Personality Test oleh Datuk Dr Fadzillah Kamsah

Tips Mengenal Diri Sendiri Melalui Tarikh Lahir Dari Dr.Fadzilah Kamsah..

1. Pemimpin
2. Lembut
3. Kemas (Cerewet)
4. Rajin
5. Boleh berbincang
6. Angin
7. Patuh
8. Bisnes
9. Glamour

Contoh: 20 05 1981

2 + 0 = 2

Maka kotak pertama adalah 2..
Kemudian campurkan kesemua nombor..

2 + 0 + 0 + 5 + 1 + 9 + 8 + 1 = 26

Kemudian hasil campur yang lebih dari 9 akan dicampur lagi seperti :

2 + 6 = 8

Maka kotak kedua adalah 8..
Selepas itu kotak pertama akan dicampur ngan kotak kedua

2 + 8 = 10

Oleh kerana hasil campur lebih dari 9 maka dicampur lagi

1 + 0 = 1

Maka kotak ketiga ialah 1..
hasilnya..

2 : Lembut
8 : Bisnes
1 : Pemimpin

Maka anda sudah cerminkan diri anda mungkin sifat-sifat ini ada dalam diri anda dan mana tahu mungkin suatu hari nanti dengan sifat ini anda akan menjadi seorang yang berguna

Cerita aku

Ini ialah cerita fitnah yang pernah ditaburkan kat Kg. Telok, Sungai Dua, Pulau Pinang dan aku ialah salah seorang kepada cucu kepada si mangsa. Aku dibesarkan oleh nenek dan datuk aku dari kecik sebelum terpaksa mengikut ayah dan mak aku berhijrah ke Johor Bahru. Walaupun semuanya telah lama berlalu tapi aku nak menegakkan kebenaran pada yang masih hidup dan meluahkan marah aku pada si tukang karut.

Sewaktu hidupnya, Nenek aku pernah difitnah membela hantu supaya hidup senang. Tukang karutnya orang yang sekarang ni duduk bertentangan dengan rumah nenek aku, sekarang ni buka kedai makan char koey teow sungai dua, telur ayam dibasuh. Sekampung mempercayai mulut cabul si tukang karut ni kerana dia menyuruh seorang pak pacak mengaku depan orang kampung yang nenek aku bela hantu. Akibatnya, keluarga kami terpulau oleh orang kampung.

Terus terang aku katakan, aku nak orang yang mulut cabul ni bertaubat ler sebelum mampos. Dah tua pun, nenek aku pun dah lama meninggal. Untuk pengetahuan semua, nenek saya sempat buat haji. Beliau meninggal dunia pada pukul 3 pagi hari Jumaat dengan tenang pada tahun 1986. Yang aku peliknya, lepas nenek ngan atuk aku meninggal, berani plak dia pi menyewa rumah pusaka kami. Tak der ke hantu nenek aku datang belasah mulut celupar ko tuh? Tak pun datang bagi tangkal ker?

Pada si mulut celupar yang tabur fitnah sekampung tuh, dosa orang memfitnah ni lebih berat dari membunuh orang. Bertaubat ler... jangan tau buat jer pastu sorok teloq. Harap teloq ayam hang yer berbasuh. Pi la minta maaf kat ahli keluarga kami kerana mulut hang, kami teranaiya dan maruah kami dipijak-pijak. Kalau dulu hang buat mulut sekampung. La ni zaman ICT, satu dunia boleh access tau... teloq tembelang hang dah pecah. Hang nak letak muka kat mana? Tuhan maha kaya... kot kat dunia tak kena.. kat akhirat tak cium bau syurga..

Having a friend is better than having a boyfriend

Today mark another unsuccessful relationship in my life. Again I call the relationship off after one and a half year of knowing each other. But we still maintain as friend. I cant deny that I miss him so much. But I need to take a firm stand and let him go.

I find it a waste to break off with someone and you can never talk or be the same with that person again. I wish we are friends instead and dont have to run away from each other. Countless days, hours are spent on them and yet nothing works out in the end. I wonder will I ever find the right match for myself.

I think my heart has finally close towards guys. They leave nothing but scarred images. I cant help myself from hating their species. I will be kind to them but they will not be able to have my heart. I will not allow myself being hurt again.

Why Unemployement is high among Malaysian Graduates?

Research studies have shown that are several factors that are affecting our local students from getting job. One of the factors are the students themselves are incompetence in skills, poor in their academic achievements, courses taken are less demanding besides having poor attitudes.

Students who graduated from local universities possess poor academic achievement and quality. Some of them graduated with CGPA of 2.50 and below. Therefore they have to compete with other students who have higher qualifications and posses other special skills as well. Their low pointers reflected on their poor academic achievement and therefore employers are quite skeptical to accept these students as part of their workforce.

These students also demanded high salary. With high salary demand yet no experience of working, employer find it hard to employ them because they will have to spend their time to train the new employee while there are many other experienced but retrenched workers are waiting in line to apply for the job.

These students also do not have any hands on experience on any other skills. They find themselves only limited to what they learned in school and university, not active in school society or clubs and sports therefore they are at a disadvantage when come job application when they have nothing to put into their resume. Employers especially in the government’s sector usually give high priority to those students who are active in school and at university level. Private sector would usually wants students who possesses other skills that can be applied to the company benefit to complement with their degrees.

Yet the most simple and many are taking it for granted during their school days are their English empowerment where they are lack of soft-skills or better known as communication skills. Added to their unable to use proper English, they are also unable to communicate fluently. Lacking of interpersonal skills is a big disadvantage to these students since in business world, communication skills are essential and business that heavily depended on communication skills.

Another factors that contribute towards unemployment are courses taken by the students, or offered by the university are irrelevant to the job market and less demanding. Some of the courses are Human Resources, Art of Performance, Hotel, Agriculture and many others. The jobs may be available but then the students may be very choosy and possess poor attitude towards working and poor discipline.

Educational Psychology : Parenting Styles

CHAPTER 13 : EDUCATION INDUSTRY

Education is the process of teaching and learning in school or college.

Industry is the activities involved in one type of business or something which is produced in large quantities which makes a lot of money.

Objectives of Promoting Education Industry in Malaysia.

1. Malaysia as a regional centre of education excellence.
Government aims to achieve vision 2020, changing Malaysia into an industrialized country. When the government started their economy revolution in privatizing sectors, one of the sectors included is education. Their aim is to bring the world class education to Malaysia.
According Professor Rosabeth Kantor’s “World class suggesting both the need to meet the highest standard anywhere in order to compete and the growth of a social class defined by its ability to command resources and operate beyond borders and across wide territories.”
Applying the 3 C’s concept, competence, connections.
a. concept – the best and latest knowledge and ideas
b. competence – the ability to operate at the highest standards in any place anywhere
c. connection – the best relationships which provide access to the resources of other people and organizations around the world.
By promoting the establishments of private universities it is hoped to bring the quality education comparable to the standards provided by world renowned universities. They are known for their quality research and publications that enhance the knowledge and contribute towards the advancement of sciences (Research and Development).

2. Education as an Industry Rather Than a Social Obligation.

By turning the eduction sector into an industry, the government has ease some of its burden when come to providing the best education to the public. Education in this context is no longer considered as a social obligations to the government but of a mean to generate the economic wealth. Instead of subsidizing the education to the public, the government in turn are turning the education sector as a profit making industry and people would enjoy better education that they can afford.The expanding of higher education market began to attract overseas students, and given a small domestic market, Malaysia started to reposition itself as regional centre of excellence in tertiary education to benefit from economies of scale.

3. Provide human capital to cater for the industrial needs.

Education reforms were introduced since the later 1980s to encourage the private sector to play a more dynamic and expanded role in higher education to meet excess demand and to produce sufficient skilled workers for an economy that was experiencing severe labour and skill shortages. It was apparent that self- sufficiency in education was critical to the nation's drive to achieve developed nation status by the year 2020.
4. Preparing our society for globalisation.

Education is and will always remain a public service and as such, we need to exercise a large degree of social responsibility. As we prepare our society for globalization, we also need to be mindful of the fact that there will be people who are left behind. Therefore, the education system has to be flexible enough to pay equal attention to both high and low achievers. At the end of the day, we would like to see the emergence of growth with equity to be based on a much more egalitarian basis, without hindering the quest for excellence.

