Acquaintances

Main Entry: ac·quain·tance
Pronunciation: &-'kwAn-t^&n(t)s
Function: noun
1 a : the state of being acquainted b :
personal knowledge : FAMILIARITY
2 a : the persons with whom one is acquainted acquaintance
be forgot — Robert Burns> b : a person whom one knows but who
is not a particularly close friend acquaintance>

(taken from Merriam Webster Online)

Hm. I don’t even know if that word matches the thing I want to write about
below. But never mind.

Back at senior
high school times, I really loved participating in various English
competitions. Just name me the English competition and I can assure you my name
is on their list! Ask them about Sylvia from SMAK 4 Penabur Jakarta. *winks* Of
course the reason why changed over time. At the first time, it was because I
was chosen (and I was super proud. Yew). The next time, it was because I wanted
to run off from the super boring classes (thank GOD it’s freaking over now). It
made the perfect reason, especially if I won. Hmm. The next reason was to widen
my networking. It did work. I got many friends from many schools, and
universities, too. The very last reason was to…. Get money. Hahaha. When
winning was already easy and networks had been made, what else should I aim to?

What I want to focus about is the third reason. Through these English
competitions, undoubtedly I met many people. Some stay to be good friends until
now, one even almost going steady with me, but the others… Gone with the wind.

It’s funny. For two to three days, we became good friends. But after that,
woosh. Gone. Disappeared. As if we never met before. As if we never knew each
other before.

Out of the blue, one day when I’m chatting with Nida, the memory of this girl I met a
competition just poured out. It’s not that I and her (the girl in competition)
became really good friends and it left a deep mark, but it’s just.. I remember
her.

I remember this girl I met at NEO 2006.
I remember her accented English (cool.. =p). And I remember that she intentionally
didn’t continue to the next round because she’s got a drama going on in her
school. I wonder whether she still remembers me?

After that quickly I remember many other people I met at the competition.

One that I had a crush with…

A boy from Medan.
Met him at my very first debating competition (which ended up… er.. never mind)
at UPH. Very very good looking
indeed. ( I don’t remember his face anymore but I’m sure that he’s good looking
=p) We talked several times at the competition. Exchanged some..er.. looks.
Hehe.

But given the fact that he lives in Medan,
I decided not to continue. (or rather because I was too shy to ask for his
phone number =p)

Gee. I wonder if he still remembers me? Haha.

One that had a crush with me =p

At the very same competition, I met this guy from Jakarta. He would always try to start a conversation with me, even with small trivial things. Haha. One notable thing was when he removed a carton of water bottles on a chair beside me just to sit on it. Haha. My groupmate quickly asked him “Are you hitting on her?”. And I clearly remember how his face turned super red. Hahahahahaha.

Other other ones.

The girl that made into the Spelling Bee final of E-Com 2005 with me. And other people who also made it to the final. The girl I met at UPH debating competition. My opponents at SMAK 3 debating competition. That girl who won the Spelling Bee competition of E-Com 2004. The list still goes on..

I wonder, can an acquaintance change your live forever?

Nevertheless,
I will always remember them.
Regardless whether they remember me or not.

Do you also have acquaintances?

I’m so loving this. Damn cute hor. (oops. Singlish?)

Girls———————

Video Jug

Tired of YouTube? Or Yahoo Video? Or any other videos videos site?

Try VideoJug! They have loads, and I mean it loads, DIY videos which can help you to do, ahem, things.

My fave is the food category! It teaches you how to cook some very interesting dishes. Lasagna, Apple Crumble, Moussaka, hmmm it revived my girlish side!

And just for the example, (view more by visiting the site) here I post one of their how-to videos.

Enjoy. And I mean it. Enjoy.

I dunno why but I can’t post the video. Ergh. Sucks. I think it’s the Wordpress post editor. Ergh.

Do visit VideoJug.. It’s super fun!

Good English

Is there such thing called “Good English”?

Oh there is, according to Singapore’s government.

What is “Good English”? English with perfect grammar, pronounciation, punctuation, ah whatever it is and all that? Well, wouldn’t it fit better to be called PROPER English?
Take it simply, like this. If I’m speaking in perfect and proper English, with perfect grammar and all stuffs I mentioned before but the person I’m speaking to doesn’t understand what I’m saying, am I speaking a good English?

Good English, I believe, is the English that can be understood by others. Not a one-side English. I speak English and you understand that, then I’m speaking Good English.

I got this concept from my own language, Indonesian. If you’re an Indonesian, you would know something called “Bahasa Indonesia yang Baik dan Benar”. Yes I was having the same thoughts with you. It’s the Indonesian with perfect grammar-spelling-punctuation-and all that which we know we never use. Never ever used except for things like research paper, final paper, thesis, etc.

But I was wrong. And you are wrong to think like that.

“Bahasa Indonesia yang Baik dan Benar” (gosh I hate typing it. Sooo long) is the Indonesian that can be understood well between 2 or more people speaking Indonesian. What’s the point bothering yourself to use complicated, or as they say, sophisticated words if you’re not understood? It’s like you’re saying things like equilibrium, ROI, TCO to a farmer. You might be intending to teach him something good but, man, he won’t get a single clue of what the hell you’re talking about.

And I believe the same concept applies to English.

And I wonder so much why Singapore gives so much damn to Singlish. I mean, face it, Singapore, you don’t have anything to identify yourself as a country except Singlish. If you pick one person randomly from Singapore, assuming he/she’s not a foreigner and he/she doesn’t bring any identity card, how, do you think, can he/she prove to you that he/she is truly Singaporean?

If I am to be picked randomly from Indonesia, despite my Chinese-looking face (the reason why they speak to me in Mandarin here. Please, uncles and aunties, I don’t speak freaking Mandarin), I will tell them that I can speak Indonesian. Fluently. That would identify me as an Indonesian.
Can the Singaporeans do the same?

Why don’t they just make Singlish a language? An official language? All they need is just competent linguists who are willing to write down the rules for grammars, pronounciation, and all that and then you will get your official language! (That’s what happened to Indonesian)

What? Singlish is just a dialect? See my mother tongue, kiddos. Indonesian. It remains similar to Malay while proudly standing as a language.

Oh and the funny thing in Singapore is beside that Speak Good English Movement mentioned earlier, they also have this thing called Speak Mandarin Campaign. Ridiculous, don’t you think so. They say this campaign is to make the ethnically Chinese people in Singapore (I hate using the word “the Chinese”. Oh please, they weren’t born in China) who speak different dialects (Cantonese, Teochew, Hokkien, etc) speak easily with others using Mandarin.

See? Like, duh.

How about that ethnically Indian people who have, er, about 22 languages? (more info) Why didn’t Singapore make Speak Hindi Campaign, Speak Tamil Campaign, or whatever?

*this part is deleted*

I’m signing out.

edited : related reading.

My friend made me this.. n he didn’t even remember. Duh.

Blogging Degree
From Go-Quiz.com

SUPER DUPER TRIVIAL =P