My Love of English
I love English more and more with each passing day.
My knowledge of English enables me to plumb the depths of countless literary works. Reading them regularly makes me more knowledgeable, humane and appreciate beauty better. The discovery of new words never fails to encourage me to strive harder to master the language.
Since young, I have had the habit of copying new words, idioms and all sorts of descriptive sentences into my diaries or notebooks. When I write they become my reference materials, providing me with food for thought on how to make my articles or stories more alive and interesting.
To improve my spoken English, I like watching television programmes the likes of BBC and CNN, which open my eyes to how native speakers use the language. Hence, I make it a habit to stress the last syllable of every word I speak. "You sound like a clicking lizard," is my students' usual comment.
Because I went through the Malay Medium, my understanding of Geographic, engineering and law terms is limited. To elevate my proficiency to a higher level, I am planning to start reading books of these three genres.
Since young, I have had the habit of copying new words, idioms and all sorts of descriptive sentences into my diaries or notebooks. When I write they become my reference materials, providing me with food for thought on how to make my articles or stories more alive and interesting.
To improve my spoken English, I like watching television programmes the likes of BBC and CNN, which open my eyes to how native speakers use the language. Hence, I make it a habit to stress the last syllable of every word I speak. "You sound like a clicking lizard," is my students' usual comment.
Because I went through the Malay Medium, my understanding of Geographic, engineering and law terms is limited. To elevate my proficiency to a higher level, I am planning to start reading books of these three genres.
Twenty years of being in the business of teaching English has opened my eyes to a few things:
1. Due to their conjunctive nature, no past tense forms should come after 'lest', 'suggest', 'recommend' and 'propose'.
E.g. He proposed that they build a bridge across the river.
He recommended that she take a holiday.
She disallowed her child to approach the beggar lest his taint rub off on her/ she disallowed her child to approach the beggar lest his taint should rub off on her.
2. The preposition 'on' should not be used after the verbs 'stress', 'emphasize' and 'ponder'.
3. 'Karaoke' should be pronounced as 'Karaokee'.
4. The plural form 'Festivities' means a celebration.
5. It is not neccessary to mention your heart after the phrase 'deep down'.
Whenever I share the above-mentioned things with my friends and colleagues, they remark that I have a warped perception of English grammar. What do you think?
5. It is not neccessary to mention your heart after the phrase 'deep down'.
Whenever I share the above-mentioned things with my friends and colleagues, they remark that I have a warped perception of English grammar. What do you think?
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