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12.09.2013 | 認字識字

[Volume 8 Issue 9, #1786]
上個星期我貼咗個(限量版)手寫post.. 因為長年依賴電腦打字嘅緣故, 手寫過程中先發覺寫字好似一件好陌生嘅事情, 哈哈.. 所以手字睇落總係怪怪地, 而最困擾嘅就係有好多字都已經唔記得點寫!! 之前聽過某電台DJ話, 我哋依家大部份人都係「認字」而非真正「識字」, 我好認同噃!! 尤其依家科越係先進, 唔識寫可以用intelligent suggestion, 寫錯咗可以用auto correction, 就係於一堆字中揀個啱嘅咁簡單.. 所以話喺有得揀嘅大前提之下, 認得佢就可以啦, 仲駛乜識佢吖?? 咁即係點呢?? 簡單啲嚟講, 咪就係話我哋現代人太過依賴科技囉.. 好多基本嘢都漸漸被淘汰被遺忘, 其實又唔可以話係一面倒嘅壞事, 睇下當中嘅方便快捷, 同埋以前曾被認為係天馬行空嘅事情, 都變成有可能發生嘅事情.. 我個人認為有好亦有壞囉, 我係歡迎新科技去輔助而唔係去顛倒原有嘅核心價值, 不過都係在於個人嘅睇法啫.. :)
last week i posted a (limited edition) handwritten post.. because all these years i have been relying on the keyboard to type, in the process of writing i realized that writing was quite an alien thing to me, haha.. hence the handwriting somehow looked weird, and more sadly was that there were a lot of words that i have problems spelling them out!! i once heard a radio DJ saying, that most of us nowadays tend to only "recognize" words but not actually "know" the word, i surely agree with what he said!! especially with the ever advancing technology, if we do not know the word we can always rely on intelligent suggestion, if we got the word spelt wrongly we can always rely on auto correction, all we need to do is merely choosing the right one to use from the list of suggested words.. thus under such a circumstance, it's sufficient that we just recognize the words but really knowing them isn't necessary.. so, what does that mean?? put it simple, it shows that we are now too dependent on technology.. many basics have been eliminated and forgotten, but that doesn't mean it is an absolute bad thing, look at what we enjoy from the timeliness and convenience, and those that were thought impossible become possible now.. i personally think it is a mixture of pros and cons, and i surely welcome new technology to assist but not to mess up with the original core values, anyway it's up to the views of individuals to say.. :)

104 comments:

  1. I noticed but refrained from saying anything coz I'm not an English teacher! Muahaha

    But nowadays, I rely heavily on auto-correct to spell out words correctly for me. Not really good for English learning la... ;-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Just imagine students having hand phone and accustomed to auto spell check. How to learn n write composition .

      Me too at times relay on auto spell . Cantvrecall the word so simply agak agak the sound. Key in and see what word come out

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    2. Rely or relay? Muahaha...

      Meow punya spelling is neither English nor anything Malaysian. :-D

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    3. i am also not an ET (English Teacher) either, and instead i only have UPSR level English!! but i am not afraid to say what i noticed, hehe.. and this meow, though she said she relies on auto-spell but i guess she must have turned it off already (and without knowing it), else where the hell she still has so many typo error in her comments?? hahahaha~~ :D

      so to conclude, it's the Meow Language for sure if not English nor Malay~~ :D

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    4. It's Kucing language? LOL

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    5. yes, exactly!! only kucing can understand, and well for human, perhaps need a little time to decipher first :D

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    6. Spot On! Talking about English teachers, it has become headlines in the newspaper today - Bitter Lessons For English Teachers (http://www.thestar.com.my/News/Nation/2013/09/13/Bitter-lessons-for-English-teachers.aspx)

      They are the ones who probably need help in order to help others in English.

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    7. I know someone who actually did TESL but the person's written English is so horrendous, it makes me wonder how got pass and earn degree at all.

      I mean, we all do broken grammar. We all write rojak English but the style doesn't look like it's purposely wrong one. Spelling also... make me faint only. And I'm with the SPM level English!!! @.@

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    8. Anyway, I'm always surprised at how teachers complained when they needed to acquire new skill.

      Sorry teachers out there? But for you to teach, doesn't that mean you also have to continuosly learn? No time? We office workers are bogged down with jobs too yet we needed to attend seminars and courses to upgrade ourselves.

      Why can't teachers look at it with the same positive attitude?

      No equipped to teach English but asked to do so? Do something about it!

      Stop whining.

