Archive for February, 2008
Knowing The Right Type Of Woman
Good morning everyone,
Did you read the topic right? Yes, today we are going to learn the type of woman. Not necessarily for the guys to choose your Mrs Right, or for the ladies to classify your friends and yourself, but for you to use the correct word when describing a woman. Let’s get on the topic…
- winsome – a winsome woman is charmingly or shyly pleasing
- virago – a virago woman is a sharp-tounged scold
- hoyden – a hoyden woman is also a tomboy
- prima donna – a prima donna is a temperamental woman (Now I guess nobody wants to be a prima donna anymore)
- coquette – a coquette is a flirty woman
- petite – petite means little (in size)
- minx – means a pert, saucy girl
- svelte – means slender
- shrew – a shrew woman loves to nag
- demure – means coy
I hope you enjoy the topic today and you can start thinking what type of woman you’d like to marry to or what type of woman you want to be.. A virago, hoyden, prima donna, coquette and shrew certainly not an option, I hope..
See you again tomorrow!
Night Safari At Taiping
It’s night, and I’ve took the train to go around the zoo.. So, the pictures are not very clear.. Anyway, enjoy D-Va’s song, Cinta Boneka..
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Masalah Menguasai Bahasa Inggeris
Saya telah menerima e-mel daripada adik Syamiera yang akan menduduki PMR tahun ini. Menurut adik Syamiera, beliau menghadapi masalah grammar dan perbendaharaan kata (vocabulary) yang lemah. Beliau juga kata yang beliau boleh membaca artikel dalam BI tetapi seringkali terdapat perkataan yang tidak beliau ketahui maksudnya.
Saya rasa punca utama yang menyebabkan masalah grammar dan perbendaharaan kata yang lemah adalah kurang membaca. Cuba adik Syamira kaji semula, berapa kerap adik membaca bahan bacaan bahasa inggeris. Sekurang-kurangnya saya galakkan adik membaca 2-3 helai mukasurat A4 sehari. Maknanya lebih kurang 1000 ke 2000 perkataan sehari.
Sebelum membaca, lakukan beberapa perkara yang pernah saya jelaskan dalam blog.
Pertama, semak waktu penulisan tersebut – adakah ianya dalam present tense, past tense, future tense atau gabungan semuanya. Ini boleh dilakukan dengan cepat dengan menggunakan teknik scanning.
Kedua, pastikan anda mempunyai sebuah buku nota kecil untuk mencatat perkataan-perkataan baru atau perkataan yang susah dieja. Sewaktu membaca kali pertama, jangan berhenti apabila berjumpa dengan perkataan-perkataan yang tidak diketahui maknanya. Kadang-kadang ayat berikutnya akan memberikan makna tertentu untuk anda meneka makna sebenar perkataan tersebut.
Ketiga, ulang baca sekali lagi, dan catat perkataan-perkataan yang tidak anda ketahui maknanya dalam buku nota kecil tadi. Bila-bila masa terluang, gunakan kamus untuk mencari maknanya. Jika perlu, catat sekali ayat yang menggunakan perkataan tersebut.
Keempat, fikirkan semula apa yang telah anda baca. Dan tulis ringkasan mengenainya. Sebaiknya, tulislah dalam BI kerana secara tidak langsung anda juga akan melatih diri anda menulis.
Saya tidak ada formula luarbiasa untuk menguasai bahasa inggeris, sebaliknya sama seperti anda belajar bahasa lain, belajar bahasa memerlukan bacaan yang banyak. Jangan terlalu risau tentang grammar, kerana kebanyakan orang tidak tahu istilah grammar – apa yang mereka tahu adalah ayat yang digunakan ’sedap atau tidak sedap’ didengar.
Akhir kata, teruskan membaca blog saya kerana dari masa ke masa, saya akan kongsikan tips-tips belajar bahasa inggeris.
Semoga berjaya!
Beautiful Scenery At Tanjung Sedili, Kota Tinggi
It’s the Hajj season, and in a few days we will celebrating the Hari Raya Haji. My husband’s cousins were going to do their hajj. Their flight is on 1st December. We went to see them, just before they leave the house for the airport. Lots of relatives were there too including my mother-in-law, sister-in-law and her children.
