Cikgu Ben: Ben Bradshaw

The Next Part of the Story: YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter

2013-06-08T21:29:00.000-07:00

And here I am, writing the next chapter. I know many of you would prefer me to update this blog more often. I am sorry. I want to. I need to. I enjoy doing so. Many of you may understand how busy you can get with classes while studying at a university. Currently I am on semester break for the summer. (The "summer" usually refers to May, June, July, and August, although, the summer according to the calendar is from June 21 to September 21. "Summer" is usually used to speak about the time when kids or students aren't in school sessions. Just a fun fact for you.) This summer I will be working with the U.S. Embassy in Kuala Lumpur. I work in the Public Affairs section and deal with different English language programs for teenage kids in different libraries throughout the country. It has been very enjoyable so far and living in Malaysia in enjoyable. But, an update on what I have done here will be saved for later.

In this chapter, I want to connect where I left off about my older brother Adam. On October 2nd, 2010, I woke up on a Saturday morning and decided it was time to film a video, one very similar to my brothers first video. I didn't want to spend too much time on it because I don't know if I was going to get a positive response or not. I didn't know if Malaysians (or anyone who spoke the language... I'm looking at you Singpore and Brunei) would like my Malay speaking abilities. I was scared that my American accent would make people not interested in what I had to say. I knew that people were amazed with Adam's video because he speaks Thai like a native speaker. I didn't feel like I was at that point at all; I spoke more similar to an East Malaysian (bahasa baku) and hadn't lived in Malaysia or practiced speaking Malay for over 2 years.

So, I got my housemate Joey to come and film a video with me. The conversation went like this:

Me: "Hey Joey, I am making a YouTube video like what Adam made last year, but for Malaysians and in Malay. If I ask you 'What's up' will you respond normally?"
Him: "Yeah sure. When?"
Me: "Right now. Come in My room and let's film it. I have my iphone ready to film."
Him: "Alright lets do it!"

So we entered my room and pressed the record button on my iphone. I just had it propped up on the top of my TV and used the front camera actually so we could watch ourselves while we were filming. You've seen the video right? Well just in case you haven't, here it is:

So after we were done making the video, we went onto YouTube and uploaded it onto my new account. Then we left it for the public to search it and watch it. I tried to make a smart title for the video so that people could search and find what I had posted.

About one month later, I started getting a bunch of comments, and views. But mainly, I was getting an insane amount of adds on Facebook! I opened up my Facebook account one morning and had over 900 new friend requests. I knew something was happening! I then got onto my YouTube and the analytics weren't working. The view count was climbing but I wan't sure how quick. It was getting flooded.

Then, I had some people say that I should start a Facebook Fanpage as opposed to just have people add me on my personal account. Then I could start making posts about English and other interesting things and accept over 5000 people. I started the fanpage and quickly built up to over 5000 likes. I was like, "This is awesome!" I didn't expect Malaysians, Singaporeans, and Bruneians to have such a positive response to the video and so fast! But 5000 fans was just the start. Within the next few days I still was getting more and more people following my fanpage. I built up to over 20,000 within that week and it still kept climbing.

I also opened up a twitter account and began to use twitter. I didn't have twitter before then since I didn't really understand what it was for. It was when twitter was still new to a lot of people and I just though, "Why should I use twitter when I can just use facebook?" Now I get it now. Touche twitter.

My YouTube view count for the month of November 2010 was just about 430,000 views!

It also just so happened that I had a trip planned on Thailand and Malaysia in December of 2010. I had been gone from the country for over two years and wanted to make a trip back to the country to explore some places I didn't get to my first time around. There is just so much to see in the region! So, I announced this on my facebook page and planned a couple of meetings with fans while I was there. I documented some of it in a video and posted it to YouTube when I got back home. Here is the video!

This trip was fun! It was a success! Adam and I had a great time in Malaysia and Singapore. We also spent sometime in Thailand together before I went back home but didn't put it into the video.

So, that is enough for this part of the story. Look forward to more updates in the future!

