Monday, 13 February 2012

wiki editing task

I used to think that Wiki is the first place to find that 'instant' information on anything. What's surprising is, me and my colleagues use wiki to find information with regards to work, information, facts, academics, theories and so on. Wiki sometimes give tons of information and it is quite useful as they have nearly all the answers to every questions. But when I tried editing Wiki, I found out there is not much information given.

My colleagues and I are now given the task to edit any wiki page that we think that needs to be edited. I do hope what we do on the Wiki page will be helpful to others who desires that quick access to the information they need. 

Wednesday, 1 February 2012

Academic Exercise-AE

One of the reasons why I want to pursue my Academic exercise is because, I love research. By research, we get to obtain the results of what we are curious about. Have you ever thought about something and ask yourself, why does this happen, and why does that happen? Is this a phenomenon that is occuring to the general public? Or is it just happening to a particular group? By research, we get the insights of what is actually occuring. What's best is, we get hold of the information on our own,with self effort and determination. Basically, to me, research is about answering my own question as well as for those who seek information.


It seems fair to me that in DELAL, whoever loves research gets a chance to do the AE. Although research can be tough and at times, very stressful, but with the proper guidance, it can be done. What I think that is crucial in doing research is proper time management. At first, I do not think it is possible to finish the paperwork by the end of the semester. However, when I was given a timeline by my lecturer, it seems very reasonable to do the research and to finish it on time. I appreciate all my lecturers in DELAL as they are approachable and and extremely helpful. AE is in a way, the one step we need in order to advance to the next level, whether we are doing a masters degree, or PHD. I hope my current AE will be a success and I do wish to continue and do further research in the future.

Thursday, 19 January 2012

Colourless green ideas sleep furiously

I got this on the internet. To ELS 2008/2012, anyone remember this sentence?

It was probably introduced to us in our 1st year or 2nd year by non other than DD himself.

Phonological Analysis!



In our phonological exercise on the 16th January, we we’re asked to find out whether glottal stops [ ʔ ] is a phoneme in Standard Arabic. We know that there is absence of the glottal stop phoneme [ ʔ ] in English, but it occurs in the speech of most speakers of English. In my observation, [ ʔ ] in English typically occurs when the phoneme [ t ] is in the phonetic structure of a word.
For example, [ bɒtəɭ ] will be uttered as [ bɒʔəɭ ].
According to my analysis, Arabic has a glottal stop phoneme and I did not notice the presence of it previously. The glottal stop in Arabic is the ‘Arabic letter’ called ‘Hamzah’ which is represented as ‘ء’. Phonological analysis really gets interesting! Studying phonological analysis and phonetics makes us have the ability to utter words or sounds in any language almost in the same manner as a native speaker, perhaps. But practice is needed of course.

However, when phonological analysis was about to get interesting, the last lecture on Features was very technical. Adrian (my lecturer) even compared the lecture of phonology to have a similar approach with a chemistry class on how an atom is made up of neutrons and protons. That lecture really took me back to my secondary school memory in chemistry class. I have a hard time understanding chemistry before and still having a hard time understanding it. I just hope that phonological analysis is nothing like chemistry! Otherwise, I can be in a lot of trouble for that particular course. What I hoping for now is to really understand it and try my best to make sense of ‘Features’ on phonological analysis.

Saturday, 14 January 2012

AmerE or BrE

An interesting observation on the pronunciation dilemma. Probably it occurs in Brunei as well. American media have spread across the world and it has influenced many individuals on their speech.
The picture depicts the tug of war on American English and British English. Semiotic on 'the struggle of which variety to have more status', perhaps?

Friday, 13 January 2012

Recording for Austism

I had a great experience today as I helped with the recording for SMARTER's jingle that is to be aired on Kristal FM. I hope more tickets can be sold for the upcoming SMARTER play called 'Oddy's Quest 2: A Journey In Search Of A Home'. It is to be held at the Indera Samudera Grand Hall, Empire Hotel and Country Club on the 21st of January 2012, 7.30pm. I'm kind of advertising here as well.

Previously, I did not bother in trying to understand what Autism is. I have heard of it, but I am not sure what it is exactly. Its a pity that I am ignorant to these things in life that is happening to others. I salute to the people who have worked hard in trying to help others who have conditions 'we perceive' as not normal. May be it Autism, or mental illness, poverty, Obesity, disabled and many more. Having one individual is not enough in trying to help others that is in need. I believe all of us should try to at least do something to help the needy. After years of living my life, I thought it was just me climbing up that ladder, but after today, the vision that I used to have in reaching a certain target or position in life is just purely on the basis of my own wants and needs. I have not thought of others that needs care and attention. In the past, I did some fieldwork with  lecturers in UBD mostly on poverty and well being, but this is the first time that I worked individuals with medical conditions. What touches me the most is that they are still children, and they need adults support, supervision and that special care and attention. 

There was a mixed feelings inside me when I worked with the children with Autism. I felt sad and touched at the same time. I am sad because these kids are really adorable, but with the conditions they have, people who do not understand them may start to say and give a negative impression on them. I am touched because with all these negative vibes around them, they actually did a far more greater job than I did on the recordings. They are far more capable than what we think. We just have to give them the chance to show what they can do. Quoting the Transformers movie "There's more than meets the eye".

I am grateful to Ayla, my lecturer to give me the opportunity to work with the children. It has been a great experience for me, and it is an eye opening for me that there is more to life. I hope someday, I can be more of a help for those people who are in need. I will start with small and simplest things now, and make my way up on to the big things.

Wednesday, 11 January 2012

First blogging experience

It is 11.32am, 12th January 2012 and I have just finished my lecture with Dr. David Deterding for EL 4216. This is the first time ever that I created a blog. I used to wonder why people blog, and after creating my own, I now know the feeling of it.

The purpose of this blog is purely academic for the EL4216 Academic and Professional Electronic Communication course. Some of the things that I will do on this blog is to give reflections and my learning experience of my academic life in University of Brunei Darussalam as an English Language Studies student.

I am currently in my 4th year and I still have a lot of work in improving my English proficiency. So i guess having a blog is not as bad as I thought it was. It is actually fun!  Probably it may be one approach where I can improve my English language skills.