and it was raining cats and dogs. After claiming my luggage, I went to the terminal building to meet my family as they were waiting there for me. I was as happy as a lark. It had been a long time since I last met them. Then, we went back to Beaufort by my father’s car. On the way home, I saw many Malays’ houses beautifully decorated with colourful light bulbs. The houses were transformed into a sea of colour as the colourful light bulbs were twinkling repeatedly. Ignited oil lamps were also placed around the houses. The Malays think that oil lamps can make their Hari Raya celebration more hilarious. I also saw Malay children running and playing firecracker along the road. After about 2 hours, we finally reached our home. I really missed a lot of things at home. As saying goes, “no place feels like home”.
It was the second day of Hari Raya. After getting a good night’s sleep, I got a call from my Malay ex-classmate and he invited me to his house. At his house, I not only met my Malay friends, but also all my Chinese and Kadazan friends. All my Malay friends were dressed neatly with Malay traditional attire. My female friends wore baju kurung while my male friends wore baju melayu with a songkok or cap on their head. Various kinds of food were served on the table. They were Malay traditional food like lemang, pulut, ketupat, and kari ayam. My favourite food was the mouth-watering rendang. After having heavy meals, I had cookies and desserts with juice. Kuih lapis, the colourful layer cake was my favourite dessert. While we were eating cookies and desserts, we were also chit-chatting about where we study after our separation in secondary school. Some of my friends are currently studying in prestigious Malaysian colleges and universities while others further their study in government matriculation and Form 6. Finally, I got myself a green packet or known as duit raya from the old folks. Then, I bid farewell to all my friends and hoped that we will meet again some other time.
On the following day of Hari Raya, I still went to many other opening houses. With this, the Hari Raya celebration came to an end. It was indeed an exciting moment for me to be able to experience such a dazzling celebration. I will certainly never forget this wonderful experience.
Sunday, October 7, 2007
Appearance, Genes and Photography
Every living thing has genes that heavily determine its appearance. Humans look like humans because they have human genes. This set of genes makes up an individual person with specific appearance. Do you know how our appearance is controlled by our genes?
Variation refers to the differences which exist between living organism as a result of their genotypes and the environment. Variation in the physical appearance of humans is believed by anthropologist to be an important factor in the development of personality and social relations. Some differences in human appearance are genetic while others are the result of age, disease, and make-up. In humans there are hundreds of features which illustrate variation. Height, body weight, blood group, skin tone, hair colour, eye colour, nose shape, and ear shape are the physiological differences in human physical appearance.
People who are genetically identical share the same facial appearance with their twin brothers and sisters. Hence, identical twins tend to look alike. Apart from that, parents and their children share 50% of their genes. Thus, a son has similar facial appearance either with his mother or father. Down’s syndrome is a relatively common birth defect caused by the presence of an extra chromosome number 21. People with Down’s syndrome usually have a short and stocky body, slanting eyes, broad face and stubby nose. They are usually mentally retarded and are likely to have heart defects. People with a wide array of races also differ widely in physical appearance. A Negro, for example, has darker complexion like the westerners living in the temperate climate. Malays have brown complexion while the Chinese are commonly referred as “yellow” people.
How the things can be recorded on films? Photography is the process of recording pictures by means of capturing light on a light-sensitive medium such as a film or electronic sensor. Photography provides an important photographic documentation of different facial appearance. Pictures can be used for comparison and documenting different facial features and similarities among people with different ethnic, country of origin, and genetic combination.
In the nutshell, variation enables each individual to be different from others. In Malaysia, there is a need for peaceful coexistence among the various ethnic groups. Treating people with respect, regardless of their cultures, languages, races and backgrounds, makes this country a better place to live in. Therefore, as civic-minded people, we should treat other people the way we would like them to treat us.
Variation refers to the differences which exist between living organism as a result of their genotypes and the environment. Variation in the physical appearance of humans is believed by anthropologist to be an important factor in the development of personality and social relations. Some differences in human appearance are genetic while others are the result of age, disease, and make-up. In humans there are hundreds of features which illustrate variation. Height, body weight, blood group, skin tone, hair colour, eye colour, nose shape, and ear shape are the physiological differences in human physical appearance.
People who are genetically identical share the same facial appearance with their twin brothers and sisters. Hence, identical twins tend to look alike. Apart from that, parents and their children share 50% of their genes. Thus, a son has similar facial appearance either with his mother or father. Down’s syndrome is a relatively common birth defect caused by the presence of an extra chromosome number 21. People with Down’s syndrome usually have a short and stocky body, slanting eyes, broad face and stubby nose. They are usually mentally retarded and are likely to have heart defects. People with a wide array of races also differ widely in physical appearance. A Negro, for example, has darker complexion like the westerners living in the temperate climate. Malays have brown complexion while the Chinese are commonly referred as “yellow” people.
How the things can be recorded on films? Photography is the process of recording pictures by means of capturing light on a light-sensitive medium such as a film or electronic sensor. Photography provides an important photographic documentation of different facial appearance. Pictures can be used for comparison and documenting different facial features and similarities among people with different ethnic, country of origin, and genetic combination.
In the nutshell, variation enables each individual to be different from others. In Malaysia, there is a need for peaceful coexistence among the various ethnic groups. Treating people with respect, regardless of their cultures, languages, races and backgrounds, makes this country a better place to live in. Therefore, as civic-minded people, we should treat other people the way we would like them to treat us.
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