The Proper Use of an English Dictionary

 In the 1990s, I was born and grew up in a small town called Sabak Bernam where English is an alien language. Thus, the level of proficiency among the students there has been low generally. Good English teachers are relatively scarce too.

As a kampung boy, I was fortunate that I met a private English tutor who has changed my life. He had grown up in the same town and he apparently came home from a city and taught English. As a result of his intriguing teaching method and my profound interest in English, I observed a dramatic improvement in my command of English. I have been carrying much of his knowledge until today, particularly the know-how to use an English dictionary.

Fast forward to 2025, I am a working professional and a freelance English tutor, teaching a few small groups of students English virtually on Saturdays. Most of my students come from rural areas where English is hardly heard or spoken. It is a shame to see all of them do not know how to use an English dictionary, or rather, they do not use it at all.

Nowadays, they are fortunate to have various online aids such as Google, free online dictionaries and dictionary pens to learn new words; but they only check their meanings and move on. They fail to understand the words well enough, such as their pronunciation, part of speech and use.

 For instance, to arrive means to reach a place and it is usually followed by the preposition at before a place. One of my students omitted the preposition when he wrote a clause that went: we arrived the park. He knew the word but he did not know how to use it correctly. From his perspective, he intended to express his idea by mere translation from Chinese that is tantamount to we reached the park.

Therefore, I'd like to provide a brief illustration on how to use an English dictionary properly. Different dictionaries have different entries. If one looks up the word arrive in an English dictionary, the basic elements in the entry are generally shown in the snippet below that has been adapted from the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary, International Student's Edition:

These elements apply to the online dictionaries too. Today, with all the free online dictionaries available that English learners could be spoilt with, when you click the icon of a loudspeaker () as shown in the screenshot taken from www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com, you can listen and repeat the sound after it. Unlike my school days, I could only learn pronunciation via the IPA.

Speaking as a kampung boy who sees English as a foreign language, my humble advice to the other English learners, if you are serious in improving your command of English, please invest in a good English dictionary because to quote a mantra from my English tutor, it is your best English teacher. Most importantly, use it properly and it will definitely come in handy and be worth your money. 

Of Altercation & Alteration

 Altercation is a heated argument or disagreement,

Alteration is making a change to something like a garment,

For example, a customer is having an altercation with a tailor over unfit alteration to his garment.

Please Touch Bread with a Tongue?

Tongue is a soft piece of flesh in your mouth that is used for tasting, speaking, etc.

Tongs is a tool with two long parts joined at one end, used for picking up things.

I wouldn't buy any bread from a bakery that allows customers to touch their bread with tongues instead of tongs. Unhygienic and sloppy, isn't it?

Of Salon and Saloon

SALON and SALOON are poles apart, yet there are those who keep mixing the two.

A 'salon' is a commercial establishment for beauty (there are a few other meanings as well, but for the purpose of this particular discussion, this one suffices), so it's a beauty salon, not beauty saloon.

A 'saloon', on the other hand, is a pub/bar/tavern (of course there are other meanings to saloon too, but we are not going there).

If you go to a salon, chances are you'll come out stone-cold sober and with your beautiful coiffure; but you are likely to leave a saloon drunk as a lord and with your hair dishevelled.

Grammar: Verb Pattern (Part 2)

This blog is a short one because I am going to share with you about verbs followed by infinitive without "to". The verbs are let and make.

Let and make are followed by an infinitive without to in active voice sentences. They always have an object before the infinitive. 

Examples:

1) Do not let Alice go. (Alice = object; go = infinitive)

2) The staff made his client wait while he checked the documents. (his client = object; wait = infinitive) 

Help is another verb that is followed by infinitive without "to", but it is fine to use it with to-infinitive. 

Examples:

1) Please help me find my dog.

2) Please help me to find my dog.

Grammar: Verb Pattern (Part 1)

In this blog, I will share about one of the verb patterns that English users are likely to use in their daily life - hear, see, etc. + object + infinitive or -ing.

We can use either the infinitive without "to" or the "-ing" form after the object of verbs such as hear, see, notice, watch. The infinitive without "to" often emphasises the whole action or event, which someone hears or sees. The "-ing" form usually emphasises an action or event, which is in progress or not yet completed.