Many people would argue that education is a determinant and also a reflection of society. Therefore, in a multiracial, complex and sophisticated society like ours, reforming education has to take into consideration many conflicting, extreme as well as contradictory views. At present, our reforms already reflect changes in the society, brought about by rapid economic growth.
Malaysia as A Regional Centre of Education Excellence
The education minister and his deputy as well as policy makers have indicated that the higher education reform is vital to help realize the vision 2020, national goal to be a developed, industrialized country. In addition the country aims to be a hub in education and information technology in the region therefore making especially higher education / tertiary level education an export commodity.
In the context of tertiary education, the privatisation of higher education and the corporatisation of the universities are in fact an extension of the twin policies of privatisation and “Malaysia Incorporated” of Prime Minister Dr. Mahathir where by May 15 1994, the government had privatised 103 entities and more than 15 previously governement owned companies. The reformation is driven mainly by the economic needs and economic agenda of the country. The country aims to make education an export commodity.
The vision will come to fruition only when all institutions of higher learning public or private can compete and have the competitive edge when compared to foreign institutions of higher learning both at regional or international level.

Malaysia has already established numbers of local universities, some are specialized into certain field of study. Malaysia also has many private universities and encouraging top foreign participation, it will indirectly provide competitions as well as improvement in the overall quality of education in the education in the country. Currently we already have the existing twinning programmes which are very popular even with foreign students would be able to come here to study without having to go too far or to shoulder a heavier financial burden.
The quality of education in Malaysia, at least equal to that of other countries in the region. This is apparent now that we have an open and liberal education system, especially with the new Acts, such as the Private Higher Education Act. The government is also investing a lot of the latest information technology such as installing computers in education and those that are at the forefront of technology and knowledge. They believe that the students must be equipped with the latest equipment to assist students.
Malaysia strives for education excellence and tries to increase the pool of our manpower. The government are moving away from elite education, one that is based on egalitarianism to. We are in a way, bringing elite education, one that is based on excellence, to general population.

Different types of private institutions in Malaysia.
1. Sekolah Rendah Agama Swasta
2. Sekolah Rendah Swasta
3. Sekolah Menengah Agama
4. Sekolah Menengah Swasta
5. Sekolah Persendirian Cina (Private Chinese High School).
6. Kindergartens / Daycare centres
7. Sekolah Pendidikan Khas / Istimewa
8. International School
9. Expatriate school
10. Gaya Pos
11. Pusat – pusat bahasa, tuition, perdagangan dan kemahiran
12. Persatuan – Taekwondo, Silat etc

Strategies of Education Industry
Offer short courses
v e.g. courses like LCCI, language courses such as Arab, Japanese, computer courses such as Microsoft Office : MS Word, MS Power Point , and MS Access which will only need shorter duration to complete.
v all this courses are offered by private colleges which only need a few months or a year to complete.
v the students will be interested and eager to join the courses offered as it will be fast and they can gain a certificate after completion of the course.
v by offering this courses the institutions can gain a lot of income in a shorter period.

Conducting seminars, workshops
v there will be some seminars or workshops held in schools to improve the students’ skills and capabilities.
v besides that, seminars can help the students to gain knowledge and encourage them with hands-on activities.
v conduct brainstorming seminars where they can exchange ideas on certain topics.
v e.g. mathematics workshop, free or paid seminars for PMR students.

3. Offer training programs to teachers/lecturers
v training programs are to increase the teacher’s capabilities, strengths.
v during the programs teacher will be given some strategies on how to teach students efficiently and make the lesson interesting.
v also some methods of improving their teaching skills by incorporating the latest materials such as computers which will bring benefits for the students and also cater to their needs.

4. Attracting foreign students
v government should set up well-run and recognized industrial programs in institutions to attract students.
v let’s say if this foreign students studies in Malaysia, the institutions can gain a high currency flow.

5. Offer courses that are highly in demand
v the institutions should offer more courses that are in demand.
v students will be interested to take these courses as they know that it will be beneficial to them in the future.
v and all the courses fulfill the industrial needs.

6. Promoting the institutions through marketing
v some marketing officers will be coming to schools to promote their colleges and courses that they offer.
v also the facilities provided, some brief explanations on job opportunities with that particular qualification.
v besides that, there are also some institutions such as Cosmopoint which provides 2000 laptops to the first 2000 registries, Nilai College promotes Perodua Kancil and freebies such as pen, book, files and so on.

7. Institutions conduct open house/day
v students are able to visit the institutions and have first-hand experience of the facilities provided and also on how the lectures and tutorials will be conducted.
v this is being carried out by almost all of the institutions such as polytechnics, universities and private colleges.


ACCREDITATION

Accreditation means a formal recognition of the fact that the certificates, diplomas and degrees awarded by Private Higher Educational Institutions (PHEIs) are in accordance with the standard set by the Lembaga Akreditasi Negara. Students pursuing accredited courses are qualified for consideration to serve in the public service sector. Students who pursue accredited courses of study will also have the chance of obtaining scholarship or loans from sponsors or further their studies in any Public Higher Education Institution. The Lembaga Akreditasi Negara Act (Act 555) functions to ensure that all courses of study and training programmes offered achieve a standard acceptable to the norms and conventions of a higher institute of education. The idea of establishing National Accreditation Board (LAN) was mooted as a result of a resolution made at the Workshop on The Establishment of the National Accreditation Board. The rationale of the establishment is to:
a) Assurance of Quality Education
Malaysia is currently experiencing rapid development in both public and private education sectors. The quality of education at public institutions of higher learning is well monitored. There are set mechanism at these institutions and Ministry levels to monitor the standard and quality of the courses offered. LAN was established to help strike a balance between standard and quality in the PHEIs and the quest to create reputable integrated the holistic national higher education system.
b) Excellence in Education
Quality in a highly competitive world is a factor that guarantees the potency of an organization. The establishment of LAN should help the PHEIs improve their quality to enable them to compete with public higher education institutions in the creation of an excellent national higher education system.

c) Making Malaysia a Center of Educational Excellence.
It is the government’s aspiration that Malaysia becomes the regional centre for educational excellence. The certification and accreditation assessment by LAN can be used as the basis for international recognition and acceptance.
d) Creating an Independent Accreditation System
LAN was set up as a statutory body under the Ministry of Education, with the status of an autonomous body to monitor the standards and quality of higher education provided by the PHEIs. LAN also set up to become and authoritative body for determining the standards and quality of private higher education.

The functions of Lembaga Akreditasi Negara (LAN) are:
a) To formulate policies on the standard and quality control of the courses of study and certificates, diplomas and degrees.
b) To set, monitor, review and oversee the standard and quality the courses of study and for accreditation of certificates, diplomas and degrees.
c) To advise and make recommendations to the Ministry of Higher Education for his approval of courses of study to be conducted by Private Higher Educational Institutions with regard to the suitability of arrangements relating to the educational facilities relevant to the courses of study and the standard and quality assurance of the courses of study.
Other than the National Accreditation Board (LAN) there is other Accreditation that enables the graduates to be employed in the Public and Government sector which is Public Service Department (JPA).Recognition from JPA is necessary to enable graduates to be employed in the Public/Government sector. Without JPA's recognition, graduates can only gain employment in the private sector. The list of programmes submitted by LAN will be considered in the JPA's 'Jawatankuasa Tetap Penilaian dan Pengiktirafan Kelayakan (JTPPK)'' which is the government's committee to decide on granting the recognition.
Besides, there are also Accreditation for Engineering programmes and Accounting programmes. For example:
a) Board of Engineers Malaysia (BEM)
b) Malaysian Association of Certified Public Accountants (MICPA)
c) Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA)

RESEARCH QUESTION
What is the status of employability among graduates in Malaysia today? Why?
Based on a report in Malaysia Today entitled “Malaysia Has 60 000 Graduates Unemployed” (2005), the government has conducted a survey and found that around 60,000 Malaysian graduates are unemployed due to lack of certain skills such as communication skill, poor command of English and lack of work experience. Further, it has been reported by the Deputy Minister of Human Resources that a large number of graduates are still jobless. From the report, it was found that 70% of graduates from public universities, 26% from the private higher learning institutions and 34% of those graduated from foreign universities are still jobless (Suresh, 2006). This phenomenon is alarming as this indicates that the graduates are not qualified to be employed.

There are two major factors that we have discovered why the graduates are unemployed. The first factor is the graduates themselves and the second factor is industrial which are government and private.
Graduates :
· poor command of English
· lack of self confidence
· high salary expectations
· poor attitude (no discipline)
· courses taken are irrelevant to the job market (e.g HR, Dancing, Agricultural)
· qualified but don’t know how to apply it

Industrial – government and private :
· graduates lack of working experience and skills
· government has extended the age of retirement to 65 and because of this there are limited quotas for graduation.
· irrelevant degree – the qualifications that they have does not match the job
· insufficient jobs to cater to the graduates.

There are some actions taken by government to minimize un-employability among graduates.
· Entrepreneurship – government will help those fresh graduates to be entrepreneurs in the future
· Job Fair – all companies get together and offer jobs to unemployed graduates
· Skim Graduan Menganggur whereby the government will offer to teach them some hands on and technical skills to familiarize them with the working world. Here the graduates will be paid RM 500 monthly as an allowance.







