Persuasive Speech - Say No to Euthanasia

Yes, I do realize that everyone hate vertical videos. But yeah, this is the only video I got for my speech. Credits to Aidan too, he did tried to record it horizontally at first, but it's either I started my speech too fast or he's just not in the mood for a perfect normal horizontally shot video.... this was it.

Jokes aside, this is my 4th speech I had done for my Public Speaking subject. This subject, as its name would suggest, requires us BEN students to deliver different kinds of speech, namely demonstrative, informative, persuasive (this one), opinion and one final persuasive speech. All of this had to be done in about 4-5 minutes. And yes, I exceeded the time limit for this one. But I do hope you would enjoy it or gain something out of it.

Lastly, I am really really truly sorry for the insufficient number of posts lately. I've been too busy and occupied (or just lazy) to post much things here since I'm now in my first semester in UniSZA which is a long long way from home. I will promise to you that I'll update this blog about my experience here and till then, see you when I see you. :)

Asasi TESL Results (A Satisfying End)

Alhamdulillah, all praises to God....

Hello there, readers. I'm pretty sure it has been a while since I posted something here. And I've been wanting to do so, but I've been also busy helping my mom. Y'know, just to fill up all the times I have right now until September.

But, helping my mom is not the only thing I'm doing right now. Last week, I finally (sebab suka sangat procrastinate, lulz) submitted my resume and letter to apply the 'Guru Sandaran/Guru Ganti/Guru Sementara' position to the district education office (PPD). Unfortunately, once I have submitted it to the clerk over the counter, he said that the 'Guru Sandaran' position is no longer available, and the other positions are for now being halted due to limited expense provided by the government to pay those teachers. Nevertheless, he took my documents and said that there's probably a slight chance that I may become one, if there is 'rezeki'. Well, I hope so. My friends have become a teacher in a secondary school, teaching kids about English. The need to teaching makes me really want that job, and I want it fast before September comes.

Let's just hope and pray for there will be a miracle....

Well, coming back to the topic, I cannot stop uttering the word Alhamdulillah (all praises to God) once I have gotten my results for my last semester in Asasi TESL. Truthfully, I never felt worried or put up any hopes or expectations on it, considerably that I thought I did my best. The only thing I'm worried about was I probably won't get my results because I haven't paid my college fees for this semester. ^^"

All in all, around 12.30 am, Friday the 15th, I finally got my e-mail from the university with the results. The least thing I could do is to hope that I broke my own record from last semester (3.61).

Alhamdulillah..... syukur,... blessed be God Almighty!

I passed! 3.65 for my GPA. Thank heavens for everything! Then I eyed through the subjects - I got B+ for Grammar, and B for Literature - the only odd ones from the whole. I supposed I deserved that B considering I didn't submit my reflective essay on Flowers for Algernon. Why? Because that task was given the day before our final dinner. Only 24 hours before the big night! Well, I did informed my classmates about it, and they might have followed the order and did the task, but I didn't. ^^"

(So much of a class rep, huh?)

For most of you do not know, in UiTM (and maybe in some other universities as well), once you got 3.5 and above for your GPA (Grade Point Average), you are more than qualified to be in the Dean's List (DL). You can also observe the score chart on the bottom right of the picture.

This checks out another requirement for my admission to B.Ed TESL in UiTM. Next stop, MEdSi test and interview (which may happen next week). Wish me all the best! ^^

Listening & Speaking I - Part 2: Consonants

PART 2: Consonants (IPA)


Hello there, dear readers. Let us continue from the previous post about phonemic letters.

Last time, we learnt about vowels and diphthongs. In this post, we are going to learn about consonants. Phonemic consonants are a bit but not much different from the Roman consonants, with addition of a few letters that produce unique sounds such as the sounds produced by letter 'c' in the word 'chariot', the letters 'th' in 'this' and 'that', and also the letter 's' in 'pleasure'.

Phonemic consonants are divided into two types: voiced and voiceless consonants.