Example:

Jason saw a young man rode off with his girlfriend on the pillion.	The speaker observed the whole event.
I heard him singing in the bathroom, when I walked in to the house.	The action was in progress, but not completed.

The -ing form can also emphasise that an event or action is repeated.

Example:

We watched the movers moving back and forth, taking boxes out of the house and loading the truck.

After can or could with one of these verbs, we always use the -ing form, not the infinitive.

Example:

I can hear people laughing. They must be in the next room.

Ithaka - A Poem about Life as a Journey

I came across this very poem in 2013 when I was at my 4th year of tertiary education. The poem was illustrated in a comic by Gavin Aung Than. I found this poem interesting because it depicted life as a journey. It gave me a lot of food for thought because my last year of university life was about to end and I had to seriously think and plan for my future. Back then, I was aimless...

Ithaka was written by Constantine P. Cavafy (1863 - 1933) - a Greek poet of the 20th century. The poem was then translated by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard. It was based on Homer's account of Odysseus's journey home in his poem - The Odyssey.

Life has always been bittersweet and that is the journey that everyone must go through. We learn and grow from the bitter moment; and we live and appreciate the sweet moment. Do not rush through the journey because life is not about the destination, but all about the journey - the experiences and memories that you have gained to make your life flourishing and fulfilling.

This poem gives us hope about life and it motivates us to move on even though life could be challenging sometimes. Hope you enjoy reading this poem like I do. 😉

Ithaka

by Constantine P. Cavafy

As you set out for Ithaka

hope your road is a long one,

full of adventure, full of discovery.

Laistrygonians, Cyclops,

angry Poseidon   don't be afraid of them:

you'll never find things like that on your way

as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,

as long as a rare excitement

stirs your spirit and your body.

Laistrygonians, Cyclops,

wild Poseidon   you won't encounter them

unless you bring them along inside your soul,

unless your soul sets them up in front of you.

Hope your road is a long one.

May there be many summer mornings when,

with what pleasure, what joy,

you enter harbors you're seeing for the first time;

may you stop at Phoenecian trading stations

to buy fine things,

mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,

sensual perfume of every kind   

as many perfumes as you can;

and may you visit many Egyptian cities

to learn and go on learning from their scholars.

Keep Ithaka always in your mind.

Arriving there is what you're destined for.

But don't hurry the journey at all.

Better if it lasts for years,

so you're old by the time you reach the island,

wealthy with all you've gained on the way,

not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.

Ithaka gave you the marvelous journey.

Without her you wouldn't have set out.

She has nothing left to give you now.

And if you find her poor, Ithaka won't have fooled you.

Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,

you'll have understood by then what these Ithakas mean.

Learning Vocabulary Through Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19)

Learning vocabulary through a context would help the learners understand and remember the words more easily and effectively.

In 2020, the human race has been stricken by a novel coronavirus outbreak. I went through some articles to write a short and general summary about the novel coronavirus with some words, which have been frequently used in many reports or articles.

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Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19)

A pneumonia of unknown cause detected in Wuhan, China was first reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) Country Office  in China on 31 December, 2019. The disease appeared to be epidemic in Wuhan before WHO declared it as a pandemic because the disease has been widespread throughout the world.

The novel coronavirus disease was named as Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19).

The disease outbreak happened because it was very infectious - the virus transmission took place easily from human to human. The transmission occurred through respiratory droplets from coughing and sneezing.

Some common symptoms of COVID-19 are fever, dry cough and tiredness. Some people might encounter loss of taste or smell. One of the serious symptoms is shortness of breath.

The people, who were infected with the virus, might appear to be symptomatic and asymptomatic. Asymptomatic virus carrier could pose risk to the people around them.

Therefore, in many countries, precautionary measures have been introduced to contain the spread. The people must wear masks whenever they go out and practise social distancing at 1 metre. They also have to practise good personal hygiene by washing their hands regularly with soap and water.

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List of vocabulary and its definition (reference: Cambridge Dictionary):

pneumonia: a serious illness in which one or both lungs become red and swollen and filled with liquid

epidemic: the appearance of a particular disease in a large number of people at the same time

pandemic: a disease that exists in almost all of an area or in almost all of a group of people, animals, or plants

outbreak: a time when something suddenly begins, especially a disease or something else dangerous or unpleasant

infectious: (of a disease) able to be passed from one person, animal, or plant to another; contagious

transmission: the process of passing something from one person or place to another

symptomatic: showing symptoms of a particular disease

asymptomatic: showing no symptoms of a particular disease

Demonstration on the Main Idea Elaboration

The basic ways to elaborate on a main idea are using "wh-" questions and also giving some examples.

