If you want to talk in a grammatically correct manner, it doesn't mean you need to have an 'accent' to match it. Here's a guide on how to converse properly without having to annoy the person or people you're speaking to.
http://www.wikihow.com/Talk-Properly-Without-Sounding-Posh
Saturday, September 28, 2013
Wednesday, September 25, 2013
Five tips.
This is a really short and informative video on how to become a better listener.
Stop thinking.
Imitate his or her body language.
Practice the scanning eye method.
Repeat what they say in question form for clarification.
Compliment the person.
Remember those five tips and you're on your way to becoming a better listener.
Stop thinking.
Imitate his or her body language.
Practice the scanning eye method.
Repeat what they say in question form for clarification.
Compliment the person.
Remember those five tips and you're on your way to becoming a better listener.
Deterioration of English in Malaysia.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/GH25Ae02.html (check this out for the full article)
This article was published in 2005, what has changed since then?
Excerpts:
"The standard of written and spoken English has deteriorated in the past 30 years," said Ramasamy Palanisamy, professor of political science at the University Kebangsaan Malaysia. "After the 1969 race riots [between Malays and ethnic Chinese], Malaysia switched to the Malay stream for schools and university in 1971. From then on English as a language declined."
In Malaysia, about 20,000 graduates are estimated to be unemployed because of poor communication skills and most of them are from rural backgrounds. The government is even spending millions of dollars to retrain them in various industrial skills.
Rather than remain unemployed, many graduates have begun to hide their degree certificates and take lower-paying jobs for which they are considered overqualified - such as with the fire department.
As the experts had predicted, the performance of rural Malay students had dropped when they were forced to switch to English as the medium of instruction in science and mathematics. More Malays were not making the grade to enter colleges, polytechnics and universities largely because of the sudden switch.
This article was published in 2005, what has changed since then?
Excerpts:
"The standard of written and spoken English has deteriorated in the past 30 years," said Ramasamy Palanisamy, professor of political science at the University Kebangsaan Malaysia. "After the 1969 race riots [between Malays and ethnic Chinese], Malaysia switched to the Malay stream for schools and university in 1971. From then on English as a language declined."
In Malaysia, about 20,000 graduates are estimated to be unemployed because of poor communication skills and most of them are from rural backgrounds. The government is even spending millions of dollars to retrain them in various industrial skills.
Rather than remain unemployed, many graduates have begun to hide their degree certificates and take lower-paying jobs for which they are considered overqualified - such as with the fire department.
As the experts had predicted, the performance of rural Malay students had dropped when they were forced to switch to English as the medium of instruction in science and mathematics. More Malays were not making the grade to enter colleges, polytechnics and universities largely because of the sudden switch.
Consequences of poor listening skills.
This is a scene from one of my favorite movies, Easy A. In this scene, the protagonist, Olive (played by Emma Stone) sees her guidance counselor to seek advice about her promiscuous lifestyle she's been faking, which has led to a very bad reputation among her peers. Olive tries to explain her situation to her counselor but all her counselor does is jump to conclusions and interrupt her, trying to make the session as short as possible. This is proof that poor listening skills can lead to miscommunication which may lead to other bigger repercussions. Imagine dominoes falling one after another. That is what poor listening skills do.
Oh, and look out for the listening tips provided throughout the video. Enjoy.
Oh, and look out for the listening tips provided throughout the video. Enjoy.
Greetings to all and sundry.
We listen. We speak. But how good are we really? Let's ponder and sweat about it. Improve your skills here!
http://esl-lab.com/
This is an awesome site which offers many levels of quizzes and practices to suit an individual's own language capacity. It is a good place to start to sharpen your listening and speaking skills as the activities are interactive and will not take up a lot of your time, so you can fit in a few activities during your free time.
I will be posting more useful sites to better your skills as well as share articles and videos on an area I'm passionate about, which is music. Don't worry, I'll be posting articles and videos on random topics when I feel like it to create an all rounded blog of information.
So, stay tuned guys and remember to not only hear, but listen too.
http://esl-lab.com/
This is an awesome site which offers many levels of quizzes and practices to suit an individual's own language capacity. It is a good place to start to sharpen your listening and speaking skills as the activities are interactive and will not take up a lot of your time, so you can fit in a few activities during your free time.
I will be posting more useful sites to better your skills as well as share articles and videos on an area I'm passionate about, which is music. Don't worry, I'll be posting articles and videos on random topics when I feel like it to create an all rounded blog of information.
So, stay tuned guys and remember to not only hear, but listen too.
One of the most sincere forms of respect is actually listening to what another has to say. - Bryant H. McGill
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