Here comes the storm!!

Have you heard the term 'brainstorming'?

Not THIS one!!

Not literally the storm of brains kids!! Brainstorming is the process of discussing and produce ideas in order to solve a problem.

Get together with your friends to brainstorm some ideas!

It is a good idea to start your writing by brainstorming some ideas! Below are some examples that have been put nicely into mind maps!

Mind map your ideas!

Or

You can do it in different styles!

These are just some of the examples to keep you up and about! If you are not sure how to mind map, do let me know. I'll be glad to explain more!

Parts of Speech: Should I know that?

Indeed! (of course!)

In every language, parts of speech is considered important because it is the basic foundation of grammar. Parts of speech are basically the linguistic categories of words that are categorized according to its functions and 'behavior'.

For instance, the picture below indicates that in a sentence, each word belongs to a specific category under grammar. 

Verb, Noun, Adverb, Adjective are examples of the categories in grammar.

In English, you have 8 parts of speech as shown below:

Source taken from HERE

Why is it important that you should know about the parts of speech? Well, often times, we feel terrible and annoyed because we think English is so hard. However, once you are familiar with how a sentence is made up from several parts of speech, then you would know more about the English grammar and the next time you make a grammar mistake, you can focus directly into which parts of speech that you feel you still need to improve on. 

Knowing about parts of speech structures your thought too. You will have a better idea of how the English grammar looks like. 

You don't want to be scratching your head in confusion, right?

Now, for your exercise, click HERE to do a short quiz on identifying the parts of speech!  Only ten questions and do let me know your results!

What's your favorite food?

Whenever I'm feeling down or when I have trouble with English, do you know what I do? 

I think of food!! Delicious food!! 

What's on the menu today?

Recently, I've been craving to eat those sushi rolls you see in TV shows, expensive Japanese restaurants and those RM3- 13+ sushi displays at Jusco/Tesco food counter and I go... "If only I can have a bite of those tasty sushi..."

Now, I must confess. Eating sushi to me, is a luxury (a state of great comfort or extravagant living).  Plus, I thought to myself, if I pay RM5 for four pieces of those rolls, it won't feel like it's worth it, don't you think so? 

So, what I did was, firstly, I decided to Google up about anything on Japanese sushi to the Korean version called 'Kimbap'. The word 'Kim' in Korean means seaweed while the word 'Bap' means rice.

Then, once I have done my research on what I need and how to do it, I'm all prepared to go shopping for the ingredients. After I am done with my shopping, I start cooking my rice and cutting the fillings of my Kimbap such as cucumber, ham, eggs and carrots. Next, I place some rice on a piece of rectangular seaweed and spread some rice on top of it and fill in my colorful fillings for the Kimbap. Then, I roll the seaweed so that it becomes like a long cylinder. Finally, I cut the long seaweed roll into small pieces (like the picture) and serve it on a nice plate.

TADA! My current favorite is a Korean delicacy called Kimbap.

Now, my fellow readers...

Did you realize I was describing the steps of making Kimbap? I was actually doing a process writing, explaining the steps on how to make my favorite food! I was clever right?

*Wink - Because I indirectly taught you about process writing!

Now, process writing is not really THAT hard! You've seen how simple it took me to explain to you.  In process writing, it's important to highlight the sequence from the the first step to the consequent steps. So, below are some of the words you can use to link your steps:

• Firstly, In the beginning
• Then, Next, After that, Secondly, Thirdly, Afterwards
• Finally, At last 

If you are not sure how to use these sequence connectors, don't worry! Just click HERE to do some exercise or search on Google on the topic sequence and logical connectors!

After that, maybe you can share with me on how YOU make your favorite food so I can make it myself too!

I say, 'Knock Knock'

You say, 'Who's there?
Aww... it reminds me of my childhood days when I used to fool around with my friends and families with the 'knock knock' jokes!

Aww! I should try this one on someone pronto!

A quick search on the Google search engine reveals little history or origins of how the 'knock-knock' jokes came to be it today. 

Some said the great William Shakespeare started it!

You kids! I started the 'Knock-Knock' joke!

From his play Macbeth, this is an example of, uh, should I say, 'sophisticated'  knock-knock line?

(Knock.) Knock, knock, knock! Who’s there? Faith,

here’s an English tailor come hither, for stealing

out of a French hose: come in, tailor; here you may

roast your goose.

Also, it is also said that knock-knock has become too famous, you even have the Japanese version of knock-knock which is called in Japanese 'kon-kon' while in French, you say it as 'toc-toc'. Hmm interesting, don't you think so?

Today, I'd like to share with you some knock-knock jokes I find cute and ticklish! Maybe you could even use this jokes on your friends?

Here goes my top three knock-knock jokes:

Knock knock!

Who's there?

Dwayne.

Dwayne who?

Dwayne the bathtub, I'm drowning.

