D.U.K.A.L.A.R.A. A Tragedy

The Accident

What I have been worrying all these while happened at last. It was at KM50 Gerik-Jeli Highway as I was negotiating a corner in the rain. I was doing around 60km/h as it was quite a sharp turn when suddenly I lost control of the car. The backside of the car slid so I instinctively pressed the brake. The slide continued drift-like which turned the car towards where I was coming from and ended in the drain. Luckily there was no oncoming traffic for I was with my wife and three children.

Quickly I turned my head towards the passenger seat. My wife was shocked as she was asleep with my youngest child on her lap. She recited the Almighty's name over and over again. Then I saw my two other children at the back of the car, crying. They seemed okay and I sighed, relieved. I also saw the condition of the car - the engine was still running, the windscreen was still intact, but the window at the backside of the car was cracked. 

As we were coming into terms about what had just happened, there was a knock on my door. I rolled the window down and saw a man asking if we were okay. Then he ordered us to quickly come out of the car because the place was quite dangerous as there could be other cars crashing into us.

We grabbed everything we could think of: handbag, phones and laptop bag. As we were walking towards a restaurant on the other side of the road, my wife informed me that her phone was missing. After I seated them on the chairs, I dashed towards the car again to search for it. It was a failed attempt as it was quite dark already. I took a bag which was at the back of the car, searched for my wife's apartment parking card and returned to the restaurant.

The man, who we later knew as the restaurant owner, was worried as I had been quite a while inside the car. He said there was once a double crash happened at the very same place. The first victims barely got out into a safe place when another crash happened. His restaurant also got rammed into many times, so as his Iswara car parked in front of it. He and his mother were quite helpful to us during the ordeal. He called his friend who tows cars and his mother made us some drinks. Then we chatted while waiting for the towing truck to arrive.

When the towing truck arrived, I faced a dilemma whether to tow the car to Tanah Merah, or to the workshop in Taiping as suggested by the towing truck driver. After some time pondering upon the pro and contra of the possibilities, I finally decided on placing the car at his workshop. It was a panel of Takaful Malaysia, so I should not worry to much.

Before we towed the car out of the drain, I searched for my wife's phone once again. I found it under the passenger seat and put it inside my pocket. We took around 15 minutes to finally get the car on the truck. I was sad to see the condition of the car, but I could not do anything anymore except from wishing that I could drive it again soon. 

We said goodbyes and thanked the owner of the restaurant and his mother before riding the towing truck towards Gerik police station to report the accident. It was an uncomfortable hour-and-a-half ride as all the six of us including the driver sat inside the truck as the car was too dangerous to sit in.

The report was smooth and the policeman in-charge was friendly. The truck driver took us to a hotel which he already called on our way to the police station. After taking the rest of the things from the car, we checked into the hotel to rest.

The next day, I bought some clothes at the morning market before buying roti canai for breakfast. At 9.30, my wife's friend who was teaching in Gerik came to help us. She and her family brought us to their home while waiting for our bus ride which was scheduled at noon.

We finally arrived at Tanah Merah at 6 in the evening.


D.U.K.A.L.A.R.A.

It was a matter of time before we finally involved in an accident. We travelled from Kelantan to Penang and vice versa a lot of times since 2013. We could not help it as we are teaching in two different states. My wife's application for a transfer to Kelantan is not approved yet, so we are still living separate lives. This is what the government dubbed 'DUKALARA'.

Personally, I am not against government's transfer system. I know it is hard to actually find the right balance between the demands, but if done correctly, you might find the way. However, everybody must follow the system, notwithstanding you are a known personality or a boy next door. When there is a queue, you enter the queue, not cutting it by using any means possible. This will take somebody else's rights and for me, it is really intolerable.

   

Summary Writing PKBS 2

Sometimes students asked why they did not get Content points for their summary even though they had already picked, in their opinion, the best possible materials from the text. Well, there are several reasons:

1. They did not answer the given question.  

Consider the following question taken from the recent PKBS 2:

Based on the passage, write a summary on what the people did when flood hit the village.

One of my students did not get ANY Content points for not answering the question. 

Let's examine the answer. 

The sudden heavy downpour last summer caused unexpected flooding and ... 

... heavy rain began to pour late at night.

- Look at the SUBJECT of the clause. Is it PEOPLE? No. 

This rain did not stopped.

- Again the SUBJECT is not PEOPLE. 

People could hear it spattering on their roofs all night long.

- Now the SUBJECT is PEOPLE. But, this is not something which is DONE by them, instead it is something HEARD by them using their SENSES.

The river had spilled over its ten-foot-high banks.

- Not PEOPLE, again.

On the other side of the bridge, water rushed into the ground level of homes.

- Not PEOPLE. 

Other belongings floated away - buckets and stools, pails and bamboo holsters for scythes.