-Ben

2012-11-05T15:16:00.000-08:00

Hello people. So I am writing this in English. Don't be offended. Jangan ambil hati. You know how it is much easier to write something in your own native language. Plus, I bet most of you reading this can totally understand everything that I am writing right now. You don't need to look things up in dictionaries. You already know English. It's more about perfecting your english that you already have. So, for most of my blog posts, I plan on writing them in English so I can make them a little longer and more detailed. Also, you can get an idea what it is like to write english in a non-formal setting. I may have spelled some things wrong(spell checker says no, but you never know really) and made a few grammatical mistakes, but hey, that is what you gotta accept. This isn't an essay on my life, just an update on what's currently going on in my life. So, as you read, if there is any phrase or word that is new to you, then don't forget it. Send me a message on facebook or an email and inquire about it. I will do my best to answer!
So things in my life have changed! two years ago, almost to the day, I posted my first video on youtube. It was basic. It was kind of entertaining. But the response was amazing! Tons of people were liking my fanpage, giving me suggestions and helping me learn malay.

Two years later, here I am, still wishing I was more talented at Malay, wishing that I could somehow find a way to live in Malaysia for an extended period of time in order to just be there, but also so I could continue my quest at becoming an expert Malay speaker. I mean, as much as I love reading things by myself all the time, I would much rather be speaking to people in Malay, speaking to people who speak the language as their first language. People who can say "hold up, what you just said was wrong." and then correct me. Tell me to write it down so I don't forget it. If I really want to actually increase my abilities, I need to be in the country. I can't just really on far away social communications on facebook and twitter to advance my abilities as a language learner.

But, as much as I wish I could just be over in Southeast Asia at this very moments, I am determined to first finish my studies. I am currently a student in mechanical engineering at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, UT. This major is pretty dang long. I am to the point that I wish I was just done already. Extensive knowledge in fluid mechanics is something I don't care much for. I don't need to be extraordinary at robotic design. I don't need to understand how heat transfers from one system to the next. I don't care about how much energy is lost in this or that process. But, what I do care about is what kinds of things I am learning. I am learning how to learn. And at the same time, I am learning how to teach. Pretty much the way that I get by and pass these classes is through my math skills. I have always been pretty good at math and it has helped me stay in the engineering program. Really, all I have are story problems, equations, and then I have to use logic and math to solve.

Right now I am also a volunteer tutor at a local school district here in Salt Lake City. I tutor kids between the ages of 12-18. Mainly I help them with math. But it is nice to also encourage the kids to have an outlook for college and universities in the future. Many of them feel like college is so far away and in such a long time that they don't really need to prepare for it at all right now. I do my best to remind them otherwise. While they are in junior and senior high school, they need to start getting ready.

As for work, I am now interning at a company called Schiff Nutrition International. I am a manufacturing engineer intern and provide support for standard work and standard operating procedures for the equipment there. I also lead projects to purchase and set up brand new machines and processes. I am having a pretty fun time there and am learning a lot about things like GMP, five-s, lean manufacturing, and so on. Manufacturing is an interesting setting. I know that there is such a wide range of manufacturing facilities in Malaysia that maybe I could end up with a career in Southeast Asia as a manufacturing engineer. Who knows. It would be cool to be able to use my language abilities at work. But at the same time, I don't know if I really want to turn out to be an engineer! I feel like just because I have math skills, doesn't mean I don't have other skills too! I like talking to people. I like dealing with languages. I enjoy teaching. Wouldn't it be awesome to be some sort of English professor at a University in Malaysia? I think it would be great. I think it is time to put in a minor like TESOL and so I at least have some credibility other than "English is my native language".
In terms of what's going on new for me in my life, I live with my two younger brothers and another friend in a small house close to the University. All four of us are students at the University of Utah studying different subjects. I am in mechanical engineering. My brother Tom is in Economics. My youngest brother James just started college this year and is in computer science and game design. Our friend/roommate John is in accounting. We love the seasons here in Utah. We have spring, summer, fall, and winter. It isn't like it is in Malaysia where it is just hot and hotter. Oh yeah, and rain.

