My Favourite Holiday Activity

Every year during the school holiday, me and my friends will go cycling near the paddy field because it is one of our favourite activities. Cycling will help makes our body strong and healthy.

Me and my friends cycle in a group of six. This way, we are able to take care of each other and stay safe since our parents are not coming with us. We first check the condition of our bicycles and make sure we wear a proper helmet as well as carry enough water and food throughout the journey. Lastly, before we start, we check to make sure the tyre and the brake is working safely. My father helps me with the maintenance of my bicycle.

We paddle across some paddy field. The weather is warm and the air is so fresh when we breath in. It is a very beautiful day to go cycling. We are enjoying our holiday very much. The scenery along our cycling path is breath-taking. The paddy field is so green and it stretches towards the horizon. There are birds flying in the sky, cows working in the field, dogs and cats roaming freely nearby.

Our school and neighbourhood is in the city. We see concrete building here and there. This is the time where we will go and explore the nature. My parents always encourage me and my siblings to spend more time away from computer and television. They want us to experience the nature and learn about them.

From time to time, we will take a short break to rest and to drink some water. Those who are hungry snack on the biscuit and bread that they brought. My mother made my favourite egg sandwich for me to share with my friends so we will have energy to continue our cycling trip. One of the mothers prepare a very nice fruit salad to cool us down under the hot weather.

Once done eating and well rested, we continue our journey. After half a day cycling away from home, it is time for us to cycle back in order to reach home before dark. Along the way we can see bird flying back to their nests while the sun start to set. In a short while, all of us reach our neighbourhood. Everyone is tired and it is time to go home. We farewell each other and end our day with a smile on our faces. Before we parted, we agree to go cycling again on our next holiday.

Laundry Room vocabulary

The Subject I Like Most in School

In my school, many subjects are being taught, Among all the subjects, the subject I like most in school is English.

Mastering the English language comes easy to me because I like to read the newspapers, listen to the news and watch the classic movies on television. I can easily spend most of the night reading a storybook till I doze off. The same applies to reading the newspapers. I often find myself covered by the newspapers which I was reading when I wake up.

Another reason why I like English is because it is an international language. I like it because the langue bridges the barriers between people of cross cultural backgrounds and nationalities. Everywhere we go, the language is understood and used by most people whom we meet. It makes travelling and communication easy. I like learning English also because it is a beautiful language, rich in its culture and tradition.

Lastly, I like English mostly because it is a subject that I do not need to study. Other subjects like geography and history need a lot of memorising.

My Family

There are five members in my family including my parents. We are a close-knit family.

My father is forty-two years old. He works as a lawyer and he has his own law firm in Kuala Lumpur. In his free time, my father enjoys playing golf. My mother is two years younger than my father. She is a fair and beautiful woman. My mother's favorite place a home is the kitchen. She hardly ever leaves it alone. She often dishes out delicious meals for the family and she enjoys baking cookies and cakes to raise money for charity.

James, my eldest brother, is sitting for his SPM examination this year. He is very intelligent and always does well in his exams. However, he is not a bookworm and is not as serious as he looks. In fact, he is rather funny at times and makes the whole family laugh with his jokes.

My eldest sister, Joey, is sixteen years old. She is very talented. She enjoys classical music and she plays the piano as well as the violin. I am fifteen years old and the youngest in the family.

My hobbies are reading and playing badminton. Being the youngest in the family has its privileges. My parents, brother and sister care a lot for me and are always there for me. I love my family.

My Ambition

Most people have great ambitions of becoming professionals like doctors, lawyers, engineers and accountants. My ambition is not a favorite choice for most people. I just want to become a writer.

When I told my father that I would like to become a writer, he just smiled. I asked him the reason for his smile. He told me that writing is a profession that can hardly pay for food on the table. However, he agreed that if I were to become a famous or popular writer, I would probably have a comfortable living. My father encouraged me to pursue my ambition if that was what I wanted for my life.

I did some research on some writers. I came across a light-hearted story about a writer, Mr John. One day, Mr John met his friend. His friend asked Mr John how many copies of books Mr John has sold. Mr John replied that so far he had not sold anything except his house and his car. The story shows the truth about the hard life of a writer.

Even though it is not easy to be a writer, I will pursue my ambition of becoming one in future. I must work hard so that I can become a famous writer. The pen is sharper than a sword. I hope that I can be a writer so that I can contribute positively to society and make a difference in the lives of my readers.

How to Check Cholera

Good morning, the Principal, teachers, boys and girls.

Today I have obtained the Principal's permission to talk to you about a very important matter.

As all of you already know, there is an outbreak of cholera in the housing estates around our school. Cholera is a serious infection of the bowels. It is caused by drinking infected water or eating infected food. It causes diarrhoea, vomiting and even death. So, it is a very dangerous disease. Many people have contracted the disease. Some of them are from our own school. I have read somewhere about the measures that can be taken to check the outbreak. I want to share this knowledge with all of you.

First, you have to boil all the water that you want to drink. Boiling will kill the cholera bacteria in the water. After being boiled, the water will be safe to drink.

Second, do not buy drinks from hawker stalls. Hawkers are very unhygienic ad they use water which has not been boiled for making their drinks. The water may contain cholera germs, So, you may contract cholera if you drink suck water.

Third, avoid eating at dirt food stalls. If you eat the dirt food sold at the stalls, you can easily contact cholera.

If you love eating raw or uncooked vegetables, stop it immediately. This may save your life because the uncooked vegetables may harbour cholera gems. Cook the vegetables if you really want to eat them.

