Cerita-cerita Zainur

Hola!

When I was young and just about to learn to speak in English I used to say, "Ma, can you open the TV please". Mom would definitely laugh and said, "You don't say 'open' but you say 'switch on' ". That's because I directly translate from Malay to English word. Mom is so damn good at English and so does my grandpa. He used to work with British a long time ago and he also can speak a little bit of Japanese. Whereas me, I always mix up between Malay and English. Yeah, most Malaysian people speak "Mang-lish" and so do I. We even add "lah" at the end of sentence. For example: "You should try to read this book 'lah'. It's good!"

Even sometimes I accidentally use words like "lah", "kan" and "aah" while talking to my international friends. It just blurt out from my 'Malay tongue' mouth! Can't help it. Hee hee hee...

And yesterday, I came across Maria Elena's blog who post on "Oh, My English" a new TV shows that will first premier on 20 May 2012 at Astro TVIQ. Yaww! I immediately fall in love after watching some of their videos. I think it's a great show to learn how to speak English correctly. But too bad we don't have Astro channel in Ausie... Sob sob sob. I hope somebody will upload this show on the internet so that I can watch it later. *finger cross*

Well, let's watch and laugh at some of the common mistakes WE Malaysian always do!



psst: I laughed when I see watch the "chop" video. I think I did that most of the times and I'm so glad that the 'mat saleh' who work at the EEC didn't really 'CHOP' my form. Haha-

psst: In Malays, the 'chop or cop' is actually refer to stamp.

psst: And I'm also glad to have Kel, Pet, Bob and others international friends who have help me a lot in improving my English. Love you guys so much!

Hola ladies!

How's going on? I haven't updated anything recently. I've been so busy with my proposal review presentation and working with my experiments which always turn out to be NOT OKAY! I'm so stressful you know. But now, I'm so glad that finally the presentation date (8 May) has been confirmed after waiting for so long. Well at least, something to cheer me up! 

Pheww...almost 5 months my SV keep postponing it. And now it's officially over. Not actually OVER yet...it's just the beginning of my adventurous journey of discovery! 

The presentation happened last Tuesday. They were 6 panels. Two of them are from environmental science, three are from membrane technology & wastewater treatment field and the last panel is from material science department. All of them have gathered to review on my phd proposal. BTW this presentation is important because it’s a part of my scholarship fulfilment. If the proposal has not been accepted within one and half year, then I have to return back to Malaysia. That has been written in the scholarship agreement. The faculty’s rule is the same. All the research students need to complete the first year research review. Well, it’s important to know how significant your study is and its novelty. Plus, just to ensure that the uni has all the equipment or facility to complete the research! I guess that is essential because even though you have superb proposal but without the facility there’s nothing you could do rite?

Anyways, I feel so relief. I always had a bad imagination about my proposal presentation day. The thought that it will be thrown away in the bin always scared me. Well that has actually happen to my cousin who also doing phd in UTP. He has a wonderful idea that none of the panel could understand (I guess) and so they claimed that the proposal is stupid and even not up to master level. Cruel eh?  One of the panels dares my cousin to send it to overseas and he was so sure that the proposal is going to be rejected too. But my cousin hasn’t give-up. He even took the challenge and sent it to a few professors in different universities in overseas including Singapore. To their (the panels) surprise those professors thought my cousin’s idea is brilliant and genuine and they are eager to know the outcome of the study. In fact all of them gave him encouragement to proceed with the research. The panels must be shame that they arrange another session to review back the proposal. Haha- so funny! Though you’re a professor that doesn’t mean you’re the smartest person on the earth and the fact that you know everything. Only God knows everything! Hope they learn their lesson.

Back to my story, the presentation went well. Alhamdulillah. I presented my idea for about 20 minutes and the next 45 minutes was filled up with lots and lots of questions. I admit that some of them are beyond my knowledge that I only can answered, “I don’t know” or “I’m not sure” or “It’s just my thought that bla..bla blat”. Hah! And nobody really knows the answer. We see some potential on this research but we have no idea is it going to work or not but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try and discover them rite? So, here I am taking the risk for something that is uncertain. But, with tiny little faith and lots of prayers, hope I will discover something new & something interesting along the way & towards the end.

Oh by the way, right after the presentation I had small celebration with a group of friends. Kel baked a carrot cake for me. Auww… so sweet. They’re such a great friends who give me lots of courage & support. Love all of ‘em! XOXO