BIBLIOGRAPHIES


The 10th Malaysian Education Summit 2006 www.asli.com.my/document/programme 2005.pdf.27 March 2006

2. http://educationmalaysia.blogspot.com/2005/10/budget-2006-human-capital- development.html


3. Lembaga Akreditasi Malaysia. http://www.lanmalaysia.com. 23 May 2007


Help Shape Varsity Education, Industry Urged. www.thestar.com.my/services 23 August 2006

http://fba.unitar.edu.my/news/issue1_07/Nas.pdf


6. Branding Malaysia. http://jaime.trainingmalaysia.com/mapcu/S1- MsRosieHong.ppt 23 May 2007

7. MAPCU – (Malaysian Association of Private College Universities)
www.studymalaysia.com/mapcu/background.html.


Mohd Najib Tun Razak. Malaysia Today towards the new Millennium : Malaysia as a regional centre of educational excellence : The Challenge of Globalisation. (1997) Asean Academic Press : London p.227 – 231.

Okposin, Samuel Bassey. Perubahan Fasa Ekonomi Malaysia. (2003) ITNM : Kuala Lumpur p.184-209.


Tan Ai Mei. Malaysian Private Higher Education : Globalisation, Privatisation, Transformation and Marketplaces. (2002) Asean Academic Press : London p.7 – 11.

Women in Early Islam by Naila Minai

I went through my old textbook and found this interesting piece of literature about Islam and I hope it can clarify to the outside world, what Islam really worth of.


Khadija, an attractive fourty-year-old Arabian widow, ran a flourishing caravan business in Mecca in the 7th century A.D., and was courted by the most eligible men of her society. But she had eyes only for an intelligent and hardworking twenty-five-year-old in her employ named Muhammad. "What does she see in a penniless ex-shepherd?" her scandalized aristocratic family whispered among themselves. Accustomed to having her way, however, Khadija proposed to Muhammad and married him. Until her death some twenty-five years later, her marriage was much more than the conventional Cinderella story in reverse, for Khadija not only bore six children while comanaging her business with her husband, but also advised and financed him in his struggle to found Islam, which grew to be one of the major religions of the world.

It was a religion that concerned itself heavily with women's rights, in a suprisingly contemporary manner. A woman was to be educated and allowed to earn and manage her income. She was to be recognized as legal heir to her father's property along with her brother. Her rights in marriage were also clearly spelled out : She was entitled to sexual satisfaction as well as economic support. Nor was divorce to consist any longer of merely throwing the wife out of the house without paying her financial compensation.

This faminist bill of rights filled an urgent need. Meccans in the seventh century were in transition from tribal to an urban way of life. As their town grew into a cosmopolitan centre of trade, kinship solidarity had deteriorated, but municipal laws had not yet been fully established to protect the citizens. Women were particularly vulnerable, their rights closely linked with the tribal way of life their people had known before renouncing nomadism to settle in Mecca around 400 A.D. In nomadic communities of the desert a woman was not equal to man. During famine a female could be killed at birth to increase her brother's food supply. However, if she managed to reach adulthood she had a better status in the desert than in the city, largely because her labors were indispensable to her clan's survival in the harsh environment. While the men protected the encampment and engaged in trade, she looked after the herds and produced the items to be traded - meat, wool, yogurt, and cheese, all of which bought weapons and grains as well as other essentials. As a breadwinner the tribal woman enjoyed considerable political clout. Even if she did not always participate in council meetings, she made her views known. Only a fool refused to heed his womenfolk and risked antagonizing a good half of his tribe, with whom he had to live in the close confines of the camp and caravan.

If tribal discord was uncomfortable in the best of circumstances, it was catastrophic during the battles that broke out frequently among the clans over pasture... to be continued

Cover Letter 2 - Teacher

Sample cover letter for teaching position. I obtained this from my lecturer in Unisel and I find it very useful for fresh graduates. Again, DO NOT PLAGIARISE. Use it but change according to your creativity.


10 Jalan Bunga Raya
Bandar Sungai Long
45200 Klang
Selangor



18 July 2007


Human Resource Manager
Universiti Indah Khabar dari Rupa
4 Jalan Timur Tambahan
43100 Batang Berjuntai
Selangor


Dear Sir / Madam

APPLICATION FOR THE POST OF ENGLISH TUTOR

In response to your advertisement for the position of English Tutor in The Star dated 17th March 2007, I am writing to apply for the post.

I recently graduated with a First Class Honour of Bachelor's Degree in TESL from Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Selangor with a CGPA 3.75. During my study, I have exhibited excellent performance in both micro- and macro- teaching practicuum in Sekolah Menengah Putra Putri where my main responsibilities included conducting lessons, constructing exam papers, developing teaching materials and evaluating students' achievement.

While at university, I was active in several societies and clubs. I was the Vice-President of Umag Club and the President of MYREDS club. I believe my sound knowledge, vast experience and outgoing personality can be put to good use in your institution, Universiti Indah Khabar Dari Rupa.

I have enclosed my detailed resume for your perusal. I would be grateful if you would give my application favourable consideration. I am available at any time convenient to you for an interview and can be contacted at 012-123-456



Yours sincerely



Adlini Abdullah

Cover Letter 1 - Computer Information Analyst

I found out that many of my colleagues are often required to prepare an example of a resume and cover letter for their assignment. Some come to seek for my advice since examples taken from books are often irrelevant. So to Unisel students, I hope you will find it handy for your assignment and I would like to remind you guys not to plagiarise or in another word, simply cut and paste and print it fresh from this page. Your lecturer will detect that and you may receive 0 for your paper! Change some item according to your creativity. Good luck!


July 27, 2007


Ms Adlini bt Ismail
Human Resource Manager
PICT Geek (M) Sdn Bhd
14-H Jalan Klang Lama
48000 Klang
Selangor


Dear Ms Adlini,

This letter and resume is in response to the advertisement you ran Sunday, 15 February 2007 in The New Straits Times for a Computer Information Systems Analyst.

I believe have the qualification and experience you are looking for. I have three years of experience as an information systems analyst. I have designed systems, developed them and worked extensively on analysing them to ensure they are working at maximum efficiency. While with one company, I was responsible for revamping its entire management information system. The changes I implemented resulted in a savings of more than RM100, 000 per annum for the company. In addition, the new system was also credited with improving production efficiency by more than 10% and cutting production time by an equal amount.

I have a Master's degree in Information Systems from Universiti Industri Selangor.

I have attached a resume which details my specific accomplishments. I shall be very happy to attend an interview any time convenient to you. My handphone number is 013-123-4567.

Thank you.


Yours sincerely



(Nurul Husna bt. Abdullah)

Theme : Second Mrs Tang

The main theme of this story is respect. Ah Leng respects her father very much even though her father was unable to fulfilled her needs as they lived in an old house. She obeys whatever her father asked her to do. She never complains much as she is an obedient daughter. After becoming Mr. Tang's consubine, Ah Leng even respects Mrs. Tang. She followed whatever Mrs. tang asked her to do. She never argues or fights for her rights with Mrs. Tang. It showed in paragraph 1, line 15, page 29 "that he wanted no trouble with his wife and that she was to obey Mrs. Tang in everything". She does all the chores in the house and as obedient concubine to Mr. Tang, she fulfilled her duty as a wife to him.

The second theme of this story is sacrifice. The value of sacrifice was made by Ah Leng for her father. She was able to sacrifice her youth to marry someone much older as to fulfill her father's wish without knowing that it was her father's only choice as to pay his debt. Sacrifice was also made by Mrs. Tang by allowing Ah Leng into the family and become part of them as can be seen in line 1, paragraph 3, page 27, "Forcing a smile to her lips, she bent and accepted the cup of tea and touched its rim to her lips, once."

The next theme is poverty versus wealth. In this story, it shows the importance of money in the family where the poor ones are often being oppressed by the wealthy ones. The poor would do anything to step out of the miserable life including sacrificing their own future. Her father was willing to marry off his daughter as to bail himself out of the debt that he created and Ah Leng are victimized by serving Mr. Tang as a concubine out of her will and treated poorly by Mrs. Tang as we can see in line 2, paragraph 1, page 29, "Mrs. Tang, Tai Tai or Mistress, ordered her around and seemed irritated by her very existence."

The last theme is obedient. In this story, Ah Leng's character is described as being very obedient towards her father, Mr and Mrs Tang. She follows her father's wishes to marry her to Mr. Tang. She follows Mr. Tang order not to create problem with Mrs. Tang and do her duty as a concubine. She follows Mrs. Tang requests and treated her well when she was alive.