I haven’t gone anywhere since the holiday, so I thought that I would want to see the school which I’ll be doing my practicum, next year. It’s situated somewhere near Kota Tinggi.. In tanjung sedili, to be exact. Well, I don’t know what I am going to do there, I am sure there’s a lot of stuffs to be done during practicum, that I hope I’ll be as busy as possible so I wouldn’t realize that I might have internet problem there.. 
I am still working on how do I get my internet line there – I don’t see any cybercafes around.
Anyway, one thing I am sure that the place has beautiful sceneries. Near to the jetty, there is one stall selling keropok lekor which claimed were ‘imported’ from Mersing.. Hahaha.. They wrote the word imported there.. I forgot to snap a picture of it.
One of my sister-in-law’s child, Fadil, insists that he wants to follow us for ‘jalan-jalan’. My husband promised him to take him out because there was one time when we only brought his sister to KL. He is only 4 years old and he was very happy to follow us out.
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Colors
Do you think that you really know the name of colors? Well, if it is the basic colour like red, yellow, green, I guess we are all master of it. How about a pale yellowish green? What do we call it?
Check out the following name of colors.
- cerulean – vivid blue –
- indigo – deep violet blue –
- ocher – dark yellow –
- azure – clear sky blue –
- cerise – cherry red –
- ecru – light yellowish brown –
- chartreuse – pale yellowish green –
- fuchsia – bright bluish red –
- sorrel – reddish or yellowish brown –
- mauve – purplish rose –
Found an interesting color to paint your wall?
Analyse Your Blog Performance
As I’ve always said, we need to analyse our blog performance from time to time. Why we need to do so? I believe you’ve already have the answer. Because we need to know our performance:
- Where we are
- How we are doing
- What is our progress
- Are we performing or just a nearly-dead blog
Well, that is some of the answer.
In order for us to move forward, we need to know we stand now. That’s why I am going to show to you my blog’s last year performance in terms of traffic (visitors). Let’s look overall the year:
- In April, where I started install the statistics code for the blog, the blog received 893 unique visitors where 212 were returning visitors. There were 1,989 page loads for the whole month.
- In May, the number of unique visitors had doubled to 1,531 with 3,375 page loads. 426 out of the 1,531 visitors were returning visitors.
- In June, the blog had captured the interest of 1,941 unique visitors where 493 of them were returning visitors. The page loads were 4,199.
- There were not much progress in July as the number of the unique visitors was 2,087 with 541 were returning visitors. The page loads were 4,265.
- The situation were quite bad in August, I guess it must be because of my small number of postings. There were only 2,170 unique visitors with only 320 returning visitors. The page loads is 3,979.
- Things were quite the same in September, there were 2,561 unique visitors with 359 returning visitors and 4,597 page loads.
- It’s still not improving in October, as the blog only attracted 2,050 unique visitors with 320 returning visitors and 4,030 page loads.
- Things were getting better in November as I were on holiday. There were 2,452 unique visitors with 428 returning visitors and 4,812 page loads.
- And in December, the blog marked a new bench mark as it reached 3,055 unique visitors with 517 returning visitors. And the numbers of page loads increased to 6,617.
Now, my plan is to maintain the 3000++ unique visitors a month for the next couple of months. That’s why I’ve wrote more than 100++ posts to ensure that the blog has a new post everyday while I am busy practicum in a remote area.
So, keep coming back here because I’ve already prepared posts until April – that is when I am back in Pasir Gudang, Johor. However, please be patient as I might not be able to reply to your comments as fast as I used to do it. For the new commentators, you might have to wait longer for me to release your comments. If you need to contact me, I think it would be better if you use the forum function as I am worry that your mail might goes into the SPAM folder which I might not be able to trace it.
Have an enjoyable day!
P.S.: This post were written on 4th January 2008.
