Hi Guys
November 21, 2009 at 11:15 am | Posted in 1 | Leave a commentI have finally setup a website recently. My new address is www.waterfreakz.com
English At Work Is Weird
November 20, 2009 at 6:49 pm | Posted in My Mind Says | Leave a commentTags: Asia, French language, Japanese language, New Straits Times
Breaking News
Home > Breaking News > SE Asia > Story
Mr Mohd Puad Zarkashi said employees in the private sector used English 99 per cent of the time and should switch to Bahasa Malaysia in order to show pride in the national language, the New Straits Times reported. — PHOTO: REUTERS
KUALA LUMPUR – MALAYSIA’S deputy education minister has said that speaking English in the workplace is ‘weird’ and harmful to the nation’s culture and identity, a report said on Wednesday.
Mr Mohd Puad Zarkashi said employees in the private sector used English 99 per cent of the time and should switch to Bahasa Malaysia in order to show pride in the national language, the New Straits Times reported.
‘This also occurs in government-linked companies where we have this weird culture of people speaking to each other in English instead of the national language,’ he said at the launch of a linguistics seminar. ‘We are polluting our own culture and identity as a nation,’ he said.
‘It would be difficult to strengthen the position of Bahasa Malaysia if this culture continued,’ he added, urging Malaysians to emulate the French, Japanese and Koreans, who stuck to their own language.
The New Straits Times said Mr Mohd Puad also criticised young people for using a mix of English and Bahasa Malaysia in SMS text messages and on the Internet.
He called on the nation’s leaders to use Bahasa Malaysia for all meetings and events and said that when he receives letters in English he returns them and asks for them to be written in the national language. — AFP
THIS IS MY POINT OF VIEW
So what do you think? Is this some kind of a joke or a serious piece of mind from the deputy education minister? Could this be the reason behind the short lived method of teaching Math and Science in English at school? To preserve the Bahasa Malaysia. Does English pollutes Malaysian’s very own culture and identity?
Firstly, Bahasa Malaysia has been our very own Malaysian language for more than 40 years ever since it was formed. I am very sure the language itself has a very strong place in every single Malaysian already. And I am proud of it. It is a unique language for sure and easy to learn as well. However, only for those who are interested.
Second, the usage of English widely in private and government link sectors are not an issue at all. If you would, blame the education system. Do we have enough source of reference in Bahasa during college and university? My own experience told me there were not. Yes we do have plenty of them out there but they were only as good when you are still in study not when you go out into the reality. For someone in the tourism industry like me, English has been the best way of communicating with others. For those working in any foreign company in Malaysia, they have to speak in English.
The minister must have forgotten that English had been recognized as the second language in Malaysia for years. I wonder what happened to the English speaking campaign. I wonder if he will actually return any letters written in English just to be rewritten in Bahasa even if it is an official letter. Maybe he might ask me to re-post my blog in Bahasa too.
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The Rain
November 19, 2009 at 10:40 pm | Posted in Layang-Layang Tale | 2 CommentsTags: Malaysia, Outdoors, Recreation, Scuba diving, Tropics, Water
Traveling in the tropical countries will not be complete unless you experience rain. Yes it rains everywhere in the tropical, especially here in Malaysia. It is part of our life. When it rains for long time, we get miserable, when it stays dry for a long time, we pray for it to come. But the fact that when it rains here, it rains hard. There are parts in the west Malaysia on the east coast where it drizzles 24 hours for days especially in December. Picture it as snows in form of water droplets.
When it comes to scuba diving, rain can be both exciting and boring. Imagine you just completed a great dive when it rains. You get up into the boat already cold from the dive, on the way back to the resort wind blowing straight at your wet body. Nice right. It is not that bad actually. You will get your prayer for a hot shower and hot cup of drinks once you are at the resort anyway. I would like to share one of the best jokes about rain and scuba diving.”I don’t want to get wet”. Do you get it? I hope it does not make me sound so silly.
Well I’m done talking about rain and dive. Let’s get back to the purpose I’m writing this blog. Today, we were once again experiencing the comedian side of Mother Nature. She let MamaSun smiled on us for about 2 hours. As i wrote before, our battle with the leaked roof is far from end. While we were busy, Mother decided it was too hot and sent us her gift. It rained hard. Running down to the ladder was not an easy mission when you are running on a slippery surface with water running down. So running down was not an option. 4 workers crawling down the roof with such care it took ages. I decided to practice my ‘free running‘ exercise by jumping off the edge of a 3 meters high roof. While the other 3 waited for their turn for the only ladder. Drenched,we waited for less than 5 minutes when Mamasun showed up again. Another 3 minutes, the roof has dried up. After 2 hours, we managed to complete everything. 2 more to go guys. Great job. The rain never came back after that.
As always, I decided to go for my late afternoon run. Trust me it is the best time to exercise. Weather was great, nice breeze. So I got into my trainers and started to warm-up. 10minutes into the session I was ready to go. Walked out to the runway only to greeted by massive curtain of rain out of nowhere. I had a great exercise today. Don’t you think so?
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Losing Those Body Fat
November 18, 2009 at 10:23 pm | Posted in Body Conscious | Leave a commentTags: accelerate metabolism, Aerobic exercise, Diet, Fat burning, Health, metabolism, Physical exercise, reduce fat, Resistance training, Weight loss
Body fat has been receiving quite a bad reputation for a long time. Not many has understandings of its purpose.