Drug Abuse - Problem that Wreck Millions of Hearts

I was flipping through the newspaper one day when my eyes caught on one of the title, "Malaysia is a home to 1.2 million drug addicts." More than a million of souls, probably are productive citizens, are wasted to drugs and causing millions of grievances to others as they are going through the ordeals of living with this addicts. What is drug abuse? Drug abuse as defined is the act of using substances that are usually addictive, excessively that cause dependency on narcotics. In this essay, I would like to highlight what is the impact of a drug abuse to an individual, to the family and the society.

Firstly, the effects of drug abuse on an individual. The physical effect of drugs on an individuals varies according to the type of drugs used. Some common or general symptoms are drastic weight loss, loss of appetite, inability to focus and show slow reflect movement. Despite the terrible effect that they face, these addicts continue to consume or use drugs in a larger dose over time as their body started to develop tolerance over drugs and suffer from withdrawal symptoms once they stop. The drugs will also leave psychological effects on the abuser. Some of the symptoms are the state of thinking will be permanently altered by changing the way the nerve cells communicate. The effects on the character of an addict, they will feel anxious and paranoid and will keep on trying by all means to get the money to support their addiction such as through prostitution, burglary and even killing someone.

Secondly, the effects of a drug abuse on the family members. The effects on the spouse are usually devastating. Either the husband or wife will usually sustain physically and emotionally or mentally. Physically, he or she might suffer physical abuse and deprivation of basic necessities or even abandoned without any financial support. Emotionally, there will be tension in their relationship, causing depression, anger, humiliation and hatred leading to seperation. Children will suffer the most when come to seperation and divorce. Children of the drug addicts are often neglected by their addictive parents and causing disruptive and abusive behaviour. Their well beings may also be impeded due to physical and emotional abuse that they received. These addicts will also severe their relationship between their parents, siblings, relatives, friends by ignoring all the advice, counsels and lectures or even tortures as to change their bad habit.

Thirdly, the effects of drug abuse on society. The abuse on drugs itself corrupts the mind and value of an individual. These addicts are lack of self control and with poor judgement. They are of course a waste to the society. If they are not cured in fact the numbers are rising, more crimes will occur as these addicts are highly associated with crimes. They will also cause chains of social problem and countless other miseries associated wilth drugs. with the growing n umbver of crimes, the country economic growth will be impeded and therefore hinder the progress made by the government.

The effect on drug abuse is vast and devastating to the society. These effects can be felt by everyone especially to those who are living within the proximity of the addicts. Drug abuse causes thousands of miseries in the lives of these innocent people. With all the sufferings caused, in the end it pays by wrecking the hearts of millions of others.

How to save for your children's future

When I was stuck with my irresponsible husband. My life was in a mess and my salary is far than enough especially he secretly stole my ATM card and later withdraw my money to spend on drugs. I was devastated and actually still hurt until today. I cannot forgive him yet. I took a drastic action that the money must be kept in a safe place where it is out of reach from both of us. It is for our daughter, just in case if he was shot dead and I were to die early, this is the only thing I can leave her with.

When she was 8 months old I realized that my husband took the money gave to our daughter and I make sure he pay it back at least some of it and I add in more. People have been giving her some money and at one point the amount was RM240 if I'm not mistaken but because of my husband, he spend along with my salary and left me peniless. Meticulously, I chipped in RM20.00 in the account every month. Every festive season, my daughter will receive between RM50 - RM100 from her aunts and uncles and relatives so I will keep the money and save it in the bank. Starting with RM20.00 I opened the bank account that was back in August 2004. Now it is already July 2007 and the amount has become RM1020.00.

Right now I am contented with that amount and decided to open a different savings account for her so that I can use the money to pay for her school fees and books later. At the same time I am totally broke and only depended on my sister's salary to get me through this month. No matter how broke I am, I can still smile to myself knowing that I have some savings for my little girl if I were to die tomorrow.

Fever and final exam

I woke up one morning sweating and decided to sleep flat on the floor. I woke up a few hours later, with drippings from my nose. I quickly wipe it with the back of my hand and thinking it is just the allergic reactions that I normally had.

Until late in the afternoon, I realized that my little drippings has turned into a full blast cold and I have been sneezing like crazy. At that point of time I wish I can leave my nose near the gutter and let it drips for as long as it wants too. As night falls, I feel horrible because my body starts aching and check my body temperature, it shows that I am having a fever. Worst still, the next day I am having my final exam and I am not fully prepared. Thank god, my friend is willing to drop by with her WIRA and picks me up to sit for the exam because when I wake up in the morning, I don't feel good at all and the exam hall is blocks away from my apartment.

That is the second day of my ordeal with the cold, fever and final exam. I have been fighting, tossing and turn on my bed for 5 days now and still the fever has not left me. Now I am suffering from minor sore throat and my stomach is rumbling wanting to be filled in with food. With everything nearby is closed.

Words of wisdom to remember

There are several accounts in life that would make my life easier if I abide by the word of wisdom. It cuts the chase and save myself from being hurt by others. Some of the words of wisdoms are..

1. Marriage is a base to a stronger relationship.
My dad once told me that holy matrimony and blessings from parents from both sides are important to build a stronger relationship. If the base is not strong enough, how can it support other things that will be built on it. He was right. My marriage run into trouble a few months after we got married and collapsed before it hits 3 years.


2. Your friends reflected your attitude
My friends colour my world in many ways. I become lazy, stronger, happy and sad most likely because of them. They are also leaving behind big scars and happy moments in my life. I am pretty much influenced by my friends directly and indirectly. To be safe, it is not wrong to painstakingly select who are my best friends.


3. If your friend talk bad about others, he / she may likely be talking bad about you as well. Keep your distance from this type of person. A real back-stabber.


4. To those muslim, do not leave your 5 times a day prayer. If you keep in touch with god, he will always keep in touch with you. You will always be look up high by others. But if you forget him, he will forget about you and your level is far lower than those animals and are not worth of any respect. A rich merchant from Indonesia leave me with this advice and I do appreaciate and remember it until now.

5. If your friend did not stand beside you. Then she / he is not your friend. A friend will always support each other.

I'll add some more... later

My first day in UNISEL

After knowing that my husband was held in police custody. My world simply falls apart and I am tired of all the excuses that he gave. I am penniless and exhausted mentally and physically. I need a break from all the torments that I received ever since we got married.

I took a daring and drastic decision. I am leaving my job, my little baby to further my studies in Unisel. I only have RM300.00 and the university required me to pay an amount of RM1270 for the tuition fees and three months hostel rent. I gambled and went to Selangor by train on 26 July 2005.

I arrived in Rawang train station around 5.40 a.m. and waited until 7.00 before walking slowly to the bus stop. When I arrived at the bus station, the bus driver told me to catch a bus in Sungai Buloh. I took a 'commuter train' to Sungai Buloh and learn from the staff at the train station that I have to cross a busy 6 line street to get to small and dilapidated bus stop across the road.

As I try to cross the busy street. An 'Aka' help me to walk together quickly across the road. There I met an indian uncle sending his son to further his study in 'Biotechnology'. Together we went to Unisel catching the same bus and same taxi until we finally reached the registration hall.
Over there the uncle waited for our luggage since we are not allowed to bring in parents and our luggage with us. There are long queues and I waited patiently though I am obviously tired from the overnight journey.

I begged the bursar officer to let me register with only RM150 paid cash and promised him to pay once I received my salary and withdraw cash from the Employee Provident Fund. He finally agreed. I got myself registered and went to my room. The hostels are beautiful, I love the apartment once I saw it.

When I arrived, my roomate is already there. Her family is very friendly to me and nice. They help me returned to the train station and catch the train that night. They even pay for my dinner and bought some fruits as a gift for my mother.

I arrived home at 7.00 a.m. and went to work as usual. Two days later I resigned officially from my post and went to Unisel as a student. Starting 1st August 2005, mark my first day in class as a student.

Poem analysis for My Mother

The tone for the poem ‘For My Mother’ is regret. The daughter is regretting that she could not be with his mother because she is busy with her job. This is can be seen in stanza two from the first line until the last line of the stanza. ‘ A different daughter, or mother, would surely have shared a life of common happiness’. The second tone for this poem is a tone of appreciation. The daughter appreciates her mother and tries not to hurt her feelings. This is stated in stanza one, line one to seventeen. ‘ I sent a letter, careful to say nothing….’.
There are two imageries in this poem. The first imagery is sight which is in stanza one, line eight and eleven,(see). The second imagery is auditory, the word ‘talk’. This is stated in stanza three, line four,(talks).
There are five symbols in this poem. The first symbol is a symbol of rememberance that is symbolizes through letter. This can be seen stanza one, line one “I sent a letter”. The second symbol is check which symbolizes the love and care or as a caregiver. This is stated in stanza one, line five, “I sent a check”. The third symbol is the symbol of memory and rememberance. The fourth symbol is hemming that can be found in stanza three, line six “hemming the days..”. The word hemming means sewing or putting things together by sewing them. In this poem, the narrator is doing all the chores so that by the end of the day, everything will end well and to make sure that everything goes on smoothly. The last symbol in this poem is the word “seed”, stated in stanza three, line ten to eleven “another day, gone to seed” which means that there are another day to start.