Here is a pic I took on the way to the gym the other day. we got a small, unusual October snow storm and Mount Olympus looked so nice with the blue sky and clouds. I couldn't resist but take a picture of its greatness.

So there are some other big plans that I am working on right now also. I have some fairly big things currently in the works that are better kept quiet for now. When they are completed, I am sure you will all hear about it!

In terms of why I have been so quiet on the interwebs as of late, it is simply because I am sometimes overwhelmed with the amount of people that I get commenting, sending messages, and reacting to my posts and videos. I LOVE the positive response that I get. But it is hard because I like responding to people. I enjoy writing people back and giving them a personal response. So, if you have ever sent me an email, message, written a comment, asked a question, or anything like that, and I haven't gotten back to you, I am sorry. If you keep trying, I will eventually get back to you. I am getting back to people. I am writing people. But there are just too many for me to get back to and there are just simply other things in life that I need to focus on for the time being.

So if you are wondering what I exactly do with my free time, I will tell you. First, I spend a lot of time doing homework, studying, reading, searching for answers for homework problems and such. When it was warmer, I would often go on hikes. Here is a pic from just about a month ago. It's called Granduer Peak. The mountain you can see in the distance is the same mountain as you saw above. This is just from a different angle.

If you turn to the right, you will see this:

This is looking at downtown salt lake city and the campus of the U of U is just behind that ridge on the right.

Also, I like to go to the gym when I have about an hour and a half of free time. I feel like I sit down too much. I am sitting at work. I am sitting at school. I am sitting in the car. I am sitting when I watch something on TV. I am sitting when I am browsing online. So, to make sure I get some good physical activity, I head to a local gym called Planet Fitness. I try to make it there at least 4 times per week. I have a routine(for those of you that care haha) of what I call push, pull, and abs. So one day I do my push muscles, chest, tricep, and shoulder. the push day i do back, bicep, and traps. the last day I do extra cardio and abs. then I start over. It is a little more detailed than this but I don't want to bore you.

So on the weekdays I am busy with school, work, gym, and then just some hang time. I will usually get something on from Netflix. Or see what is going on lately on youtube. Oh and also, I play a good amount of xbox 360. I know it isn't as big of a thing over in Malaysia and Singapore as Playstation, but I would say that most people in the US use xbox over PS3. but I mean, there are definitely people who play ps3 also. My favorite game at the time being is mw3. if you don't know what that is, then that's probably a good thing. you will quickly get addicted haha.

On weekends, we usually start it out on friday evenings by having a few people over to our house. Then we will head out to get some food, and maybe do some sort of activity. and then do it again on saturday night. Last weekend we went to a little french cafe for dinner and also swung by best buy and barnes and noble to check out some of the latest electronics and books. Then on saturday night we went bowling and to a pizza place. It's funny because our group of friends is always budget minded. We are always trying to find fun, cheap things to do.

The weekend before that was halloween. So, we bought some pumpkins to carve. You may have seen my pumpkin already:

It is just a tradition and holiday thing that we all do in the US. kids go door to door looking for candy. For some reason (i don't know why) carving pumpkins into faces and shapes is a tradition. I think it comes originally from a Mexican tradition but I can't really remember. If you are interested in more on halloween, try using this website called Google. :)

So, where from here? well, as I said, I have more to come. There are some big things in the works. This does include videos. This does include some brand new things. It includes a bunch of cool things. I hope that it all goes well.

Will there be more videos, facebook updates, blogger posts, tweets, and pictures? YES! I am still alive and well! Things will always be going forward. I have a plan on how to consolidate all of my efforts into a central location. That is the only hint I will give you about what you can expect in 2013. It will be awesome.

Oh and just so you know, Ben Bradshaw ajar Bahasa Utara is not my page. I have tried multiple times to contact facebook to take the page down. They have taken it down before. But they haven't taken it down again. Oh well. haha. We will get it taken down soon enough.

