The Truth about Children and Divorce

Review by KIT LUM
The Star, May 28, 2006
 
THE TRUTH ABOUT
CHILDREN AND DIVORCE
By Robert E. Emery
Publisher: Plume, 313 pages
(ISBN 0-452-28716-2)

IF only divorces were just about two people packing their bags and going their separate ways – how simple things would be! But in most cases, when children are involved, a divorce becomes an emotional battlefield for the entire family.

The Rise and Fall of a Yummy Mummy

Review by KIT LUM
The Star, May 26, 2006
 
The Rise and Fall of a Yummy Mummy 

Author: Polly Williams

Publisher: Time Warner Books, 371 pages

(ISBN 0-316-73080-7)

I T HAS been six months since Amy Crane had her baby. Yet, she still looks six months’ pregnant. Pregnancy had been her licence to eat. Of course, she had no way of knowing that popping the baby would only relieve her of only a few pounds. And the rest of the weight was going to stay on her, with her – forever, it seems.

Swallowing Grandma

 
Author: Kate Long
Publisher: Picador, 336 pages

The Star, April 21, 2006

Review by KIT LUM

THEY say don’t judge a book by its cover. But that’s exactly what I did when I picked up Kate Long’s Swallowing Grandma. I was drawn to the cover. It’s simple, it’s cute, it appealed to me. I imagined the book would be light and funny like the illustrated dog and trolley on the cover. 

Create a Family Reading Room

This is one idea that is making a quick comeback. In today’s age of technology and the Internet, the desire of children and adults to read is steadily declining. Families used to get together and read books and tell stories.

But now, good quality family time is decreasing as fast as their desire to read.  So what can you do to help your family start reading again?  Change your spare room into a reading room – a.k.a. a home library.  This can be done with simple, easy, and practical decorating. 

Is Grammar REALLY Important for a Second Language Learner?

This is a typical question that I receive from many new students and website visitors. My answer is clear and simple: “indeed.” Grammar is the backbone of a language and without it any single thing you know may be flux, in a sort of jelly without much consistency.

In a nutshell, grammar provides you with the structure you need in order to organize and put your messages and ideas across. It is the railway through which your messages will be transported.

This shirt is broken?

One of the most common mistakes made by English learners is translating directly from their mother tongue. It’s a very natural thing to do, of course - to think in your own language and convert that into English. But the problem is this…

The grammatical structures of English may be very different from those of your mother tongue. So a direct translation would result in incorrect word order, inappropriate vocab use as well as grammatical mistakes. These would make your English sentences sound very awkward indeed.

Here are some simple sentences translated directly from another language. See if you can correct them:

Rev Up Your Vocab

The Star, Mind Our English, 31 December 2002
by Kit Lum

EVER been completely lost for words in mid-sentence in a room full of people? If you have, you’ll agree it’s an embarrassment that’s not easy to live down, and some of you might even have wished the floor beneath your feet had opened up and swallowed you whole.

Whether it’s a genuine case of having a poor vocabulary at their disposal, or the inherent tendency to take linguistic shortcuts, Malaysians in general seem to confine themselves to using the bare minimum of English words – just enough to get themselves understood.

An Ear for English

i-asianwomen.com, 6 August 2003
by Kit Lum

Like speaking, listening is another skill that we often overlook simply because we have come to take it so much for granted.

In the same way that being able to speak does not necessarily mean being able to make yourself understood, hearing does not equal listening or making sense of what is said.

Both listening and speaking require a certain level of confidence before communication can even take place. Understanding is key in both, without which you will lose or misunderstand the information that is being communicated and respond inappropriately.

With a skill such as reading, however, you can always stop, check and go back over something that you didn’t understand. With writing, you may also reword something vague or inappropriate until you get it right.

In the Practice

i-asianwomen.com, 23 October 2003
by Kit Lum

If you live and work in a place where people around you speak a language other than English, you’re probably asking yourself how you will ever find the opportunity to practise your speaking skills.

It’s easy enough to develop your reading, listening and writing skills because you can practise these on your own. But when it comes to speaking, you obviously need someone to talk to and practise on. So now if you really want to practise speaking English, you’ll have to look for opportunities to speak it. But where?

How do you pronounce “archive”?

Look on the side column of most blogs. You’ll see the word “archive“. You will see this word on many blogs. It is simply a place where historical documents are kept for future reference.

For example, all the old posts from this blog are kept in the archive and labelled by month. It makes it easier for you to search for something that I’ve posted here in previous months.