Industry versus Inferiority

This is the fourth stage in Erikson’s psychological task. This stage Erikson sometimes referred to as asexual or the latency period. In this stage the children began to have the development of a sense of competence or industry, they are absorbing in the ‘tool world’ of their culture or also known as the workaday world – which prepares them the learning experiences they gained nurtured with the help of cooperative peers and instructive adults. Children operating at t
In the previous stage, children like to experiment with new things around them but in this stage, the children become industrious and will try to accomplish their task successfully and wanted to gain recognition for creating new things. Children at this stage focused on accomplishing their tasks correctly. The problems that might arise in this stage are, some children might leave the age level from six to eleven years old without this sense of industry. They might have the feeling of failure at everything. The feeling of failure includes academic achievement, hobby, sports, positive relationship with teacher and developing friendship. For example, it is important to develop positive peer relationships. Peer rejection tends to carry over from primary school age to secondary school and it may later among the factor that become the factors in academic difficulties and problem in adjusting themselves later in life. This social skills and attention to social problem solving may contribute to developing student competence in making friends and developing social skills. Another problems that might occur at this stage is the crisis of inferiority when they children perceive their skills or status among peers to be inadequate. This perception arises because of failures at establishing competence in some specialized way such as establishing friendship. Inferiority can also yield regression to the hopelessness of over-concern about the opposite-sex parents. The success of the inferiority will lead to an obsession with work, which gives the children the status and identity. As quoted from Erikson, “If the overly conforming child accepts work as the only criterion of worthwhileness, sacrificing too readily his imagination and playfulness, he may as an adult become a slave of his technology. (Erikson, 1968a, p. 289). When the children have developed some sense of competence, the children are then ready to cooperate in some part of the culture that surround them.

Parenting Styles

As a future teacher, it is important for us to know the parenting styles of our students. Currently as studied by the researchers, there are two important differences among parents in the way they relate to their children.
First is their expectation and second is their responsiveness. Their expectations influence their children greatly. Some parents set high expectations on their children and want these expectations are met. Others set low expectations on their children and rarely encourage and support them by any means.
Second is parent’s responsiveness. Responsive parents will interact with their children frequently and try to accept the level of their children. On the other hand unresponsive parents tend to be rejecting or negative towards their children. Using expectations and responsiveness as a guide, researchers have identified four parenting styles and the patterns of personal development associated with them. Those are authoritative, authoritarian, permissive and uninvolved.
Authoritative parents are firm but caring. They encourage children to be independent but still places limits and controls on their action. They explain reasons for rules, and are consistent. They have high expectations on their children. The characteristics of the children of the authoritative parents are with high self-esteem, confident and secure and willing to take risks and are usually successful in school. This type of parenting style combines both high expectation and responsiveness is the most effective for giving the children healthy and personal development. Authoritative parents provide their children with challenge, structure and support in their lives.
Authoritarian parents are usually stress conformity. They are restrictive and punitive and are detached from their children. They give out rules to their children but do not explain their reasons. They also place firm limits and controls on their children and allow little verbal exchange. These parents do not encourage their children to give verbal give-and-take. The characteristics of the children from this type of parents are usually withdrawn from their peers. They worry more about pleasing their parents than solving problems. They are usually are defiant and lack of social skills. They also tend to be anxious about social comparison, fail to initiate activity and with poor communication skills. Problem posed by this type of parenting is often miscommunication between parents and child. Authoritarian parents are rigid and often unable to communicate with their children and negative characteristics that are posed by these children as above.
Permissive parents or indulgent parenting style usually give their children a total freedom. They are highly involved with their children but place few limits or restrictions on their behaviours. They have limited expectations of their children and make few demands on the children. These parents will often let their children do what they want to and get to do it their way because they believe the combination of nurturant support and lack of restraints will produce a creative, confident child. The characteristics of their children are usually immature and lack of self-control. They are usually impulsive and unmotivated in class. Problem posed by this type of parenting is, they are emotionally responsive but fail to set and maintain high expectations on their children. In result these children will usually don’t learn to control their own behaviour and the parents too do not take into account the development of the whole child.
Uninvolved parents usually have little interest in their children’s life. They do not involved in their children’s lives. They hold few expectations on their children. The characteristics of these children are lack of self-control and long-term goals. They also hold the belief that other aspects of their parents’ lives are more important than they are. They are easily frustrated and disobedient in class. Problem posed by this type of parents is that the parents aren’t providing neither structure nor emotional support. The children of neglectful parents usually are socially incompetent in which they have poor self-control, don’t handle their independence well and aren’t achievement motivated.
Children that grow in a healthy parent-child relationship will promote personal development by helping children acquire a sense of autonomy, competence and belongings. This type of relationship also support the development of personal responsibility where one possess the ability to control one’s own action based on developing values and goals. According to W. Doyle (1986), the interaction styles of effective teachers are similar to those of effective parents, and the description of authoritative parenting strongly parallels recommended classroom management practices for teachers. These teachers will usually have high expectations for their students, but they’re simultaneously supportive. Like authoritative parents, these teachers are firm but caring to their students. They establish rules and limits and they expect their students to develop and practice self-control.

Bibliography
1. Santrock, John W. (2001) Educational Psychology. Mc-Graw Hill : Boston p. 86 – 89.

Basic Grammar Rules

There is a rule for every structure in English.
Direct object can exchange places with indirect object.
Never put an adverb between a verb and its direct object.
Adverb of frequency is always after the verb to be.
Adverb of frequency often go between the subject and the verb.
Adverb of frequency should always go between the main verb and its auxiliary verb or between two auxiliaries.
At the end of the line, its manner, place and time.
Travel verb use place, manner and time.
Use the most precise adverb first.
Word order for adjectives are opinion, shape, age, colour, origin and material.
Adjective of the same type should be separated by ‘and’.
When there are more than 2 adjectives of the same type ‘and’ should be placed before the last adjective.
Adjective (but not adverb) can follow ‘be’, ‘become’ and verbs of perceptions.
Adverb can be used before adjective as intensifiers.
I is the subject.
The object is me.
Talk about the other person first.
Use reflexive pronouns when the subject and object are the same.
Use ‘since’ for a point in time.
Use ‘for’ for a period of time.

Analysis on a Quid of Sirih and a Bowl of Water

The story ‘A Quid of Sirih and a Bowl of Water’ is a story about a family of pawang with a son who is studying medicine in the university to be a doctor one day. The setting, the symbol of a pawang and the conflict that occurs between the father and son about modern versus traditional healing has conveyed a deeper thought. When analyzing the story, our group found several interesting ideas that we would like to share regarding the time and the setting of the story, the kampung malay lifestyles, the father and son character, modern versus traditional and the element of irony in the story.

The story was written long ago somewhere during the time when the development of science and technology is being introduced and taking place in the society. Modernism at that time is unavailable in the kampong, the setting in this story, due to lack of basic infrastructure such as roads and telephone access in rural areas. Although the kampong people are lack of these basic needs, they go to clinics and hospitals in the cities if they have the means usually some amount of money. Farid, one of the characters in the story, manage to go to school and later further his studies in the university. This shows that kampong people are accepting the modern advancement and yet still holding to their belief in pawang. We can guess that it take place long time ago. This can be seen in page 95, paragraph 5, line 1, “Father! I want twenty-cents to buy a book and pencil.” From this sentence, it suggest to us the time it happen somewhere down in the past when books and pencils can be bought at only 20 cents.

The lifestyles of the local kampong people can be seen through their daily activities and meal. The foods are of original Malay dishes such as daging rebung, roasted chicken, yellow pulut. These meals are easy to get within their community and if they were to buy those items, it would cost less. The writer probably wants show that people during that time are not yet influenced by the ‘fast food culture’ where the dishes are homemade and they are people of limited means. Their daily activities such as rearing chicken as part of their income and source for food. They also cultivate greens in the orchard (kebun) and smoke local cigarettes that can be seen in page 95, paragraph 11, line 2,
“The old man was calmly rolling a palm leaf cigrette.”
They also practices helping between one another as part of their lifestyles, as quoted in page 96, paragraph 12, line 2,
“Give whatever help I can. Isn’t that our way in the kampong? Always helping one another?”

As we look into their daily lifestyles, we realized that these people are going through a hard time earning their money. Yet the money that they got is very limited to support themselves and their family.