Other than that, thanks for being interested in the things I do! It is fun having a connection between the US and Malaysia. Peace!

-Ben

PS. Jangan lupa memberus gigi dengan ubat gigi yg memutihkan gigi! nanti you boleh cakap "putih kan?" macam Ben... just playing around with you guys. :)

Cerita Pasal Abang Adam, dalam Bahasa Inggeris

2012-01-16T23:55:00.000-08:00

Hari ini saya nak menulis semua dalam Bahasa Inggeris. Saya akan cuba menggunakan perkataan-perkataan serta ayat-ayat yang biasa untuk saya di America sini, tapi mungkin tak biasa untuk kamu semua dekat Malaysia. Jadi, semasa kamu membaca ini, ingat ayat-ayat yang mungkin tak biasa untuk kamu, cuba teka maksudnya, dan check dekat bawah untuk penjelasannya. ok? faham? dah jelas? good!

First of all, I believe I am going to begin posting in a combination of English and Malay. It is nice to be able to speak a little more freely in my native language; Malay is still not as natural to me as English, although I would love it to become that way. I also do realize that there are quite a few people that will read this post that are very fluent in English and maybe even prefer English to be used in their daily lives. This is fine and enjoy interacting with people in whatever language they choose to engage me in.

As many of you have already realized, I love learning languages. I know that most of you know me for my ability to speak Malay, but I also have learned a couple of other languages, although, not as well as I have learned Malay. These languages include Mandarin Chinese, Iban, and Thai. It may be surprising to some people, but I am not the only person in my family that has a knack for speaking a language of the Southeast Asia region. My older brother, Adam, speaks Thai very, very fluently and continues to have quite the response from the locals in Thailand. He has a similar set up as I have, with youtube videos, a Facebook page, and a centralized blog that he uses to share more and more information on teaching English to the people in Thailand. In fact, the original reason that I made my first video, of posting it on youtube and waiting to see if there was any reaction, was Adam's idea. He made a few videos about a year before me and had great success and a huge response from thousands and thousands of people in Thailand. People love his blond hair, blue eyed look. Here is a picture of Adam:

When I finally decided to make my first video, I decided to use the exact same content that he used in his most popular video. Yes, his most popular video was his video of teaching "what's up" and "not much. just chillin" as the response. When Adam made this video, him and I were currently living in Texas, working there for a few months during the summer. I always thought it was kind of funny that he was recording himself and putting it on youtube. He actually had me be the person in his first video, that responded to his question of "what's up?". Here is his first video below. You can see me at 0:34 and then again at 1:00. Adam refers to me as "nong Ben" because I am his younger brother, "nong" being similar to "adik". As in Malay, Thai uses family pronouns that indicate the age of the other person in comparison to the person speaking.

After Adam posted this video, he quickly received a positive response, and the views were starting to add up. All of a sudden, Adam's video had been viewed a few hundred times. This was a huge amount to us! We both couldn't believe how many people were watching his video, commenting, and raving about this "farang" that could speak such perfect Thai! Little did he know that this was only the beginning. Throughout the rest of the summer months, Adam continued to make a few more videos, often times in response to people's questions. More and more views started adding up. After just a few months, his videos began to slowly but surely creep up to over 100,000 views! This was totally unexpected by Adam and myself. Eventually more and more exposure was imminent for Adam, and we could both see a potentially bright future with what he was doing. It was amazing how many people in Thailand were supporting him!

When the next year year arrived, from about January 2010 to May of 2010, Adam headed to Thailand to be an intern at a University in Chiang Mai Thailand. During this time, Adam was contacted by a TV show called "I Love Thailand". The show featured Adam in Chiang Mai, doing various activities with the Host, such as Muay Thai, bungee jumping, playing with animals, eating the local food, and even singing karaoke.