It is also very important for you to wash your hands after going to the toilet. This will get rid of the germs that may have been collected on your hands.

If you are preparing food for others, it is doubly important that your hands are clean. You should wash your hands thoroughly before you prepare any food. this will remove most of the germs on your hands. If your hands are dirty, you may be infecting others with life-threatening cholera.

Next, all cooked food must be covered. Covering the food prevents flies from settling on them. Flies are the main carriers of the disease.

Many students eat at the canteen. So, unclean canteen caterers can be a source of cholera germs. Canteen operators must be sent for regular check-ups. This will ensure that they are clean and are not a source of the dangerous disease. Methods of preparing food in the canteen must also be hygienic. If the preparation of food is not hygienic, students may get cholera by eating it.

In conclusion, I would like to say this, 'If you follow my advice, you are less likely to contact cholera.'

That is all I have to say. Thank you.

The Dark Side of Korean Pop

Western music such as R&B, Hip-Hop, electronic dance was interpreted by Asian sentiments in Korea and developed a unique style of pop music. Flawless good looks, well-synchronised dance moves and catchy music tunes are the reasons why Korean pop is taking down the world. The Korean pop also known as K-pop or Hallyu has spread not only in Korea itself but Southeast Asia and Europe, and now even at America. According to Korea Creative Content Agency (KOCCA), the entertainment industry had hit about $3.4 billion last year (Rajeshni, 2012). Besides that, the K-pop also contributes in tourism industry by promoting Korea as a tourist destination. Leading K-pop group such as Wonder Girl, Girl Generation have been given recognition for their contribution in promoting Korea to the eyes of the world. But sometimes when it comes to K-pop music industry, people used to have this impression towards Korean celebrities of not having real talent but just pretty face instead.  

In order to push away this reputation of K-pop, the entertainment agency started off casting internationally, it held not only in Korea but also at Japan, China and America to recruit more talented people. Every audition there are over hundred thousands of participants, every one of them wanted to be the so called ‘K-pop idol’ but only 100 will be selected and till the end there will be only few that can actually release a debut. Of course, once you are selected, the journey to become a K-pop celebrity starts. A typical training day start as early as 5am and ends at midnight. This training day held seven days a week with hardly have any time to rest. The training session includes singing, dancing and acting. They also require to learn foreign languages such as English and Chinese.  

All of the activities and training were good to shape those trainees into a ‘all-rounded celebrity’ but when the schedule is too hectic, it will cause exhaustion. There are few cases where several celebrities such as Park JiYeon from T-ara and Sunny from Girl Generation were hospitalised due to fatigue caused by sleep deprivation. I admire their songs; their determination towards their career but then wasn’t it too ridiculous in term of the training schedule? Those celebrities are normal people just like us, they are not robot, and they need rest and holidays too. According to Hankyung, one of the members of boy band Super Junior filed a lawsuit against his respective entertainment agency SM Entertainment (SME) for their unlawful action. Hankyung’s side representative stated that he was constantly doing things that not under the contract and he did not get any single rest for two years. He is not allowed to skip any of the schedules even if he is sick, they added. According to BBC (2009) there was an event that he failed to fulfil his daily contractual obligation, he was fined for 5,000,000 won (more than 4 thousand USD).

I could not believe that such a big company like SME is treating their own artists so mean. They train those celebrities since they are 12 years old; it took them seven years or more to train and ‘packaging’ them into an all-rounded artist. In my opinion, they could just find a slightly old teenager which already have basic skills in singing or dancing and provide training for them for one or two years instead of recruiting children that age average of 12 and they are not mature enough to think what they want for future. Take Justin Bieber as an example, he was discovered through YouTube, he was an untrained artist till he get signed by RBMG company and within 2 years he becomes a popular singer all around the world, isn’t that much easier? Back to topic, imagine if those trainees grow up and noticed that they don’t like to be celebrities, they don’t have the passion to work for this industry anymore, is a waste of time and the money goes down to the drain. Yes, you might think that they already tied up with a contract; they could not escape from it, they will be fined if they did not obey the rules. Also, they have been forced to dance, sing and to entertain people all around the world without any rest. Due to stress and pressure from the working site, the easier way to relieve is to end up their life. There was a case in 2009 where famous Korean female celebrities Jang Ja-Yeon committed suicide due to the pressure and was being physically and sexually abuse when she refused to obey the contract (McCurry, 2009).    

In America, even the famous Canadian- singer Justin Bieber gets to rest and has a holiday vacation with his girlfriend Selena Gomez. But why Korea entertainment agency would want to ‘torture’ their artist this way.

The most surprising thing is that despite Korean artists are famous now but they earn very little. In fact, most of them can only get their income after the company regained the money spent training and promoting them. Furthermore the piracy rate is increasing in every country, the Korean artist are not able to gain revenue by just selling their albums. Therefore, they have to constantly attend worldwide tour, concerts and fan meetings. Even they successfully gained revenue from worldwide concert tour and endorsement of products, they have to divide among themselves. Girl Generations has total of nine members, the total revenue has to divide by nine people. Imagine how little they paid. In order to get more popular, they have to compete with one another, they have to work twice harder if they don’t want to be fade out.    

No doubt that K-pop really has arises this few years, but still there is long way to go. With all these bad news we heard of, we surely hope for a better management for the celebrities. I honestly respect those celebrities that can go through all the training and successfully release a debut. Nevertheless, giving them a little bit of freedom probably will make them feel better. It is a win-win situation as both parties are agreed and can work along together rather than suing each other and get a bad reputation for themselves.