Knock Knock.
Who's There?
Shelby.
Shelby Who?
Shelby coming around the mountain when she comes.
Shelby coming around the mountain when she comes.
Shelby coming around the mountain.
Shelby coming around the mountain.
Shelby coming around the mountain
when she comes.

Knock Knock
Who's There?
Atch
Atch Who?
Bless you.

Still can't get enough of knock-knock jokes? Click here to get your daily dosage in no time! You'll be knocking in no time!

Always look at the subject before anything

... because as how the Mind Your English section of the local newspaper, The Star, insist: 
The subject is king.
Read this article here as it really gives a good explanation on how to determine how the verb agrees with the subject. 
Yes, we are still not done with S-V-A.  :)
A quick summary of the article? Well, it explains how different natures of the subject of sentences have different agreeing verb rules. The different kinds of subjects  and some examples explained are:

1. Noun - (Boy, Cake, Knife)
2. Pronoun - (I, We, You)
3. Gerund - (Nouns with the ending '-ing', such as swimming, reading, cooking )
4. Infinitive - (to-infinitive)
5. Noun Phrase - (Sleeping late, Driving through gravel road, To be a singer)
6. Noun Clause - (That I can eat and watch TV at the same time, The fact that I woke up late)

Do you use plural verbs if your subjects are in the form of gerund? Do you say 'sleeping late is bad' or 'sleeping late are bad'? 
It's tricky! So read along the link given above! 

They 'eats' ???

I'm often a victim of the expression above.
In fact, there are more! 

• "They wants to know what time the flight departs," said Abu
• "Does we can improve it?" said the lady
• "Thats mean?" said the teacher student

Trust me, I cringe  at every sound of the improper placement of the letter 'S' , or you may say, the plural forms in English.
Thus, another English blues. T_T

I just couldn't take it anymore at one point!

At one point, I asked myself this one question over and over again.
Why oh why oh why? WHY? 
Why can't people get their S-V-A right?


I remembered I learned my first lesson on S-V-A when I was in Primary Three. My English teacher, Madam Foong Lai Ming (bless her heart) seldom smiled in my class although we were only 9 years old kids fumbling in a new language. She had no sense of empathy or sympathy for the young ones. She was tough like a stone but we endured it like a brave soldier. Producing a sentence like, "They eats the cookies" back then, would have entitled me dedicating an entire book of the corrected sentence, 'they-eat-the-cookies', writing that sentence over and over again until the last page.


If you are familiar with that kind of punishment, then you would understand my feelings when people just don't know, or can't remember where to put their 'S's.
By the way, S-V-A means Subject Verb Agreement.
I know, I know. 
Not everyone is as brilliant to memorize that plural pronoun (Eg: They, We, Ali and Abu) goes with plural form of verbs (root verb, without the 'S')  and vice versa. Also, I noticed, although most people are aware of the S-V-A rule, not everyone can consciously practice it in real speech. 


So, I decided today, I'd like to review the basic rules of S-V-A.
Ready?

Source taken from: Here

Easy right? Now, all you need to do is to do more practice!  Click here for more practice on S-V-A.
Remember, if you have a serious S-V-A problem, you need to read up more about the rules and do more exercises so that you'll be more confident in structuring your sentences, be it in writing or when you speak. I'm sure you don't want to cause any English blues to anyone right? 
That's all for now! Another English blues solved! Till then!

Putting Words into Pictures

Sometimes I get my English blues when I can't describe the definition of a word.

Do you get that situation a lot too?

If yes, it must have been bugging you all day because you knew you know the word. You just can't explain it right? Or should I put it this way, the word is latently buried inside your brain but you just don't know how to extract the meanings and put it nicely into words right?

*Laughs at myself because of the stupid imagery

For me, personally, there are times when I know the meaning (more like... the concept of the word and how it functions) of the word given because I knew I've read it somewhere or learned about it years ago, but I just can't come up with dictionary meaning and explain it to people, especially students out there. Maybe you readers have been in my shoe before? 

Well, today's post is going to cheer you up! Even five scoops of ice-cream cannot top this. 

Scroll down.

Miserable - because things are not going your way ...

Irritated - Because you're driving me crazy!!

Exhausted - Because I just want to sleep like a baby..

Symptom - Because that is a sign of a nasty flu!

A-ha... so did you notice something?

I'm hoping you did! 

No? 

I know. Let's make this more interesting.  Let's see if you can find anything special or any patterns of any kind or any relation to something that probably strike your mind while reading this blog! The answer shall be revealed in the next post. 

Meanwhile, don't you think it's easier to explain meaning through pictures? 

Easy, right?

Ah, which strikes a light bulb in my head! Wouldn't it be easier if we have a picture defining every word in a dictionary so people (like me) don't have to sweat too much trying to explain the meaning of a word? Life will be much simpler and happier that way. 

*Grins

The idea of a picture dictionary for EVERY word makes me happy. 

What about you?