The show boosted Adam's popularity on youtube, and the whole internet in general. When Adam lived in Thailand during this period, more and more people began to recognize him everywhere he went. Since he was assisting in teaching English to the Professors at the University, he himself became known as a professor. He is now known in Thailand as "Ajarn Adam" or Professor Adam. Also during this time, Adam made a number of videos with another intern in the same program as Adam. This friend's name is Mike Boonack, or as he is known in Thailand, Mod. Here is a video he made with Mod:

They were quite an entertaining two to watch.

When Adam finished his internship in Thailand, he moved back to the US for the summer, and worked with me in Nashville, Tennessee and Little Rock, Arkansas for the summer. Our job was simply selling alarm systems to people for their homes. We worked hours and hours each day finding people interested in protecting their house with an alarm. Adam and I would come home at the end of the night, exhausted from the heat of the day. We would have funny stories about weird people and how their dogs wouldn't quiet down. We would joke about how slick of a salesman we were, closing some people that did not show any interest in the alarms we were selling at all. It really was quite fun and we enjoyed the competition. Some nights when we did not have much to do, we would make a video. This video below was filmed while we were in Kentucky:

We had discussed many times of how I wanted to visit him in Thailand that year, and that he should accompany me to Malaysia to see some of the places I hadn't seen yet either. During the summer I booked a trip to Thailand and Malaysia and couldn't wait for December to come. Adam returned to Thailand after the summer was over, in September, right as I began the fall semester of school. October went by. On November 1 of 2010, I finally decided to follows Adam's advice and make a video very similar to his first video and see what kind of reaction youtube viewers would give me. This was just the beginning.

Ok, itu sahaje untuk saya ni malam ni. Pukul empat petang untuk k'orang.... pukul satu pagi untuk saya... haha. Saya mengantuk gileee. Saya selalu suka membaca komen-komen di bawah. Walaupun saya suka baca komen2 tu, saya tak selalu dapat menjawab setiap soalan. Kalau ada cikgu2 English lain, jangan malu nak jawab soalan-soalannya untuk saya!

Selamat Malam.

2012-01-11T01:07:00.000-08:00

Hello semua!

Selamat datang ke blog Ben! Blog ini membolehkan Ben mengajar kamu semua pasal Bahasa Inggeris dgn cara yang lebih panjang dan lengkap. Kadang-kadang Ben nak beritahu lebih banyak lagi daripada yang dapat dituliskan di Facebook.

Jadi subscribe kepada blog ini, dan teruskan membaca post-post Ben!

Pertamanya, Ben nak ingatkan kamu semua pasal beberapa post dari tahun lepas. Munkgin ramai di antara kamu belum membaca post-post ini. Jadi membaca dengan teliti lah! Jangan malu-malu tanya soalan pasal English kepada Cikgu Ben... ok:

Dec 8, 2010

bukan"good luck in your exam."
bukan "good luck for your exam."
bukan "good luck to your exam."
ada dua cara yg betul: "good luck on yourexam" ngan "good luck with your exam".

Dec 9, 2010

"Don't have a cow" bermaksud"relax lah bro".

Dec 11, 2010

em = them. contoh:
a:"Do you know those guys?"
b:"No, I don't know em."
Ini pun penting. 'Them' ngan 'em'('they' juga)boleh digunakan untuk benda, bukan sahaja orang.
a:"Why dont you like apples?"
b:"I just dont like em. They'regross."

Dec 26, 2010

kat USA, kita orang cakap "take you to thestore" bukan "send you to the store." lagipun, kita orang takcakap "fetch you from the store" tapi cakap "get you from thestore." dia memang macam tu.

Dec 29, 2010

‎"Tunggu sekejap" atau "tunggusebentar" boleh dikatakan di USA macam ni:
1. "hold on just a second"
2. "just a second"
3. "just a sec" (cara ini biasa bagisy)

Jadi, ada soalan nak tanya? tulis itu dekat ruang komen di bawah supaya kita semua dapat berbincang.