      Everyone has it tough in life.

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    9. If teachers say they are not trained, then what's the solution?

      Teachers go find your union and raise the matter and ask for an upgrade on quality of teachers' courses la! Cannot meh?

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    10. Yes they better stop whining! Some wanna be spoon fed with skills and grammars, mana boleh? It boils down to one's own initiative and hard work to acquire the skills to master English language.

      My wife used to have several students who were sitting for O levels in private schools. Their command of English was still sucks and she asked me to help them with crash course in English tuition just months before the exams. I wanted to cry and freak out to know that many could not even use proper grammars of present, past and future tenses at the age of 17 years old!!! Why blame teachers? The students could well improved their own grammars during the 11 years of schooling. It was a bit too late to help them. Sometimes I would point fingers at the students themselves, maybe their parents too and not on the teachers. Not all teachers have poor English language skills but the majority is higher for sure.

      After observing Thailand, Japan and Korea, I have come to this point to close my eyes on knowing that English is not the main language here but we still could master this universal spoken language in future. I wonder if the standard of BM is good in our country today? If yes, then we have no worries that the standard of English is alarming as time would heal. BM is our priority for sure.

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    11. Anay,
      Apart from the Malays, do the rest even bother learning proper BM.

      I have a colleague who despite nearing retirement age, cannot understand a single word of Malay.

      And here I am, actually picking up Cantonese (a little bit la) just because I have to listen to it every day!

      Again, it all boils down to initiative.

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    12. To become a Mak Glam is also not easy too and Rome Was Not Built In A Day. We all know it was your own sheer initiative to rigorously exercise, lari, borak, watsap and blog that moulded you into a fine modern mama that all media are spotlighting on your polished qualities. Well done Lina. So you wanna learn cantonese now & we will see you appear in Wah Lai Toi someday to talk about running as a family!!

      I agree that many people are ignorant of BM language and that's their own funeral. Basically we have to excel in BM before mastering in English and not the other way round. They have to wake up and decide their life. Maybe Mak Glam need to conduct seminars on awakening the lazy bums in country.

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    13. Bwahaha...

      It's not often we get to see someone mentioning about the need to learn BM nowadays. Everyone zeroing on English saja. A pity.

      I will try and learn mandarin and make Anay proud some day! ;-)

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    14. not only Malaysian english level going down the drain la. Those stay in english speaking country also speak full of slangs.

      Takes initiatives to learn new things. Not to say English teacher only or what but also the general working people. Some will think, the more they learn the more they have to takeover and handle.

      This shouldn't be the case la but in some company they will send the staffs for various courses and then expect them to come back and take on more responsibility with no additional compensation what-so-ever.

      THe staff have too many things to handle and can't cope and it affect their appraisal. Year end appraisal the management will claim the staff have not sacrifice enough .

      all these depend on how the higher management handle it la. if kena bertubi-tubi, staffs will lose initiative to learn more.

      Yeah some teachers also not good in language. Like J's Chinese teacher...homework not completed and she wrote "incompleted". I have told the Principal and she said this teacher's english is poor but mandarin is good. Hard to have in-in situation.

      Saw in newspaper they are going to increase learning hours of Bahasa Malaysia/melayu(what term is it now they are using? Melayu or Malaysia?). There is good and bad la. Good is that more students will benefit from the extra hours but the downside, wondering the time for the extra hours will be taken from which subject.Will the schooling hours be extended?

      Anyway, seems now it's good business opening tuition centre leh. Sure many parents will wanna send their kids for extra tuition LOL.

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    15. But Meow,
      Isn't it worrying that the principal is quite OK in accepting mediocrity? Just because I think she/he is thinking more about the bottomline i.e profit?

      When you start teaching kids the wrong things from the start and building a wrong base sine early, it might stick to the children/students and hard to be rectified later on.

      It's funny how anyone can be a kindie teacher here. You need to have a degree to be one in Japan. Plus, it's a respected post.

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    16. over here any form 5 student can be kiddie teacher liao lor

      Delete
  2. Morning SK!

    Morning everyone!

    It's a cool yet sunny morning today. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  3. You notice or not, quite a few people made spelling mistakes using similar sounding words that actually has different meaning.

    I've seen people use aspect when they want to say expect. Or they for their. Pedal for paddle.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Me lah one of these people. Like I always confused advice n advise, principal n principle., stationery n stationary.