The climax of the story is the conflict that occurs between Farid and his father. As we examined it closely the conflict might have sparked from the humiliation he received from the teacher when he was in school long time ago. This can be seen in page 94, paragraph 6, line 2.
“Last time it was you who made fun of me. “Son of Pak Seman the water-seller. Don’t believe in pawangs. They’re all quacks…”

The conflict also occurs because of Farid’s attitude of being such a self-centered person. He only think about himself worried so much as to what people might think or say about him being a doctor while his father is ‘pawang’ and feel ashamed to have a ‘pawang’ for a father. Page 96, paragraph 2, line 4.
‘“Think a little, father. What will people say. I want to be a doctor. And here you are – a ‘pawang’! Doesn’t the conflict between your world and mine bother you at all?” He took a deep breath.
“So you are ashamed to have a ‘pawang’ for a father?” retorted Pak Seman. There is a hint of mockery in his smile.
Farid was silent for a while. He felt like telling him frankly, “Yes, I am.”’

As quoted in the paragraph above, it shows that he is not just rude and ungrateful by looking down at his own father. He is also a contrast to his father’s character. His father cares for his family and people around him such as the teacher and the kampong people. Farid on the other hand being self-centered and ignorant, he fails to see that his father’s job do more than citing verses to a bowl of water’ His father is a responsible, kind hearted and generous man. His job as a ‘pawang’ is a source of income to the family and helps those villagers who are in need. He did not set any payment but accepted any alms given by these people. This shows that Farid failed to recognize the good intention that his father had offered to the villagers all this while. He also failed to see that his father become ‘pawang’ as one way to support the family which sends him to the university. In another word he is carrying out his responsibility as the head of the family and function as a good villager.

The conflict also arises due to Farid’s ignorance of his father’s job as ‘pawang’. Several misunderstandings of the son regarding his father’s job as ‘pawang’ can be seen from the way he define the ‘pawang’ job. He thinks that what his father is saying are bunch of nonsense. As quoted in page 94, paragraph 16, line 2,
‘Pak Seman had finished his incantations. Whatever it was been muttering Farid did not bother to find out. Most likely some silly verses, he thought.”
To him his father also promotes superstitions among the villagers, as in page 97, paragraph 2, line 1,
‘“But why encourage their superstition?”’

Due to his lack of knowledge about his father being a ‘pawang’, he also sees his own father as a threat. He thinks that his father’s job as ‘pawang’ will only serves to hinder the progress made by the government like going to the clinic as seen in paragraph12, line 2,
“…your old-fashioned ways are preventing our kampung people from accepting changes.”

The story foreshadows the conflict that will occur in the story that is about logic versus beliefs, this can be seen in page 96, paragraph 2 line 1, when the mother tries to pacify his anger from not being able to get the chicken. She believes that if the dish ‘daging rebung’ is well prepared, it tastes similar to the roasted chicken. He snapped at his mother by saying that there is no logic at all. In the story later again the logic become the issue in comparing between his father’s job as ‘pawang’ with the medical technology that has been proven to cure diseases as can be seen in page 96, paragraph 7, line 1,

“We are living in the age of science and technology, not of magic and spells. Today we have hospitals. We have doctors. We have all kinds of medicine for all kinds of diseases. You can’t go on prescribing cold water anymore… Can’t you see there’s no logic in all this?”

In sequence to this part of the story, it brings us to the logic that justifies the reason behind his father’s job as ‘pawang’. The main theme in this part of the story is having trust in a person. In order for something to happen, one must believe and trust them. The father believes that his job as a ‘pawang’ can help the villagers to solve their problems, health and needs. He believes that it is also similar to the doctor’s aim that is to help their patient with their health problems. The only difference is that the ‘pawang’ serves in kampong where the doctors at that time serves in cities. If there is doctor in the kampong area, the doctor will also serve the same purpose that is to help the villagers. That is why Pak Seman is hoping that Farid will become a doctor one day and serves the villagers health’s need better than a ‘pawang’ like himself. But, it is the fate that decides in the end whether their effort is successful or not.
“To see you one day become a doctor. What I am doing is only temporary – while waiting for you to graduate.”

‘Pawang’ also becomes the symbol of hope. When all the helps from science and technology have no positive effects on them, they will turn to ‘pawang’ as their last resort to help them achieve their needs. This can be seen from page 94, paragraph 12, line 1,
“Farid did not waste any time. “All this is for someone, I suppose,” he asked cikgu Ali with a knowing smile.
“My sick child.” The reply was short. Cikgu could picture his child lying prostrate at home. His face darkened with anxiety.
“Have you taken him to the hospital?” Farid was really eager to know.
“I have,” he answered weakly.
And continuation in page 95, paragraph 2, line 1,
“Cikgu Ali nodded as he listen. He accepted the water reverence, hoping that it will cure his child.”

In the paragraphs quoted above clearly show how a teacher who is well respected and even mocked at Farid before turn to Farid’s father as his last hope to find a cure to his sick child. He only turn to Pak Seman with hope to cure the child when he had sent his child to the hospital but his child did not heal and therefore all the hope with the high technology is gone.

The villagers will also turn to ‘pawang’ when they are in hope of achieving something or need to put in some luck. This can be seen in page 100, paragraph2, line 1,
“Tumin has been accepted in the army,” declared Pak Dali proudly.
“How wonderful!” Remarked Mak Limah.
“May be it’s the blessing of your water,” Pak Dali laughed happily.

In these lines, we can see that the kampung headman turn to Pak Seman for some blessing for his son as an addition to their effort. He hoped that his wish to see his son to be accepted in the army will come true.

The writer closes the story with the element of irony in the story which is the a father, who is the bread sole winner of the family, that earns his living from becoming a pawang, sends his son to study medicine in university so that one day he will become a doctor and it turns that his son becomes ungrateful. Second, the ungrateful son who despises his father’s job as a ‘pawang’ relies on his father’s money to send him back to the university. As quoted in page 101, the last paragraph, line 1,
“My mumbo-jumbo conjured that up, if you want to know.”

Conflicts in the story "Firefly" by Bernie Tan

CONFLICTS IN “FIREFLY” BY BERNIE TAN
One major theme, and also the major conflict that occurs that we can see in this story is the conflict within Bernie in dealing with loneliness. Bernie Tan is struggling with loneliness ever since she was six-years-old. Born as the youngest child in the family, she is often left out by her other siblings due to age factors and thinking that she is the pet of their parents as she gets to sleep in their parent’s bedroom.
She is also a victim in between the parents rivalry. Her parents fighting with each other also confuses the her and adding more to her depression, desperation for attention and loneliness as she wrote,
“I couldn’t understand why my parents hated each other. I didn’t know what to say to her. At that point I didn’t know whether to love my mother more and my father less.” P. 14
Her loneliness is also contributed by her mother, who is a busy woman, often neglected her emotionally as she gets her time divided between her responsibility as a wife, mother and a teacher and therefore couldn’t spare much time with her. Most of the time, the precious time that could be spent between them snatched by her mother’s obsession towards her career. Her mother’s lack of communication skills with the children only help to make Bernie feel even more depressed with loneliness as she couldn’t find solace in a person that would stand by her and support her throughout her life.
Bernie describes one of the conflict afflicting her is the conflict between the mother and the daughter. Bernie clearly points out the problem between her and her mother is her mother’s attitude towards her career as a teacher. She describes the character of her mother in the story as a woman with high commitment to her work and I would term as ‘workaholic’ as shown in the story in p. 13
“Back home, she would cook, wash, mark books prepare charts – stacks of them – and quarrel with Pa. I would go to sleep alone, tired of waiting up for her. She was always so busy and so worn out.”
She also describes her mother as versatile as she divided her time and attention in doing her things. Bernie whom is lonely from waiting for her all day in school is frustrated from not gaining the attention that she needs from her mother as described in page 12. The attention that she wants is being divided between her and other chores that her mother did.
“She’d have her Pepsi, feed me, mark books and chitchat with other teachers – all at the same time. Mom was very versatile and that was annoying. I wanted her to pay attention to me.”
The mother’s character in this story is also described as an ‘authoritatarian’ type of mother where she would give orders and will not accept any excuse not to do it and will not explain the reason as well. She is very punitive and strict in giving orders, ‘do it or else’ type of attitude. She did not allow any comments from the children and have very little communication with her children as illustrated by the author,
“But my mom was a tyrant. With all of us…. Once mom made half boiled eggs. Paul and Augustine refused to eat it. They hated half boiled eggs. Mom screamed at them and… the eggs landed on their heads and they had to stand in front of the house in their school uniforms with eggs dripping down their faces.” p. 8
Since she is so absorbed with her career and responsibility at home, she does not have much time spent with her own children. Added with her strict and authoritative character, communication between her and her children is very little and there is very small bond exists between them. Bernie describe her character during her childhood as ‘a beat-up, frightened child.’
Bernie is also having conflict in becoming the child of a teacher and as a headmistress. She bears the high expectation of her mother to be the best students and to follow suit like her brother and sisters. Besides as a teacher and later as the headmistress on her, in the class and even in the school she is pressured by the expectations to be the best in the school and to show the best examples to others. She hated those expectations out of her and again hated being evaluated by people and the community around her. She only wished to be herself as quoted,
“… Mom expected me to be the best student. I attempted to answer every question… Mom knew I like to use big words, so she purposely made me spell ‘giraffe’ in front of the whole class.” P. 14
And again in page 19.
“Every time someone giggled, I would think they were giggling at me. I was suspicious every time I heard my name mentioned. I hate being called Mrs. Tan’s daughter. I wanted to be just me, Bernadette and not the headmistress’s daughter.”
She did have some close friends and nuns as teachers that are close to her that help ease her need for an attention and alleviate some of her loneliness. Unfortunately, her friends only came by her in a brief moment during school days and once the school days are over, she is again overwhelmed with loneliness. The depression caused by the loneliness that afflicts her later give breed to a new conflict with drugs and alcohol. The loneliness and pressures that she had to bear later leads her to find comfort in abusing alcohol and drug because it frees her temporarily from her cage and pressures as quoted,
“Alcohol seemed like the answer to my deep introversion. I could get out of ‘my cage’ anytime and not be afraid.”
Her addiction to drugs and alcohol is a place for her to find solace. Drugs and alcohol are also serves as the only way for Bernie to gain attentions from her parents. Unfortunately, her cries for attention from abusing drugs only gained attention a brief moment but the drugs later torn her life apart. Again, everyone will desert her and she is again left with loneliness again but this time it is taking toll on her sanity and health.
Conflict in this story is mainly the conflict within herself as she struggles to cope with loneliness due to her mother’s attitude, her parent’s rivalry, siblings isolation, the pressure to fulfill the expectations by her mother, and the major one, with drugs and alcoholism.
As a conclusion, from reading all three texts, we realize that all three texts have shared some common conflict. The conflict starts within the person itself. Whatever conflict might have created deep inside a person, will later sparked into other parts of his or her life and might later inflict others. Conflict can be viewed like fire. An unresolved dissatisfaction, anger or trauma may grow from tiny bits of sparks into a full blown raging fire and this is what happen in all three stories. We believed that the author in all three book intentionally would like to convey the message of how conflict might have affected us and people around us in real life if it is not distinguished through love, devotion to god, being forgivable and compassionate to other human beings and animals.

