Carry Bag with a Message

Notice anything interesting about this carry bag? This bag is perfect to teach grammar in real life.

I know that cakes can be baked or steamed, but cooked? Can you spot other errors?

Nation is Rice

There's quite a lot of borrowing from English to Malay and one can generate some rules based on the transformation of words. I'm interested in the English words that end with the suffix -tion which are usually 
substituted with -si in Malay. Some of the examples are:

transformation--transformasi

edition--edisi

action--aksi 

I'm sure you can guess where I'm heading with the three examples given. Assuming we have to translate the following into Malay:

The nation is in need of rice.

If the above rule applies, then we'll have "Nasi perlukan nasi." Silly jokes aside, our nation is in many ways synonymous with rice. Without rice, the nation will surely suffer. It is after all our staple diet. 

Perhaps DBP should consider allowing negara to be synonymous with nasi. What say you?

Happy Teacher's Day

Teachers today are remembered and celebrated for the countless things they do to ensure the success of their students. Or are they? Like most annual celebrations, we tend to lose sight of the real purpose of even having teacher's day. I'd like to spend sometime here just to debunk some myths associated with teaching.

It is not a day just for teachers who are attached to any teaching establishments, though they do deserve our affirmation. Rather, it is a day to remember those who have taught us in one way or another and made us better in some ways. Parents who teach us by their words and actions are deserving of our honour. 

It is not about criticising or ignoring those teachers who have failed us. Rather, it is about celebrating those few who have been patient with us even though comprehension of ideas has a way of evading us. It is also about remembering those moments when our work did not go unrecognised by those keen eyes. 

It is not about the length of time invested in it for teaching is not necessarily educating. So we have and will encounter people who will teach us useful things when needed. It may be a few minutes or a few days but those teaching and learning moments are necessary.

I believe when we do understand the true meaning of this day, teacher's day is a celebration for all of us. We teach and are taught. Happy teacher's day to all of us. 

The Faithful Husband

With so much news on marital breakdowns, I feel that The Necklace serves as the panacea for all that. And in this case, it is the husband Monsieur Loisel who deserves our utmost respect for ensuring that his marriage to Mathilde can withstand all sorts of hardships that assail them. For those of us familiar with the story, we know that their downfall is in a way due to Mathilde's folly.

There are three reasons why I think this unsung hero should be given some form of recognition. You may have other reasons which you are most welcome to share.

The first is that he does not blame his wife for their misfortune. The husband is willing to part with his money which he has saved for himself so that Mathilde could get herself a nice dress for the party. Yet, this is what he gets in return:

"I'm utterly miserable at not having any jewels, not a single stone, to wear," she replied. "I shall look absolutely no one. I would almost rather not go to the party."

His suggestion that flowers would do has fallen on deaf ears. In the end, she settles for a borrowed piece of supposedly expensive jewellery as suggested by her husband. And in one night, their whole life turns into a living nightmare because she loses it during the party. Loisel does not put the blame on her carelessness. He even goes to the extent of working extra hours so that the debt can be paid:

Her husband worked in the evenings at putting straight a merchant's accounts, and often at night he did copying at twopence-halfpenny a page.

The second is that he values her for who she is and not what she has. Sadly, Mathilde bemoans the fact that she is married to a clerk. Right from the start of the story, we know that her concerns are on externals:

She suffered endlessly, feeling herself born for every delicacy and luxury. She suffered from the poorness of her house, from its mean walls, worn chairs, and ugly curtains. All these things, of which other women of her class would not even have been aware, tormented and insulted her.

Never once in the story do we find Loisel wishing that his wife were less materialistic. Perhaps his decision not to stop her from all this folly is the cause of this sad turn of events. I prefer to think it is his love for her that panders to her every need.

And thirdly, he is able to see the jewel in the wife. It is stated that Mathilde is beautiful and one may wrongly assume that Loisel only goes for her looks. This is not so because after striving for 10 years just to pay off the debts, we have this description of Mathilde:

Madame Loisel looked old now. She had become like all the other strong, hard, coarse women of poor households. Her hair was badly done, her skirts were awry, her hands were red. She spoke in a shrill voice, and the water slopped all over the floor when she scrubbed it.

Therein lies the great tragedy in this story. Loisel sees in that wife of his the greatest treasure. Mathilde on the other hand, finds treasure in that diamond necklace which turns out to be a fake.