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    2. yeah, many people somehow are confused between those words.. and may i give another example which is fairly common - deadline and dateline..

      meow, it's very simple.. advice/advise and practice/practise.. remember Noun and Verb?? N comes before V, so as C comes before S.. hence C is noun and S is verb.. got it?? that was what my teacher thought me last time.. :)

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    3. I thought SK said English is UPSR level only?

      I also still confused at noun and verbs, adverbs, and all those nonsense.

      I just type and hope people understand! LOL

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    4. because that was thought by my primary school teacher dei~~ haha!! but nowadays people don't care lah, seems like they are used interchangeably, as long as can get the meaning.. :D

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    5. I belong to the old school where much English was being spoken and used even though my era was Bahasa Malaysia as the main medium language in all subjects. It was due to the fact it was a Christian Brothers school, so most of us spoke English instead.

      Anyway, some fellas deemed me as very proficient and fluent in English but I do not think so. I am still very handicapped and still need to crack my heads slowly whenever I spelled many very simple words -

      Example: Dessert or Desert / Sumptuous / Thoroughly / crematorium / Abattoir / Amethyst and many others etc.

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    6. The auto correct is still turned on.the only thing is this phone is too smart. When I typed wrong words and proceeded to"enter" ..the phone will "learn" and stored new words. Hence the wrong/spelling error pun become "correct" word lo...hitam jadi putih ..putih jadi hitam...ahhhh the wonder of technology. ..I have created a new language muhahaha.....

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    7. cham...now i feel like am in kindergarten level liao ..LOL..

      wah lau eh...anay ni ...I have to check online dictionary to see the meaning of Abattoir...

      Noun verb past continous bla bla all given back to teacher liao...

      even during school exam I tarak really think of all these ..which one comes after which...just hentam write composition and agak-agak...as long as the sentences sounds okay then no eyes see already. Think I pass English due to all the stories books I've read la. Somehow subconciously got the feeling of how to make the correct sentence.

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    8. I remember last time, friends studied and prepared for 1119 paper by listening to English songs. Hahaha

      But I think now cannot trust English songs to learn English already la. All crazy language in songs already. @.@

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    9. Hahaha....1119 Yeah got some friends took that paper too.

      Now some english song we cant even learn how to sing leh...got all those weird words ..Cant help imagining what will happen if we buat karangan using those words. sure the examiner pening LOL

      Delete
  4. Phewwwwww!!!! I thought you were going to ask us to put all those words together to see what you're telling us! *faints* Muahahahahahaha!!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. muahaha!! if you are able to make a meaningful sentence from that scramble of words, i would be very curious to know what it is.. this tough job sure must be assigned to an English Teacher huh?? :p

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    2. I met 2 top students in my wife's university and they have won the championships in our country for Scrabble games. Their minds are playing with words all the time whole day until they need to fiddle the Scrabble words inside their phones to get their fix. They were born natural genius with a dictionary & vocabulary spellings inside their heads. I found them slightly abnormal and disturbing to have these abilities!

      They should become English teachers but no. They wanna become doctors instead.

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    3. errr.....hope the two doctors wont scrabble the medicines for the patients :p

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    4. I hope those two students are compassionate as well as clever Anay.

      Too often nowadays, those who are bright and scored straight As are not compassionate and doesn't seem to care about others.

      Which results in Doctors who doesn't care about their patients.

      Delete
  5. I don't have auto correct but there's the pink wavy line to tell me the spelling's wrong so I would correct myself...or google to confirm - sometimes more than one spelling is correct, especially UK VS US.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. yeah, good and bad i would say if you have the auto-correct feature turned on.. i'm in a dilemma whether to turn it off actually.. in a sense it actually helps, but at the same time it may also mess up and make me unaware of my mistakes..

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  6. Vanakum! Without auto correction, spell check or internet to reconfirm spelling definitely would face a great challenge with spelling as we seldom use our grey matter anymore haha.

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    Replies
    1. Gray or grey lol....both also correct right. This cat not much grey matter left la. More grey hair got la. Evrn that gugur - ing now...

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    2. Sama sama one. Yankee uses 'gray' and Engkok lang uses 'grey' and Msian often use 'white' when referring to hair haha.

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    3. yeah, gray or grey are both acceptable.. and i think we somehow are using UK and US English as one already.. as long as others could understand, it really doesn't matter right??

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    4. I prefer the way English is being used following the proper Queen's English which could help one to pronounce better! Somehow the UK's English also have some words that are pronounced differently like Fulham / Leiscester and etc... I am sure you are aware of this Ah boy!

