Common Spelling Mistakes

Being an educator, it would be impossible to not encounter spelling mistakes that students make (here and there) when submitting their assignments, quizzes, exams and so on. So, as an effort to remind my students (and any other students out there), I hope you don't make similar mistakes such as these. The incorrect word is on the left and the correct word is on the right (just in case you didn't know ) and in alphabetical order, the mistakes are *drumroll*:

accaunt - account

acept - accept

adviseable - advisable

bangking - banking

bank office - bank

brances - branches

buy - by

card credit - credit card

ceitarn - certain

chake - check

cheaque - cheque

charges card - charge card

constrastion/ contraction - construction

convinience/ convienient - convenient

curriencies - currencies

dana/ modal - capital

defoult - default

depand - depend

developmer - developer

diriectly - directly

draf - draft

drown - drawn

easi - easy

easyly - easily

entrepenuer - entrepreneur

etcetura - etc, etcetra

finacing - financing

governmont - government

gurentee - guarantee

imediate - immediate

immidiately - immediately

individu - individual

instrustron - instruction

interes - interest

investement - investment

involvel - involved

lasee - lessor

literiture - literature

mecinery/ mecinary - machinery

oders - orders

overdraf - overdraft

overnite - overnight

pesonal - personal

pyment - payment

que - queue

recoznition - recognition

redraw - withdraw

reffer - refer

reqisted - requested

requrement - requirement

safty - safety

sistem - system

to banking money - to bank in money

transcation - transaction

trasfer - transfer

tredor - trader/ developer

widrawal - withdrawal

wont - wouldn't/ would not

I am not Little Miss Perfect. I do make spelling mistakes now and then. However, the objective of this post is to highlight the importance of spelling correctly, and if you are unsure of your word, refer to the dictionary. I do it all the time. Being an educator, I have a high tolerance level for spelling mistakes; unfortunately a majority of people don't (especially prospective employers and those in the industry).

So to all students (or anyone out there) be nice to your dictionary. If you don't have one, buy one! Or if you have a smartphone, download the free app =).

To being better.


xoxo Mrs Fashionista

Mabuhay!!

I spent four amazing days in Manila, Philippines. My dad planned a trip for us to Cebu Island but instead changed the plans and decided to bring us to Manila instead. I've never been to the Philippines and definitely I was excited.

So I went off and bought myself a Berlitz conversational Tagalog (the official Pinoy language) pocket book in order to help me show off to the locals. To tell you the truth, my Tagalog is absolutely horrible. So much so that it would be more appropriate to say that I am butchering the language *yikes*.

So, just in case you feel like leavin' for a trip to the Philippine Islands, let me share with you some phrases:

Mabuhay - Welcome

Kumusta kayo - How are you?

Mabuti naman, salamat - Fine, thank you

... Ang pangalan ko - ... is my name

Salamat po - Thank you

Magandang umaga - Good mornin'

Magandang hapon - Good afternoon

Magandang gabi - Good evening

Ang Sarap - That was delicious

What do you think? Not bad right? And if you are a Sarawakian (like me) some of their words are actually similar to ours, for example:

Manok - Chicken

Lima - Five

Lalaki - Male

Bini bini - Female

Ah, well... Those are the words that comes to mind, for now. Anyways, I will publish another post on my wonderful four-day holiday to Manila (and include all the photos, so that should you not feel like reading, you can ogle instead *aha*).

'Til my next post (which most probably be tomorrow night *sheepish grin*), cheerio peeps!

xoxo Fashionista in Action xoxo

Proverb; Or so they say

Sai Weng Shi Ma, Yan Zhi Fei Fu

Translation:

Frontier Old Man Lose Horse, Yet To Know Not Blessing

If this is a proverb, it sure sounds very cryptic. Puzzled as I was, I found out that there is actually a very simple meaning to this proverb. It is actually a very old Chinese proverb, taught to me by non other than my Mandarin "Lao Shi" (which means teacher by the way).

There is a story to the proverb. A very, very long time ago, there was an old man who lived by the border part of China. As y'all know, in the olden days, living by the border means than you might be susceptible to attacks now and then. This old man reared horses and one day, one of his horses went missing. The whole village was in uproar over the missing horse and being nice and caring villagers that they are, they all decided to visit the old man and of course to help out in any way that they can. To their surprise, when they muttered words of sympathy to the old man, the old man looked pretty calm and was not even showing the slightest remorse over the lost. Of course in the olden days, a horse was considered to be a prime asset indeed as it can be used to trade for meat as well as a means of transportation.

To the villagers surprise, the very next day, the lost horse came back and with it, it brought another five horses. Indeed the old man received a blessing for the loss as the horse brought back even more horses after it went missing. As the old man had five new horses, the old man's son decided to tame the new horses. Unfortunately, in the process of taming the new horses, the old man's son fell off the horse and was trampled. He ended up with crippled legs due to the accident. Once again, the villagers grouped off to visit the old man and offer him comfort. To their surprise (once again), the old man also did not show any remorse towards the condition of his son. Instead, the old man looked up at the sky and muttered about blessings in disguise.

True enough, a few weeks later, their country went to war and with that the government imposed a rule stating that all men (who are in good health) will be recruited for the army. And due to the accident, the old man's son was spared from leaving to war. Indeed the accident was truly a blessing for the old man and his son.

So, the meaning of the proverb after that oh-so-long lesson in history? Whatever that we lose, there might be a blessing in disguise and we might be better off (like the case of the old man) losing it.

Cheerio!

xoxo Fashionista in Action xoxo

Homework

Attended another session of Mandarin class last night. As I am now currently in intermediate class, I have to do sentence construction and also complete my homework.

Homework?

The homework consists of sentences (it could be in the form of essays or dialogs, whichever suits your fancy) that will hopefully improve our mastery of the language. Luckily I am a Malaysian. The advantage? Well, Mandarin sentences sound somewhat akin to Manglish (if you don't know what Manglish is, it's a combination of Malay and English words put together in a sentence). An absolute rojak of terrible English grammar but it actually suits us just fine. This is a sample of my homework:

Wo you yi ge mao.
I have one unit cat.

Wo de mao shi liang shui.
My cat is two years old.

Ta hei se.
It color black.

Ta hen fei.
It very fat.

Wo de mao xi huan chi yu.
My cat like eat fish.

Ou er wo de mao xi huan shu.
Sometimes my cat like mouse.

Wo hen xi huan wo de mao.
I very much like my cat.

(Disclaimer: My Mandarin is not perfect and nor is this an example of good usage of the language. Definitely my lao shi had to correct a few sentences and those corrections are not shown in the sentences above).

So, what do you think? Funny English right? Well, it sounds perfectly alright in Mandarin and if translated, it is are perfectly usable in Malay.

Cheerio!

xoxo Fashionista in Action xoxo

Ni Hao Ma

I started taking Mandarin classes ever since I knew that I was going to Beijing. As the class levels were within a four-month period (Basic classes for four months then Intermediate classes for another four months and finally Advanced classes for the last four months), I thought that by the time I went to Beijing, I'd complete my Intermediate classes. Apparently I thought wrong. Due to delays and replacement classes and also yours truly missing a few more classes, I'd ended up only completing my Basic class two weeks before my trip to Beijing. Safe to say, I could mumble a spatter of Mandarin here and there but wasn't really able to converse as well as I hoped.

However, just yesterday, my Intermediate classes have started and hopefully by the end of four months, I'll be able to quarrel in Mandarin, how's that for a change. I think I'd like that very much =D

Well then peeps, as we in Mandarin say;

Wan An, Zai Jian!

Cheerio!

xoxo Fashionista in Action xoxo