- Still not PEOPLE. And worse, she wrote down EXAMPLES, which are TABOOS in Summary writing.

The narrow road was part of the river, a dark channel of mud, rocks, debris and logs.

- Again.

The water gushed through the rail slots and covered the benches. It looked like a boat about to break from its moorings.

- Water is not PEOPLE.

Submerged fields broadened the river, and hundreds of carp rushed downstream.

- Fields, carp. Not PEOPLE. 

At 9 a.m. the rain subsided. At 11 a.m. the water began to recede. Fields were lost, homes were damaged, roads were washed out, but luckily no one was kill.

- Apart from no one, all the above SUBJECTS are not PEOPLE. Even here, no one did not do anything, instead it is in PASSIVE form.  

2. They took materials outside the range given. 

When the question states 'Your summary must use materials from line 17 to line 40', please take materials from line 17 to line 40.

3. They copy the materials without changing the pronouns.

Students must be aware of the PRONOUNS used in the text. For example: 'I could see the vast pale green fields brushed with gold.'

The pronoun here is the word I and if students blindly copy the sentence, this will mean that they are the ones who see the fields, not the writer. Therefore, they should write the writer instead of I.

SALAH is the Right Choice for LFC

When LFC signed Mohamed Salah last year, I was really excited. Not only because I thought of him as a good player, but I really thought, at that time, about the irony of his name if he could really become one. Imagine that the word SALAH in Bahasa Melayu means 'mistake' thus was it really a MISTAKE in LFC part for buying him? Or, would he become the RIGHT choice for LFC?

Fast forward to 2018, these are the achievements he made (so far!): 

•     He matched the record of 12 different Liverpool players by scoring on his debut against Watford on the opening match of the 2017-18 season after being an LFC player for a mere 57 minutes.
•     Having scored three goals and been the provider of two assists in his first five games, Salah went on to be named LFC Player of the Month for August. He was named the POTM again in September and won it a total of seven times this season, officially winning the most POTM awards in a season.
•     In November 2017, Salah scored against Chelsea in our 1 – 1 draw at home and became the quickest Liverpool player to reach ten goals, having done so in 13 games.
•     In the final game of 2017, Salah scored two goals against Leceister City, taking his total to 23 goals in 29 games and equalled Roger Hunt’s record from the 1961-62 season.
•     Salah became the quickest LFC player to reach 25 goals when he scored against West Brom during our FA Cup tie in January this year. It had taken him 32 games to do so which made him the fastest player to do so in 102 years.
•     In February, Salah scored two scintillating goals (his 20th and 21st of the season) in our frustrating 2-2 draw at home against Spurs and became the fastest LFC Player to reach 20 Premier League goals, beating Fernando Torres and Daniel Sturridge in reaching that tally in fewer games.
•     Those two goals against Spurs also saw Salah become the highest scoring Egyptian player in Premier League history (this included his two PL goals during his time at Chelsea) with a total of 23 breaking Mido’s record of 22 goals.
•     Salah went on to break Robbie Fowler’s record of most left footed goals in a Premier League season when he scored his 20th left footed goal against West Ham in our 4 – 1 win. Fowler had reached 19 left footed goals during the 1994-95 season and Salah went on to add to his left footed tally, finishing the season with 25 left footed goals.
•     Having won the Premier League Player of the Month award for November and February, Salah became the first ever player to win three in the same season when he was named the PL POTM again in March this year.
•     Salah scored four goals in our 5 – 0 decimation of Watford at Anfield in March, taking his total to 36 goals in all competitions – which saw him break Fernando Torres record of most goals by an LFC Player in a debut season. Torres had scored 33 goals in all competitions during his first season as a Red.
•     In April, Salah scored his 30th Premier League goal of the season in our 3 – 0 win over Bournemouth, overtaking Didier Drogba who had scored 29 PL goals and became the highest scoring African player in a Premier League season. Salah eventually finished the season on 32 Premier League goals.
•     That same goal against Bournemouth was also Salah’s 40th goal in all competitions and made him the fastest LFC player to reach the 40-goal mark, doing so in 45 games. The previous record had been 49 games.
•     His goal against Brighton on the final day of the Premier League season, saw Salah break the Premier League record of most goals in a 38 game Premier League season with 32. The previous tally had been 31, a feat only Cristiano Ronaldo, Luis Suarez and Alan Shearer had achieved in seasons gone by.
•     Salah also broke the record for scoring in the most games in a Premier League season, doing so in 24 different PL matches. The previous record had been 21, held jointly by Cristiano Ronaldo (2007-08) and Robin van Persie (2012-13).
•     His goal against Brighton last Sunday also saw Salah match the record for most opponents scored against in a Premier League season – 17 different teams in a single season.
•     And finally, Salah’s total of 32 Premier League goals meant that he had scored more goals than some of the other Premier League teams… Salah is the first player to outscore three Premier League teams in a season, having outscored West Brom (31), Swansea (28) and Huddersfield Town (28).