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    5. yes...i sokong...me say white hair LOL

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  7. Not to mention about spelling sometimes we have to think twice to recollect our own house phone or spouse's handphone number coz we rely too much on fast dial. Wonder is there anyone who cannot remember their house or spouse telephone number?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Me...house num I cannot remember. Always depending on speed dial. Spouse number I remember la though only one of the number. Lol

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    2. oh yeah, with the auto-correction we don't really need to know exactly how a word is spelt or written, just agak-agak and the feature will do the trick.. errr, come to telephone number, i think i am very reliant on the speed dial, i may not be able to even remember some numbers that i often call~~ :D

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  8. True, we tend to rely so much on the convenience but it has helped us a lot in choosing the correct word. I agreed that some might choose the wrong word but if we know the intended word, we wouldn't be making that mistake.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sometimes I have to counter check my spelling too if I'm not sure. Nowadays people tend to use short forms too so I guess if we understand the other person's opinion, then it doesn't matter much to me.

      Delete
    2. Auto correction is a nuisance too as our intended words could be otherwise especially when we use our handphone. I don't like auto correction. I prefer to spell my own words.

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    3. the auto-correction can be helpful and at the same time can be a nuisance too.. so i am in a dilemma whether i shall turn it on or off, haha!! but you are right, as long as we could understand the meaning, we don't really care about the spelling and grammar, at least for us non-English teachers, haha, i do not know about you the English teacher~~ :D

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    4. My grammar is completely atrocious. Spelling still OK, thanks to auto-correction and google. But never mind. At least I got an excuse that

      1. am not English teacher
      2. Never study/live in English speaking countries
      3. Stop learning formal English after Form 5.
      wakaka

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    5. but your English is high standard lah, at least when i see the word "atrocious" you used, i have to look it up in the dictionary first.. :D

      yeah.. same here all that three excuses plus
      4. English is not my mother-tongue..

      hehehe!! :p

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    6. Yeah I agree that this Mak Glam often used bombastic English words that only God knew that I had to google its meanings! Muahahahahaha!

      Other than that she created her own hilarious slangs! LOL No wonder she is born to be Mak Glam the trend setter.

      Delete
    7. Oi! Those hilarious slang I learn from Brit magazine tau! Bukan sendiri invent one! Hahaha

      Delete
    8. Ooooo you learnt from Brit magazines! You seem to be ahead of times in slangs and K-Pop too. It was you who ogled at the men in black suits that got me addicted to Korean TV shows now. I am glued to the programmes like Running Man, Barefoot Friends, Gag Concert and others. Thanks to Lina for giving me eye bags!

      Delete
  9. Morning!!! Morning!!! Everyone!!! =]

    ReplyDelete
  10. That's true, like sometimes I just use the "auto fill up" function instead of typing every single alphabet, which makes don't know how to spell a lot of words!!! =[

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. yes, very true.. that intelligent suggestion to help you complete a phrase, it's so useful right?? that is why, we got too reliant on that until we may have forgotten the phrase itself..

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    2. and yet, some people still make mistakes despite having the ease of using this function. LOL

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    3. it's because they keep repeating the same pattern, and that intelligent suggestion is prompted to give the same choices all the time, and then they just repeatedly choose the same wrong one~~ :D

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  11. Good morning ah boy and all

    Am spamming from mcd again with my imperfect typing n English

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. eih, you better turn on your auto-correction lah, else we have tough time deciphering your meow language dei~~ :D

      Delete
    2. either that, or don't type too fast plus check before you press the enter button! Hahaha

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    3. hahaha, most of the time i would be very careful on what i type, usually will read again before i send out.. just don't want to create confusion or misunderstanding and then embarrass anyone~~ :)

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    4. I give this Small Kucing the crown for typing the most horrendous English spelling errors so often until I got migraine. Wakakakaka

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    5. I'm googling "horrendous" now.

      Tell me I use bombastic word. Itu apa, Anay? :P

      Anyway, mana ada I use bombastic words. All normal words mah...

      Kalau bombastic, I pun dunno how to spell! Wakaka

      Delete
    6. Aiyoooo you pun tau ini horrendous lah...!

      Wait, wait...I will scroll back your backdated posts when I am free and fish out all the bombastic words. You actually gave me free vocabulary lessons!! I should thank you instead lah Mak Glam!