Body fat is made up of free fatty acids liberated from various lipoproteins (a chemical compound made of protein and fat, that transports lipids around the body to perform various biological functions).
Body fat will only becomes a problem when it is not used as an energy. An obvious reason for weight problems worldwide. The real fact is, it carries important roles in our body. Insulation for an example, and we need at least 3 percent of fat to cushion and protect the vital organs, in particular the kidneys, heart and intestines.
By now we have to fully understand that losing every single fat cell in our body is suicidal. There are 2 major ways to reduce fat effectively.Aerobic training and resistance training. Aerobic training uses oxygen and fat as a main fuel source. Resistance training rises up the muscle’s metabolic activity. It needs a significant amount of energy in the form of fat to maintain it. Which means, the more muscle you have, the greater amount of fat will be burned and reduced.
However, exercising alone does not help fat reduction for a length of time. Exercising everyday is not recommended at all. Fat tissue never stops accumulating as the body needs it. Skipping exercise even for a day means you are adding up body fat. Other bigger factor in slowing down your fat storage is a proper diet. In fact, diet contributes 70 percent in fat reduction. It affects the main fat burning factor, your METABOLISM.
From my point of view, it is better to understand how dieting and exercise work with each other rather than jumping into your trainer and perform all those sophisticated methods just to give up in the end when you don’t see any results.
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The Roof Is On Fire!
November 17, 2009 at 9:46 pm | Posted in Layang-Layang Tale | 2 CommentsTags: Air conditioner, Coffee, Evaporation, Heat, Heat wave, Silicone, Water, Weather
Another day passes, well almost in few hours. It has been a good day and boy, why should it not? Got out of bed at 6.30am, then had my self service breakfast. Struggling not to spill my hot coffee over myself as my eyes started to perform their auto shutdown. Quick check on my e-mails, junk, click, junk, click, spam, click, spam, click, why am I such a great target for these mails. After 10 minutes, decided to greet the ever happy face of ‘ MamaSun ‘ good morning or more like a good yawning. Great start! For another 3 weeks…
“Two more low, yu foe peepel khonna finist sealing up te loof on te first plock, oukay“.(Translation please. “Tomorrow, you four people gonna finish sealing up the roof on the first block, okay“) That’s one perfect imitation of supervisor Benson post briefing ” yes.ter.tay ” (YESTERDAY). And so the big boys(The Dive Instructor, The Chef, The Captain, The Bell Boy) unique replied “Yes POUST(boss) “(that was only me actually, now I feel bad)
And so we were on the roof again. So what are we sealing up there? Holes of course.Rows of hundreds of holes to be sealed up. Why? So there will be no more complaining about water leaks into 20 rooms next year. Packed with loads of silicone sealer tubes and two silicone guns we thought we had the upper hand in the war. Only until ‘ MamaSun ‘ decided my morning greet was not good enough. Under the 33 centigrade, we lasted less than 5 minutes gunning down the leaks. Double strike as the heat reflected from the roof straight to our face broke our great formation we decided to take cover. And we did. It took us 15 minutes under the shade to gather our courage before succumbing to the heat wave in less than 5 minutes(Again). We had to commit defeat and keep pretending we had just finished a row every time the supervisor passed by. Very smart.
But then, of course we managed to get the jobs done. Salute to my fellow comrades. Another battle tomorrow. 4 more blocks to go!
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Spratley’s Outcast
November 16, 2009 at 3:11 pm | Posted in Layang-Layang Tale | Leave a commentTags: Island, Kota Kinabalu, laptop, Sea breeze, Temperature, Water, Weather
I’m back in Layang-Layang on the 3rd Nov after a 27 days out on the mainland. One supposedly a month off had to be cut 3 days shorter due to the flight schedule to the island during off-season(Sept-Feb). There is only one flight for each month! A perfect excuse for not attending any reunions or events with family and friends. Ah, that made me feel better for a minute LOL. Slightly glad to be away from all the hectic and rising temperature of Kota Kinabalu. Away from the ‘what should I wear today’ and ‘Bummer I forgot my driver’s license and ID’. Back to the less laundry to do routine during the resort’s off-season(just me apparently).Back to ‘I don’t know what to do on Sunday’.
So what’s happening here now? We’ve dug 7 drains, we’ve repainted the interior of the main building, repaired the roofs which thankfully survived the September’s back to back typhoons(was a nightmare), the rooms are still under reconditioning. And more to come.
We have been having quite an unpredictable weather for couple of days with sudden heavy downpour for every 30 minutes! Strong wind for a day which came back again 2 days later. It’s crazy. I woke up at 6 am this morning just to be greeted by the morning sea breeze, calm water and sunny day. That’s more like it right?
With only 8 people in the resort with over 120 rooms, we’re lucky enough not to experience any ‘isolation fever’ syndrome. Not funny. Living here is now turning me into a cyber sapiens, a workout freak(without the gym thankfully) and now my latest escapade, BLOGGING.
And my next flight out is going to happen in 3 weeks time….until then, I’ll get stuck in my air-conditioned room with my laptop and running on the runway.
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