And he can equal Ian Rush's 47 goals a season during 1983-84 if he scores a hattrick in the Kiev Champions League final on 27th May 2018!

School Athletics Week

FRUSTRATING is the appropriate word for this Athletics Week in regard of Preve Sports House. We dominated the athletic events with lots of podium finishes, yet we were second in the standings, just because Bezza Sports House got their points from Sukantara. We also won the camp decorating, an event which I was entrusted in, out of sheer cooperation between the members, but a part of me was still devastated that the final standing has to be decided like this. It should be an event where the decisive factor was the hardwork of the athletes competing in the sprinting, running, jumping and field events, nevertheless it was conspiciously determined by a bunch of students who didn't know how to run or jump. Next year, something should be done to make this right, or I would be frustrated once again. 

The final standing:

  

Day Before 1119 2017

A picture is worth a thousand words.

Allergy or Allergic? Choosing Suitable Word Type

My students often choose wrong words when writing their essay. They use adjectives when they should be using nouns, or vice versa. Health vs healthy; important vs importance; the list goes on and on. 

Consider these examples (taken from their essays):

1. Justin Bieber's successful has shown that with hobby, he became famous. 

2. They just think about the comfortable of their children and forget the most important thing which is love between parents and children.

In the first example, the student use successful (berjaya) instead of success (kejayaan) while in the second example (taken from another student), the student choose the word comfortable (selesa) in the place of comfort (keselesaan). In both cases, they do not know they should be using a NOUN instead of an ADJECTIVE. 

Now, before I go further, let's watch a clip from the movie Big Hero 6. 

The words I want to focus on are ALLERGIC and ALLERGY. Let us see where Baymax uses these words:

Here Baymax says: You ARE not allergic to Bacitracin. The verb ARE is used here to show Hiro's attribute, which is NOT ALLERGIC (an adjective) to Bacitracin. We use ADJECTIVES to describe people's attributes, therefore we put an adjective here instead of a noun. In Bahasa, it roughly means: 'alah kepada'.

Here, however, Baymax says: You do HAVE a mild allergy to peanuts. The verb HAVE is used here to show that Hiro has something (a noun). That THING must be a noun, whether it is a concrete noun or an abstract noun. Allergy is an abstract noun showing condition where a person is allergic to something. In Bahasa, it means 'alahan'. 

Well, students. Please choose carefully. Do you really mean 'alah kepada' or 'alahan'? That is the million-dollar question.

Drafting for Narrative Essay - Don't Neglect It!

I always tell my students to draft their essay before writing it up. They just have to use up to 5 minutes only before writing the essay for around 50 minutes. Use the final 5 minutes to check for mistakes. 

The drafting for a narrative essay is quite simple. Here is an example on how to do it. The essay is quite short because it is used for weak classes.

Write about a boy who succeeded after hardship. End your story with “… he thanked God for his success.”

Draft:

Poor boy – naughty – failed exam – father sick – regretted – studied hard – passed exam

The Essay:

           

Amran bin Kasimin was a poor boy. He lived in Kampung Jejulok. His father only worked as a farmer. He worked at Pak Kassim’s orchard. (21 words)

However, Amran was a very naughty boy. He always bullied his friends at school. He was also lazy. He was always sleeping inside the classroom, especially when Mr. Haris was teaching History. (31 words)

In August, Amran failed his trial examination. He did not score in all his subjects. He even got 25 marks for his Bahasa Melayu paper. Puan Radhiah was angry at him. He never failed his Bahasa Melayu paper before. (36 words)

One month before the SPM, his father was sick. He could not work at Pak Kassim’s orchard anymore. Therefore, they could not get money for their living. Amran could only eat rice with egg everyday. Sometimes, they did not have any food. (41 words)         

Amran regretted his attitude. He did not become naughty anymore. He also hated being lazy. He listened carefully to Mr. Haris when he was teaching. He studied hard in every subject. He studied Bahasa Melayu again. Puan Radhiah was not angry at him anymore. She liked Amran very much now. He was his best student. (52 words)

Amran’s father got better and better everyday. He was happy with Amran’s attitude. He sometimes helped his father at Pak Kassim’s orchard. At night, he studied before he slept. At school, Amran studied with his friends. He always studied with Azrul, Hafiz and Faizal in the evening. They were very happy together. (51 words)

In November, Amran and his friends sat for the SPM examination. It was a very important examination for everybody. “If you pass SPM, you will get good job,” the principal said in the assembly. Amran remembered the speech very much. (40 words)

In March the next year, the SPM results were announced. Amran went to school with Azrul, Hafiz and Faizal to see the results. He passed the examination with good grades. His friends passed the examination too. Amran and his friends were excited. He thanked God for his success. (48 words)

(300 words)