Sneak Peek: The New Ford Focus..

I went to take a look at the All New Ford Focus last night.. I'm going to take a closer look today.. Yei!

No Choice..

Assalamu'alaikum!

Here we go, next Monday Lecture 6 will start. I'll be in charge of event management. That means I'll be busy throughout the course. In addition to that, I was also asked to present a module. It's not something that I'd agree to so easily, but it seems that I don't have much of a choice. On top of that, I only found out it this week, so I don't know if I have time to prepare. It's making me nervous.

I designed this program book cover.. It was really fun..

Food Photography...

Assalamu'alaikum! May you be at peace? Peace ya'll!

Alhamdulillah, for the clean water here.

I'm supposed to be looking for 12 articles for my Sociolinguistic class today, which I am currently doing by the way.

I just thought of something interesting. I have a DSLR, and a great wife who cooks some of the best dishes around. Put those two together, I can be a food photographer. It's not a crazy idea right?

Here's an example of how I take picture of food.

Spaghetti and beef pasta sauce with mozzarella.. 

If this doesn't make you drool, then there must be something wrong with my picture. I've been taking many photos of food lately, I think it's about time I actually learned a few tricks.

Rediscovery...

Assalamua'laikum! What's up! Pekaba Sume!

Alhamdulillah for my eyesight!

Look, I've started drawing once again!

I loved to draw. It was my ultimate hobby. Like many guys in my generation, I used to draw manga in my buku sejarah. I also sketched. I've once sketched some buildings in Shah Alam, around Blue Ocean Hotel which was very realistic. However, I stopped that hobby when I started University. No more manga. No more cartoon characters, and definitely no more sketches. Now I'm working, so I really don't have time for it  anymore. My drawing skills have faded away... But, has it??

See it coming along?

That's my grandma!

Step Up...

Assalamu'alaikum! Alhamdulillah I have two perfect hands!..

Let's talk about cars. With all the hype about getting rid of import duty for international cars, Proton really needs to up their game.

Even with the duty doubling, if not, tripling the price of imported cars, people are still willing to pay for cars that are not Proton.

I think it pretty obvious from my perspective that Proton is just hanging by a thread. Their not really bringing anything new. Toys like rain sensor, automatic headlamps activation, or built-in GPS are nothing impressive. I have GPS in my Nokia and I'm well aware when it's night time or raining. I don't know who would fall for such cheap advert tricks. What kind of innovation has Proton brought in their new car? Underneath all that tech is still old metal found in a car like my old Ford Laser.

I've heard people comparing the price of a Proton with a Volkswagen, and concluded that Proton is way better value for money because the Proton offers leather seats, nice tech like the GPS, rain detector, night detector while  Volkswagen doesn't. I'm afraid you are mistaken. Despite the import duty, for the  Volkswagen , you are paying for the engineering, the reliability of the assembly, safety features, the electronic stability control, even the software that programs the stability control. Would you pass all that for some lousy cheap GPS system on poorly assembled pieces of metal?

I'm not anti-Proton, no. I would really like to see Proton match brands like Honda, Toyota, Ford, Fiat, Mazda and so on. However, I'd like to them to compete on fair terms. If abolishing import duty will jeopardize Proton's sales, than it's time to step the game. Really get in the race. Don't sell well because of price, but sell well because your really that good. Typically Malaysians will say, 'Oh no, we need to defend our national car at all cost!'. That's why Proton hasn't really grown. 

Speaking Test Errors...

Assalaaamu'alaikum!

Alhamdulillah, I'm still alive.

I've been meaning to post some funny quotes by my Malay L2 English students.
I don't think these are cases of slip-of-the-tongue. It's just a case of what we Malays call as 'belasah saja la', or 'to hell with it'.

Sadly, where I am now is not where I put the notes which I jotted down the quotes is. Pahe dok?

So here are some that I remember,

"I quietly agree"
No, he doesn't mean he agrees in secret, he means, he 'quite' agrees with his friends opinion. He kept saying he 'quietly', and towards the end of the discussion, his group member finally got annoyed because she couldn't understand and yelled 'you what??'. Though I caught on to this much earlier because he talked rather quietly.

Another one was the his group member,

"Not at all people" and "Almost people"

This student wanted to say "Not everyone", but ended up saying "not at all people". Like "not at all people are like that, only some people". Her friends picked up on the mistake, but they weren't sure of it themselves.
"Almost people" was supposed to be "almost everyone". This student used her creativity and combined 'most ' with 'all'. So you'll hear, "almost people have a mobile phone".

Any of your students make up their own expressions like this?