Conflicts in the story "A matter of Aesthetics" by Lisa Ho King Li

CONFLICT IN A STORY “A MATTER OF AESTHETICS”BY LISA HO KING LI
The short story, A Matter of Aesthetics’ has a combination of three conflicts. Those are the conflict within oneself, conflict with the family members and also the conflict with the society.
In this short story, the main character, Anna has a conflict within herself where she was decided to marry a dentist when she grows up. She makes the decision to marry a dentist because she was very attracted to a dentist who helped her mother to make a set of new teeth after she was kicked by her father. A dentist spoke fatherly and softly to Anna and her mother. Anna feels she was desperately fallen in love with the kindness of the dentist which comes with beauty of the teeth. Her false assumption eventually lead to obsession to look for a husband who is also a dentist with good set of teeth. This is stated in paragraph 1 line 1, “When she was nine, she decided that she would never marry anyone but a dentist who had good teeth…” and in paragraph 19 line 3 until 8, “The dentist had spoken to her in fatherly manner…”.Besides that, she has a conflict where she hated her father very much because her father are not responsible and always kicked her mother in front of her. Her father always beat and almost killed her mother and deserted her and her mother after she has made a new set of teeth.
Anna is also in conflict with herself when she knows that her husband, Dr Lum is actually having a macabre hobby which is collecting a shrunken human heads. Then she realized that her husband was appreciating an epicurean tastes and beauty of a shrunken human heads just like her who likes the beauty of the teeth. This statement is stated in paragraph 25 line 1, “Dr Lum had a macabre hobby. He too, was a man of epicurean tastes and beauty…”
The second conflicts in the story A Matter of Aesthetics’ are the conflict between Anna and the society. Anna has a problem when she feels uncomfortable and hated her friends at school. This is shows that she is a lonely girl and didn’t have many friends because she doesn’t like to mingle around with her friends. Besides, her friends always make fun of her when they know that she wish to marry a dentist. She only has one friend who visited her after her husband’s death. This is stated in paragraph 13 line 3 to 4, “ And she saw a bits of food particles stuck between yellowish teeth…….and she hated them…” and also in paragraph 13 line 8, “And she hated them with the same intensity she had hated her father…”. This is also can be seen in paragraph 11 line 1, “Ha! ha! ha! Here comes the bride. Anna wants to marry a dentist…”
Other than that, Anna is considered has a conflict with the society when she turns down the suitor’s proposal for three times just because she wants to find a dentist as a husband. This is shows that she couldn’t accept other people to be a part of her life except a dentist that she admired most. This statement are proven in paragraph 22 line1 until 5, “ Anna was proposed to three times by suitors who were not a dentist and all three times she had turned down their fragile offers…”
The last conflicts from a story, A Matter of Aesthetics’ by Lisa Ho King Li are the conflict between Anna and her family members. Anna was the only daughter in the family and she doesn’t have any siblings. She has a conflict with her father who is not a responsible father. She felt angry and she hated her father so much because her father always bit and almost killed her mother. Besides, her father never cared about both of them and that’s why she became very choosy and only chooses a dentist as a husband. This is because she thought that a dentist is always being kind to other people like to her and her mother as stated in paragraph 18 line 2, “He had been kind, and he offered to save whatever teeth left…” and in paragraph 20 line 3, “In the brilliant whiteness and symmetrical evenness of those teeth, she saw grace, purity and refinement…”.

Conflicts in "A Quid of Sirih and A Bowl of Water" by Khadijah Hashim

CONFLICT OF A STORY “A QUID OF SIRIH, A BOWL OF WATER” BY KHADIJAH HASHIM
In my point of view, the story “A Quid of Sirih a Bowl of Water” has a several conflicts that combining three elements which conflict with oneself, with family members and also with the society.
The first conflicts are the conflict between oneself. Farid have a conflict between himself being a son of pawang. He feels ashamed to be a pawang’s son while he is going to be a doctor after finishing his studies in medicine. Farid thought that he will be in his world of science and technology but his father still believe with the traditional ways of curing people such as magic, spells and mumbo jumbo. Farid being so angry to his father because of this conflict and he couldn’t accept the truth being a son’s of pawang although he could further his studies just because of his father’s money by healing patient.
The conflict also occurs because of this attitude of being such a self-centered person. He feels ashamed and scared if his friends will make fun of him if they know his father is a pawang as stated in paragraph 69 line 1 “I’m ashamed. A pawang’s son-who wants to be a doctor! If my friends found out they’d make fun of me…”and in paragraph 43 line 1 “Think a little father, father. What will people say. I want to be doctor. And here you are- a pawang! Doesn’t the conflict between your world and mine bother you at all?”. The other example is in paragraph 44 line 1 “So you are ashamed to have a pawang as a father…?”, “ …..yes, I am..”, stated in paragraph 45 line 2.
The second conflicts of this story are the conflict with the family members. Farid has a conflict between him and his family members such as his mother, his father and also his younger brothers and sister. Farid has a conflict with his mother when his mother told him not to say something bad to his teacher, Cikgu Ali. This is happened when Cikgu Ali came to his house asking for incantation water for his child. This is stated in paragraph 20 line 1 “Watch what you’re saying. The cikgu might hear you...”. The other conflict between Farid and his mother is when his mother compared roasted chicken with daging rebung. Farid was angry when he failed to find any chicken to make a roasted chicken, yet his vacation in kampung was almost over. This is can be proven in paragraph 9 line 1 “What sort of kampung is this? No chicken!” and in paragraph 12 line 1 “How can you compare daging rebung to roast chicken? Where’s your logic…?”.
Other than having a conflict with his mother, Farid also have a conflict with his which is the climax of the story. He is being rude to his father just because he feels ashamed having a father who work as a pawang. As a son, he shouldn’t be rude to his father no matter how angry he was but Farid was followed his emotions by using rude words to express his disagreement towards his father’s job. This statement is stated in paragraph 52 line 1 to 5, “You call this helping? Do you realized, father, your kind of attitude, your old fashioned ways are preventing our kampung people from accepting changes…”
The conflicts also occurred due to Farid’s ignorance of his father’s job as ‘pawang’. Several misunderstandings of the son regarding his father’s job as ‘pawang’ can be seen from the way he define the ‘pawang’ job. He thinks that what his father is saying are bunch of nonsense that could not function in anyway to help these kampung men. As quoted in page 94, paragraph 16, line 2,
‘Pak Seman had finished his incantations. Whatever it was been muttering Farid did not bother to find out. Most likely some silly verses, he thought.”
To him his father also promotes superstitions among the villagers, as in page 97, paragraph 2, line 1,
‘“But why encourage their superstition?”’
His father cares for his family and people around him such as the teacher and the kampung people. Farid on the other hand fails to see that his father’s job serves more than to himself but to the family and also extends to the whole village. This shows that he failed to recognize the good intention that his father had offered to the villagers all this while. He also failed to see that his father becoming a pawang is also one way to support the family, also a source of income, also the money used to send him to the university.
Besides his father and his mother, Farid also have a conflict with his siblings especially his younger brother, Zainal. Farid was arguing with his brother, Zainal about what he feels towards his father’s job. Otherwise, Zainal was on his father’s side and he
trying to give an advice to Farid not to be ashamed with his father’s job. Zainal also remind his brother, Farid , that he couldn’t entered the university if it’s not because of his father’s job as a pawang. This is stated in paragraph 70 line 1, “Allah! What’s to be ashamed of? Pawang can still be useful, bang…”, paragraph 78 line1,“What’s there to be ashamed of? Father doesn’t cheat people…” and in paragraph 76 line 1, “If you’re educated, it’s thanks to father’s stupid job…”
The last conflicts that have in this story are the conflict between Farid and the society. As we examined it closely the conflict might have sparked from the humiliation he received from the teacher when he was in school long time ago. He is humiliated in the class by his teacher and therefore holds the resentment towards the teacher and probably put the blame on his fathers job up until he faced the issue with him. We can see he is still in conflict with himself because of Cikgu Ali because he always makes fun of his father’s job being as a pawang but at last he still looking for his father asking for incantation water for his sick child. That’s why he didn’t like Cikgu Ali very much. This statement is proven in paragraph 16 line 2, “Last time it was you who made fun of me…well what happening now?”. Besides that, Farid also have a negative thinking to his Pak Long. He gets angry when he couldn’t get any chicken from his Pak Long to make a roasted chicken. He feels that his Pak Long being so stingy and don’t want to give him any even though he have a lot of roosters. This is stated in paragraph 7 line 1-2 “No. Roosters he has plenty but he wants them for breeding….Ah-he’s so mean!”.