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People Who Became Words
For better or for worse, people have given their names to many common words. Sometimes the reason are scientific or practical, and sometimes not so serious. Here are eight words that grew from personal names, some famous and some forgotten.
- August is the eight month of the year. Named after Augustus Caesar.
- bloomers is women’s loose, baggy trousers drawn close at the ankles and worn under a short skirt, or a woman’s undergarment resembling these. Bloomers were named after Mrs. Amelia Jenks Bloomer (1818-1894), an American champion of women’s right.
- bobby is a British policeman. This word, the familiar form of Robert, came into use after Sir Robert Peel set up the police system in London early in the nineteenth century. The London policemen were first called ‘Bobby’s men’ and later just ‘bobbies’.
- boycott means to refuse, as a group, to buy from or have any dealings with a person or organization, in order to reduce prices or bring about some change; also, an instance of this. The word comes from C.C. Boycott, a British army officer and landlord’s agent in Ireland in the nineteenth century, who war the first victim of boycotting because of his unpopularity among tenants from whom he collected rents.
- chauvinism means militant glorification of one’s country; vain patriotism. After Nicholas Chauvin, a devoted soldier and overzealous supporter of Napoleon Bonaparte.
- dahlia is a flower that takes its name from Anders Dahl, the eighteenth-century Swedish botanist who developed it.
- epicure is a person given to discriminating luxury; a fastidious devotee of good food and drink; a gourmet. After the Greek philosopher Epicurus, who taught that peace of mind, cultural interests, and a discriminating temperance in sensual pleasure lead to the good life.
- guillotine is a machine used for beheading a person by means of a heavy knife that drops between two posts. It was named after J.I. Guillotin, a French physician, who developed it. It was used especially on victims of the French Revolution.
I wonder if there is any Malay words that was named after any Malays. Would you share it with me if you know anything about it?
Recognizing Roots
Knowing the meanings of roots can help us to understand many words. I shall share with the meanings of 8 basic word elements.
- pyro means fire. A pyromaniac is a person who feels a compulsion to set things on fire.
- patri means father. A patriarch is the fatherlike leader of a family, tribe or race.
- pod means foot. A podium is a small platform on which a speaker stands. You can also guess the meaning of tripod, right?
- socio means society. Sociology is the science that studies the human society.
- psycho means mind. Psychoanalysis is concerned with the study of mental states.
- phono means sound. A phonograph reproduces sound from a record.
- toxico means poison. Toxicology is the science that treats of the detection, nature and properties of poison.
- somni means sleep. Somniferous means tending to produce sleep, as certain drugs.
All right, that’s all for today. I hope you learned as much as I’ve learnt.
For Women Only
Though the topic said for women only, it does not men you guys couldn’t read this. It’s only that I think the topic will interest the ladies more than the guys. Let’s see what words can we use to describe a man…
- tycoon – a powerful businessman
- suave – smoothly pleasant; ingratiating
- philanderer – a fickle suitor
- lout – an awkward, rough fellow
- curmudgeon – a gruff, irritable old man
- Don Juan – a rake or seducer
- cavalier – a courtly gentleman; gallant
- wastrel – an idler or loafer
- debonair – nonchalant; urbane
- Adonis – a handsome man
So, which one if your type?
Word Building
Knowing the meaning of word’s parts can help us to understand many words. Let’s see the meanings of the following roots and prefixes.
- dextro means right. Ambidextrous means being able to use both hands equally well.
- ambi means both. Ambiguous means capable of being understood in two or more senses; hence, unclear.
- anthropo means man. Anthropology is the science that studies man, his origin, evolution, customs, etc.
- bi means two. Bigamy is the criminal offense of having two wives or husband at the same time – does not apply to the Muslim (for wives).
- hemi means half. A hemisphere is half a sphere or half of the terrestrial or celestial globe, as either the Northers Hemisphere or the Southern Hemisphere.
- auto means self. An automobile is a self-propelled vehicle.
- derm means skin. A dermatologist is a doctor who specializes in treating diseases of the skin.
- cosmo means universe. Cosmopolitan means at home in all parts of the world; not limited to local interests.