Voiced consonants	Voiceless consonants
/b/ pronounced as 'b' as in 'bird'	/p/ pronounced as 'p' as in 'pear'
/d/ pronounced as 'd' as in 'dog'	/t/ pronounced as 't' as in 'table'
/v/ pronounced as 'v' as in 'volcano'	/f/ pronounced as 'f' as in 'fish'
/ð/ pronounced as voiced 'th' as in 'mother'	/θ/ pronounced as voiceless 'th' as in 'thirteen'
/g/ pronounced as 'g' as in 'girl'	/k/ pronounced as 'k' as in 'key'
/z/ pronounced as 'z' as in 'zebra'	/s/ pronounced as 's' as in 'sofa'
/ʒ/ pronounced as 'zh' as in 'television'	/ʃ/ pronounced as 'sh' as in 'sheep'
/dʒ/ pronounced as 'j' as in 'jar'	/tʃ/ pronounced as 'ch' as in 'chair'

Also included in the voiced list are these consonants:

/w/ pronounced as 'w' as in 'web'

/j/ pronounced as 'y' as in 'yacht'

/r/ pronounced as 'r' as in 'rose'

/l/ pronounced as 'l' as in 'leaf'

/m/ pronounced as 'm' as in 'monkey'

/n/ pronounced as 'n' as in 'nine'

/ŋ/ pronounced as 'ng' as in 'ring'


The voiced and voiceless pairs (shown in the table) is pronounced at the same place in the mouth.

• /g/ and /k/ are pronounced with the tip of the tongue touching the back of our mouth
• /d/ and /t/ are pronounced with the tip of the tongue touching the back of our upper front teeth
• /p/ and /b/ are pronounced with our lips closed together
• /f/ and /v/ are pronounced with our bottom lips touching the upper front teeth
• /s/ and /z/ are pronounced by opening a small gap between our front teeth and releasing some air
• /θ/ and /ð/ are pronounced by slightly biting the tip of our tongue

To determine if a consonant is either voiced or voiceless, try pronouncing the sound of the letter by its own. If your mouth vibrates, the consonant is voiced. If your mouth does not vibrate, the consonant is voiceless.

Some consonants can be used to transcribe different Roman letters, such as:

• /k/ can be used to transcribe words that start with letters 'k' (kill) or 'c' (cake)
• /s/ can be used to transcribe words that start with/have letters 's' (sin) or 'c' (city)
• /z/ can be used to transcribe words that start with/have/ends with letters 'z' (zoo), 's' (easy) 'x' (example) or 'se' (wise)
• /f/ can be used to transcribe words that start with/have/ends with letters 'f' (flower), 'gh' (laugh) or 'ph' (phobia)
• /ʃ/ can be used to transcribe words that start with/have letters 'sh' (shampoo), 'ch' (champagne), 'c' (special), 'tio' (information) or 'cia' (commercial)
• /tʃ/ can be used to transcribe words that have letters 'ch' (church), 't' (furniture), or 'tio' (question)
• /ʒ/ can be used to transcribe words that start with 's' (pleasure) or 'g' (garage)
• /dʒ/ can be used to transcribe words that start with 'j' (jar), 'g' (general) or 'dge' (judge)
• /w/ can be used to transcribe words that start with 'w' (war) or 'wh' (white)
• /n/ can be used to transcribe words that start with 'n' (now) or 'kn' (knife)
• /ŋ/ can be used to transcribe words that have/ends with letters 'ng' (bring) or 'nk' (bank)
• /m/ can be used to transcribe words that ends with 'm' (calm), 'me' (come) or 'mb' (climb)

Students often get confused between the sound /j/ and the letter 'j'. /j/ produced the sound for letter 'y' not 'j'. The sound for letter 'j' is /dʒ/.

Students may also transcribe words like 'cute', 'mute', 'tune' and 'view' as /kɪʊt/, /mɪʊt/, /tɪʊn/ and /vɪʊ/. These are considered as wrong transcriptions, as there is no diphthong letter of /ɪʊ/.

The right way to transcribe those words are by using the combination of /j/ and /u:/ sounds (/ju:/). Therefore, the right transcriptions are /kju:t/, /mju:t/, /tju:n/ and /vju:/.

By now, you have already learnt all the parts of the International Phonetic Alphabet. Here is the complete table of all the alphabets.

/ʊ/	/u:/	/b/	/p/
/ɒ/	/ɔ:/	/d/	/t/
/ɪ/	/i:/	/v/	/f/
/ə/	/ɜ:/	/ð/	/θ/
/ʌ/	/a:/	/g/	/k/
/e/	/æ/	/z/	/s/
		/ʒ/	/ʃ/
/ɪe/	/eɪ/	/dʒ/	/tʃ/
/aɪ/	/ɔɪ/	/m/	/n/
/ʊə/	/əʊ/	/w/	/j/
/aʊ/	/ŋ/	/r/	/l/

*Blue columns: short vowels

*Red column: long vowels

*Orange columns: diphthongs

*Green columns: consonants

*Light green: voiced consonants

*Dark green: voiceless consonants

Now, you are ready to do your own transcription, which we will discuss in the next post, coming soon! Until then. :)