Here, I will demonstrate how I elaborate using the methods.

1. Smoking is hazardous to health.

Why is smoking hazardous?
> A cigarette contains numerous harmful chemical substances.
> Even the smoke given out from the burning of the tobacco in a cigarette consists of detrimental chemical elements.

What are the chemical substances in the cigarette and the detrimental elements in the smoke? / Giving some examples.
> (in the cigarette) Nicotines and tars
> (in the smoke) Benzene and carbon monoxide

How do these chemical substances affect our health?
> Nicotines can make a smoker addict to smoking; whereas tars can blacken lungs.
> Benzene is carcinogenic and carbon monoxide, if inhaled in large amount, can lead to fatality.

Now, place all the points in a paragraph, it will be written as:

Smoking is hazardous to health, because a cigarette contains numerous chemical substances, such as nicotines and tars. Nicotines can make a smoker addict to smoking; whereas tars can blacken lungs. Even the smoke given out from the burning of the tobacco cause health problems to the people around the smoker, because the smoke consists of detrimental elements like benzene and carbon monoxide. Benzene is carcinogenic and carbon monoxide, if inhaled in a large amount, can lead to fatality.

For the next two main ideas, I will elaborate each of them in the form of paragraph only.

2. Deforestation can cause global warming.

Deforestation can cause global warming. Global warming takes place due to the increase of the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, as carbon dioxide traps the heat of the sun within the surface of the earth. Forests need carbon dioxide for the process of photosynthesis. If deforestation occurs, the forests will decrease, and in turn, the concentration of carbon dioxide will increase. As a result, global warming arises.

3. Recycling is important to save our mother earth.

Recycling is important to save our mother earth. Plastic and glass products are not biodegradable even though they are buried under the soil for a long time. Landfills are no longer a practical method to dispose off the wastes as many of the wastes may pollute the land. Besides, the lands are limited. Recycling, specifically paper recycling, can also help save the natural resources like trees.

One last thing to note, elaboration does not only require the skills mentioned. It also requires some knowledges to make the elaboration convincing and matured. So, read more! =D

Exercise of Main Idea Elaboration

The previous blog discussed about the components in an essay and also how the structure of the content is supposed to be. As mentioned, for the body, each paragraph must have a main idea with its supporting ideas.

Reinforcement Exercise
Elaborate the following main ideas.

1. Smoking is hazardous to health.
2. Deforestation can cause global warming.
3. Recycling is important to save our mother earth.

Recall what you have learnt from the previous blog on the basic ways to elaborate a main point. Use "wh-" questions and give some (concrete) examples. Try to do this exercise and try ask your teacher to help you mark them for grammatical mistakes.

I will demonstrate how I elaborate those main ideas on the next blog. Try to elaborate them on your own. Enjoy trying!

Techniques of Writing (Part 1) - Components in an Essay

In English 1119 Paper 1, there are two sections, Sections A and B, whereby Section A is directed writing (35 marks) and the latter is continuous writing (50 marks). To score well in this paper, apart from being good in the language, some techniques are required. In this blog, I will share one of the techniques - components in an essay.
Basically, this skill is best used in argumentative, factual and expository writing.

An essay must contain:
(i) an introduction,
(ii) body/content, and
(iii) a conclusion

An essay must have at least 5 paragraphs:
 1 for the introduction and 1 for the conclusion
 At least 3 for the content

For the content, each paragraph must have 1 main idea and its elaboration/supporting details.

The basic skills to elaborate the main idea are using “wh-“questions like what, why, who, when, how, and giving some examples.

Example:
Main idea: I like to eat bananas.

1) Ask yourself, why you like eating bananas?
Answer: They are tasty and their skins are easy to be peeled off.

2) Ask yourself, how much you like bananas?
Answer: Everyday, I must eat at least three bananas, that is, one after breakfast; one after lunch; and one after dinner. (The phrases in italics are examples)

Hence, when you write in a paragraph:
I like to eat bananas. It is because they are tasty and their skins are easy to be peeled off. Everyday, I must eat at least three bananas, that is, one after breakfast; one after lunch; and one after dinner.