      Delete
    7. give crown only ah...tak mau la....want money...

      my phone very "smart" ...it had learn all the "wrong/error" words and incorporated into the dicionary. Duno how to delete those word....LOL

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    8. You go to pajak gadai and sell the crown then can get $$$ la MEow.! LOL

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    9. Pajak gadai they dont give enough money leh. They give certain percentage only

      Delete
  12. not bad.. I should learn from you!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. learn what from me?? :D

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    2. I oso want to learn!!!

      What's today's lesson, again?

      Delete
  13. Yes, the youngsters especially... when they write essays, they couldnt spell out the whole word.. sigh..sad, huh...
    My girl wrote me a sms.."Bc in the evening"... I thought she said Busy in the evening..but actually she meant.. Back in the evening... aiyoh... Bc is back???

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Haha speaking about sms, there're even more short cuts! Some really mislead people one...
      But Claire, usually bc is back, busy will be bz. hehe :p

      Delete
    2. hmmm, generation gap lah.. i would have thought "bc" means busy.. if "back" then i will just type "bk", agree this makes more sense right?? haha..

      yes, i have to agree with Hayley.. some people are just too good with short form until i totally cannot understand, or maybe misunderstand.. so if possible, i try to not use short form.. but nowadays, whatsapp already lah, no need to worry about the message length~~

      Delete
    3. back not bck ka? Bc i will also think means busy or Blind copy

      Delete
  14. I have seen colleagues type BB in place of baby for a payment transaction. O_O

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. errr, BB is quite commonly accepted as a short form for baby.. but in a payment transaction?? i thought it's official and formal, better use proper words right??

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    2. Yes, while it's acceptable in an informal setting, please do use proper English at work la... Jaga itu corporate image sikit. :P

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    3. yalah, i really cannot accept the use of BB at work!! hahahaha~~

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    4. Honestly I just learned the word BB Cream during the HHBC watsap when Yannie said it. I was dumbstruck for a moment. Muahahahaha

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    5. aiyoh, issue cheque give angpow for staff with newborn baby. Then, on the PV, type BB pulak instead of baby. So unprofessional. Sakit mata I tau! Hahaha

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  15. 现在都没什么机会写字,尤其是华语字,都还给老师还得7788了 ;(

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 對呀, 所以我的手機的中文字, 不用漢語拼音而是選擇手寫輸入, 這樣可以訓練自己囉~~ :)

      Delete
  16. I understand what you mean by recognizing words instead of knowing them.. but not for English words.. for Chinese words! I can recognize some of the common chinese words but can never write them out. Haha

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. yeah, it's more relevant to Chinese words when it comes to recognizing.. so you can learn Chinese pretty easily now huh?? haha.. English words, i guess would be just remembering that few letters and let the auto-correction do the suggestion right?? :p

      Delete
  17. Good afternoon SK and everyone!!
    A long weekend is coming soon, woohoo!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. yeah, another long weekend.. i wonder if KL will be quiet again when most of the people choose to go back to hometown??

      Delete
  18. Hmm ya speaking about handwriting, I can understand how you feel by writing those words the other day.
    I think I won't have much problems on spelling, but I do have ugly handwriting, haha xD
    So don't ask me to write such long 'letters' now.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yea, blame it on those auto corrector these days, it may be a smart and helpful invention, but it also makes us rely on it too much til we don't bother about remembering the correct spellings.

      Delete
    2. Anyway, since you have tried to write in english the other day, why not challenge yourself further by writing chinese words?
      I bet it'll be more fun, and harder too! xD

      Delete
    3. hahaha, you have ugly handwriting?? eih, i am curious and i want to see.. you are a pretty lady, just cannot imagine you have ugly handwriting lah, haha!!

      yeah, i am also quite reliant on auto-correction nowadays.. especially when typing using the phone, my fat fingers caused me to make more typo errors, so the auto-correction actually comes to the rescue, haha!!

      errr, i actually wrote in both Chinese and English in that post lah.. you click on the different button and you can see different language.. :)

      Delete
  19. I have to agree on this. I used auto correction most of the time ! Maybe, advance technology makes me grow as a lazy.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. i guess so.. the more we are relying on the convenience bought to us by technology, the more we get lazy and perhaps stupid, haha~~ :D

      Delete
  20. 講得冇錯,原有嘅核心價值最重要。不過又有幾多人可以做得到呢?

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  21. The autocorrect while I typing on my hand phone really helps me a lot. Otherwise I will sure lots of typo error, but I know I may write a wrong word. Anyway, I will continue to improve my English. I find blogging in English is a good way to improve my English.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Agree with what you say, SK. We must absorb the best of both worlds to have a win win situation.

    ReplyDelete