Diary

Today I had a class with Steve for L2 reading.

To begin with, Steve is a creative teacher. He always puts on wonderful ideas into teaching. I think he's trying to demonstrate the many ways of teaching in the actual classroom. Last week, he brought Fiona (an actual English teacher from ICTE) to share her experiences when she taught in Vietnam couple of years ago.

Today, Steve caught my attention by playing an old song by Bread; Diary. The idea is for the students to draw inferences based on the song played. It is a part of higher-order reading skills.

I just want to write a thing or two about the song. The interpretation might be wrong. It is really a sad song which turns out to be 'face it' kind of okay at the end. This guy found his lover's diary. He read what she wrote and he was touched by the many sweet things she wrote about him in the diary. He would not know since the girl never mentioned about those to him.

BUT.... it turned out, whatever she wrote in the diary was not meant for him. T T.... It was about the love she once had. Oh man... Anyway, at the end, the guy still wanted her to be his wife because of how sweet she had been in the entries. :(

Here's the song:

Diary by Bread

I found her diary underneath a tree

And started reading about me

The words she'd written took me by surprise

You'd never read them in her eyes

They said that she had found 

the love she'd waited for

Wouldn't you know it

She wouldn't show it

When she confronted with the writing there

Simply pretended not to care

I passed it off as just in keeping with

Her total disconcerting air

And though she tried to hide 

the love that she denied

Wouldn't you know it

She wouldn't show it

And as I go through my life

I will give to her my wife

all the sweet things I can find

I found her diary underneath a tree

And started reading about me

The words began to stick and tears to flow

Her meaning now was clear to see

The love she'd waited for 

was someone else not me

Wouldn't you know it

She wouldn't show it

And as I go through my life

I will wish for her his wife

All the sweet things she can find

All the sweet things they can find

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24IfD-0VUu4

Lyrics: http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/bread/diary.html 

Let's have fun with English, Di ;p

Hey there,

Today, I learned something new called; 'garden path' sentence. This type of sentence is grammatically correct but people will mostly misinterpret the meaning(s) of the sentence. We, as readers will fall into this 'unintended' misleading judgment of the sentence.

Simply put, a garden path sentence leads us towards a path but it is a wrong path. Ok a simpler version of this would be: The sentence is AMBIGUOUS. lol. Itu je sebenarnya.. chett.. Basically, kita rasa itu maksud ayat tu tapi actually maksud ayat tu lain sebenarnya. 

Okay, okay.. I get it... it's confusing or should I say; almost 'impenetrable' to digest.. hehe.. Let me give you some examples:

a. The old train the young.
    The old train....
                            ....... the young.

b. The old man the boat.
    The old man....
                            ...... the boat.

Di, can you guess some ambiguous meanings from these examples?:

- I convinced her children are noisy.
- Zedi gave his son the cat bit a plaster (bandaid).
- The government plans to raise GST (Goods and Services Tax) were defeated.
- The stupid drink from the restaurant.
- Zedi said; "Put the box on the table in the kitchen!"


p/s - "...to be led down the garden path" is actually an expression. It means to be deceived or tricked. Get it now?

- Please whatsapp me immediately if you understand Di :)

Toodles :)

lời chào hỏi

That's how you say hi in Vietnam. "Lời chào hỏi"

Today I met my new supervisor; Dr. Chris Campbell. Originally, the meeting was at 1.30pm. I somehow overlooked that I had another important meeting with Dr. Noriko at 1. I don't know why I put Noriko's on Wednesday (9 Mar). Urgh.

Anyway, Chris was ok if I could meet her at 2.30 instead. My meeting with Noriko ended at 2-ish. 

So I went to her office (620a, Social Sciences Building). I must say..I was nervous. I didn't know what to expect at the beginning. A lot went through my mind..mostly because she is someone from school of edu instead of appling (what I'm currently doing). 

When I came, there was a Professor inside. They were talking about a PhD candidate who just successfully graduated. Outside, I could clearly see what Chris is currently working on. She has three on-going research with one of them being a Malaysian context. She's working on FrogVLE; a cloud-based learning design for Malaysian schools. It's under 1BestariNet project with The Malaysian Ministry of Education. 

The reason she agreed to supervise me is my topic has something to do with what she had done in the past. Second Life and Education for a broad topic. I don't wanna bore you with that.

As I was sitting, she asked me where I was from. Kinda funny though. 

Chris: So tell me, where are you from Niza? Oh wait, let me guess... Vietnam.

Chris: You're from Vietnam right.

Me: Errm..Chris, no I'm from Malaysia.

Chris: Oh, I went there last year. Slow internet you got there Niza.

Me: Yeah, tell me 'bout it.

She's so friendly. She's funny. That was the first time ever people thought I'm a Vietnamese. lol.

I hope I've made a right decision this time. :(

Toodles.

The Blue Panda

Hey there bloggy...
 
Pheww.. I am done with this big presentation "DGBLL in L2 Context". Thanks a bundle to my awesome group members! Doris, you were awesome! Tajul, as usual.. you killed it! :) We're from The Blue Panda.. like what Paul said; "It's a good name for a bar".. Muahahaha.. but we might have taken it too literally though... because we have our blue panda!!! Hugs.. xoxo

Nihonggo Fiasco

So it happened. I was in class (SLT). Normally, in between gaps, everyone will discuss this and that. In my class, it is very multicultural. We practically have the whole world in the classroom. We have people from China, the US, the UK, Vietnam, Thailand, Russia, Korea, Japan, New Zealand, Malaysia (woot woot), Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Oman and not to mention the Aussies. Sithanya for example. She is from Thailand and she is a very kind lady. Then we have Kirsty who recently got married to a Bangladeshi. Mikyoung is from Korea and she has decided to change her name to Rora so that it will be easier for the people to call her. Hang is from Vietnam (a very smart and disciplined lady). Cut Monalisa, Risa and Alamin are from Indonesia. Aaron, Jimmy, Dorris, Reny, Rachel, Echo and Summer are from China. Maria is from Russia. Sophie is from the UK. Ling is a New Zealander. Jamaan is from Saudi Arabia. Khalsa is from Oman. David, another Jimmy and Tom are from the States. Chiko, Karina, Yuriko and Hiro are from Japan.

Okay. Let's get back to the story. During the gap, I was so fascinated with some of my classmates who can speak Japanese (Roxy, David and the Japanese of course). They are all proficient and they really sound nice as they talk to each other. I envy them. It makes me want to learn Nihonggo and go to Japan! It is a nice language...awww..music to the ears, eyh?!

I wanted to join the discussion. I do not know how to speak Japanese but I sort of picked up few expressions, thanks to the Japanese series and movies I watched long time ago. I confidently looked at Hiro (a guy, very cute though) and said:

"Tottemo daisuki..." and "Kawaii-desu"

What???? I know, I know... I picked that up from watching Doraemon (Every Saturday, 7.30pm, NTV7). Roxy looked at me in a very surprised motion and said:

"You just said 'I love you' and 'You're cute' to him (Hiro)". "It sounds so gay..."

OMG! Seriously, I had no idea the meaning of what I said. I thought I was being friendly and nice to butt in their conversation. Nevertheless, Hiro was just nodding, smiling and not saying anything in return. Hmm. I wonder... Ahaa..

It was embarrassing. Seriously. I should not have said that. In their culture, it is very impolite to say such thing to random people. Oh my. 

Perhaps, I should learn more USEFUL expressions so I can talk to them APPROPRIATELY. Dear Hiro, sorry for saying those, I was clueless dude!

:)