The Implication of Individual Differences Towards Learning

The Implication of Individual Differences: Physical, Cognitive and Social Aspects Towards Learning.

Aspect of environment
Sounds
Research has shown that some students learn more effectively by listening to the music. While some students can only learn in a quiet environment.

Lighting
Young children will need less light while learning. As they grow older, their need for better lighting will increase.

Temperature
The impact of temperature on the effectiveness in the learning process is different. But then, air-conditioned bedroom are much more comfortable and help in the learning process.

Emotional Aspects.
Motivation
Students with high motivation will become an effective learner and much more successful in their learning.

Determination
Some students can accomplish their task all at once while some need breaks in between and pauses before any task given can be accomplished.

Responsibility
Students that are responsible can produce job with better quality or experiencing better learning.

Structure
Some students like to do their task according to the teacher’s direction. While some students like to accomplish some tasks on their own initiative.

Aspects of Sociology
Some students like to study along and there are some that like to study in group.

Aspects of Physiology
Perception
Visual
Auditory
Kinesthetic – tactile

Visual students
These kind of students love to learn by looking at the charts, graphs and picture. They also like to read to themselves and solve the crossword puzzle and able to seek the objects in a short time.

Auditory students
Students that like to learn by pronouncing the words so that it can be heard.

Kinesthetic-tactile students
These kind of students can learn through the sense of touch and feel. They like to hold and manipulate the objects for better understanding.

Food and drinks
Research carried out by Dunn and Dunn shows that same students learn better if they are allowed to eat and drink.

Time
In general, students are fresher and active in the morning as compared to in the afternoon.

Movement
Some students learn better if they are allowed to move about the area rather than just sit in one place.

Psychological aspects
Every individual have their own learning styles and learning strength. In processing new input that are tougher, a person might be using his left or right brain. Our left hemisphere is processing items that deals with numbers, logic, language, formally and analysis. Right hemisphere is doing the function such as identifying the tables, pattern, creativity and synthesis.

According to Honey and Munford, 4 learning styles are :
Activist – like to look for new experience and discuss about their ideas.
Reflective – this kind of students like to analyze and review on their own.
Theories – objectivist and logic
Pragmatics – like to try new ideas
- like to invent new things.

Gayong Night

When I entered martial arts, "Silat Gayong" many asked what is Silat Gayong and why the name is "Gayong"? In Malay, in a slightly different spelling and pronunciation 'Gayung' has also another meaning, a 'pail'.

The word "Gayong" means hitting or hitting from far. During old times, when two martial artists challenged each other for a friendly match, they will say "jom ber-gayong" or "lets gayong" to test their skills. They will try to use their skills, inner energy forces and try to hit each other from far and their ability are witnessed by the number of fallen trees that are hit by their energy forces. Cool isn't it. But nowadays Gayong aren't practising inner forces but merely through prayers and reciting verses from the holy Qoran that contains various secrets and power with Allah's will.

Last night witness another spectacular event when we Unisel students conducted a night known as Malam Gayong Perdana UNISEL 2007. The purpose is to celebrate UNISEL victory for bringing home several medals from the last 'Silat' tournament in University Malaya. We invited several other Gayong members from 3 different branches to join us that night. We show to the public some our routine exercises and demonstration on fighting using knife, machette, rattan (wood) and sarong. I participated in breaking the bamboo with my head while my friends broke the pieces of roof top punching it with their hand.

The climax of the event is when the female silat members were asked to jump on to pieces of sharp broken glass. I was the third person to jump on it and survived without a single scratch followed by others. It was really amazing. Few of my friends get a minor cut but none of us were seriously injured. My friend pulled a small piece of glass that stick under her foot but somehow it did not splinter her. I told her to keep it in a frame as a memory of tonight's event. The very last event was my teacher lying down on those broken glasses without any shirt on, on top of him holding a thick brick slate and a companion of his will brick the slate on his body by hitting it with a big hammer. The brick slate is broken and he survived without any injury. How he did it? I dont know.

Anyway we had a good time last night 16 June 2007. A day that is worth to be remembered by PSSGM Unisel members. Congratulations to all that have participated.

Blessings in disguise

I checked into a local hotel one night when I realized later that one of the tennants was a transvestite. He would make a great male figure physically but unfortunately he prefer to stay confused. I overheard someone said that when god made him, he purposely created him all messed up. He should have been a woman instead. I posed the same question to myself. Should I blame god for all my troubles and imperfectness in life?

I have been through several ordeals in life that makes me question myself about what lies hidden beneath all this. I almost give up on everything until something knocked on my heart. It was love. Since then I gained my self confidence and start to fight for my happiness in life. I realized that the troubles that god has given to me is actually to show that he acknowledges my presence in this world and he wants my life to change.

All the troubles that exist in life serves to help a person to improve or change themselves. I was a timid person before until something happen that put me into melancholy for years. Once I get over my grief and started to look at life from a different perspective. I find myself stronger than I was, higher self-confidence, motivated and independent. My life changes from being a helpless timid girl into the person I am right now. Though I hate the bitter experience, but I am thankful to god for his blessing, changing me into the person I am right now. He hate those who gave up in life. I didn't.

Aptitude vs Attitude

This is a travel journal written by my lecturer which he later shared with us on the last class before the end of the semester. I think it is beautifully written, a dose of medicine to those who needed an answer or reason to look forward for a better day and excel in life someday.

A positive mental attitude leads to achievement. Success in any field of end endeavour is deep rooted in attitudes, not in aptitude.

Altogether too much academic emphasis has been placed upon aptitude in recent years. It isn’t aptitude that counts nearly so much as attitude. Aptitude is nothing in comparison with attitude. Attitude is everything.

It is a strange fact that we are often misguided by our thinking yet we know we can control our thoughts. By thought control, we can set our own course. And steer our lives to ports of plenty and harbours of happiness.

Decide now that you want no part of the negative side of the street. If moods of depression or thoughts of fear and worry creep into your mental thinking, vanish them at once by the antidoting process.

Replace them with their opposite such as love thought to replace the hate thought, the friendly thought to replace the enemy thought, the abundance thought to take the place of poverty thoughts and so on.

In school we made the best grades in subjects that appeals to our likings. If we enjoy doing a certain job, it becomes a labour of love. If we disliked doing the same job, it would be drudgery. We should treat everything that crosses the path of our journey through life as a stepping stone towards the achievement of our ambitions and goal.

Since we tend to become what we think about, it is logical that we should fill our minds with positive thoughts of happiness, cheerfulness, optimism and good health. We should never-never permit the success killing thoughts or fear, worry, pessimism and sorrow to dwell in the mind.