Pelajaran Slang America: November 2010

2011-04-21T22:29:00.000-07:00

November 12, 2010

Tahu tak maksud ayat ni:'Do you get it?' 'get it' bermaksud 'faham'. Tapi kalau cakap,'Get me one' maksudnya 'ambil saya satu'. Belajar ni... lah

November 13, 2010

Kalau cakap ini: "I'm boring lah," maksudnya "saya membosankan" bukan "saya berasa bosan". jadi, cakap ini: "I'm bored." Baru ada BI yg baik

November 15, 2010

yang mana ayat betul: "I'm taller thAn you" atau "I'm taller thEn you"...? Apabila membandingkan, guna 'thAn', bukan 'thEn'...=-)

November 15, 2010

Beberapa cara bercakap goodbye: 'See ya later', 'See ya', 'Later', 'Talk to ya later', dan 'Bye'. Kalau ada dua lelaki, boleh cakap, 'Peace out' atau 'Peace'.

November 18, 2010

Kelas malam: 'what's up?' tak perlu dibalaskan dgn 'nothin'. kamu boleh cakap 'hi' atau 'hey' saja untuk jawab. Cara ni biasa bagi saya =-)

November 18, 2010

Biasanya cuma lelaki yg guna 'dude' dgn kawan2 rapat dia. Jangan guna 'dude' dgn seseorang yg kamu baru kenal. Kalau baru kenal, guna 'man'. Contoh:'Whats up man?" Ladies: jangan guna 'dude' atau 'man' saja... don't ask me why. Macam tu saja haha

November 21, 2010

Pelajaran baru: kat USA, kami sebut "you're" dan "your" seperti "yer". Jangan lupa menyebut huruf R dgn kuat. contoh: "What's yer name?" Nanti saya nak jelaskan dalam video

November 23, 2010

Saya "pulled an all nighter". Itu bermaksud tak tidur sepanjang malam dengan sengaja

-Ben Bradshaw. Nov 2010.

2010-12-06T21:59:00.000-08:00

Ok, pengajaran yang seterusnya, ayat2 perkenalan yang lain.

What's up?

Sup?

How are you?

How are ya?

How ya doing?

How ya doin?

What's going on?

What's goin on?

What's happenin?

Hey.

Hello.

Semua ayat ini boleh digunakan pada apabila kamu berjumpu dengan seseorang yang dikenali ke tak dikenali kamu. Biasanya ayat2 tu digunakan dengan orang yang lebih kurang umur sama kamu.

Just the beginning

2010-11-29T10:24:00.000-08:00

Hey what's up guys? So saya nak mulakan menulis blog ini. Blog ini akan memasukkan benda2 yang sudah saya ajarkan di Facebook dengan Twitter. Saya berharap blog ini akan menyusun benda2 tu dengan lebih baik sebagai reference bagi korang yang mahu ulang kaji. Ok, jomlah, kita belajar dari yang pertama.

Pengajaran 1.

Situasinya: Dua orang. Tak kira kalau lelaki ke perempuan.

A: "Hey, what's up?"

B: "Nothin."

Ayat ini adalah ayat2 yang saya ajar dalam video pertama saya. Memang boleh digunkan seperti ini tapi semasa saya tengah merakam video ini, saya cepat2 fikir apa nak ajar kepada orang Malaysia. Saya dengan Joey tercipta cara ini dengan terlalu cepat. Pada masa tu, saya mahu kasi ayat itu ringkas dan mudah. Itulah cara yang paling senang. Tapi kalau betul2 cara biasa bagi saya, cakap macam ini:

A:"Hey, what's up?"

B:"Hey."

Kamu tak semestinya jawab dengan "nothin" atau "not much". Memang boleh kalau mahu tapi cara biasa bagi saya begitu. Kalau mahu panjangkan konversasi kamu dengan orang lain tu, cakap macam ini:

A:"Hey, what's up?"

B:"Not much, just watching some TV. What are you up to?"

A:"Well I'm just headin to the store real quick."

B:"Alright, well see ya later."

A:"See ya"

Contoh ini menyentuh sedikit dengan pengajaran lain saya. Orang A dengan B cakap "see ya". "See ya" ngan "See ya later" bermaksud "Bye". Kedua-dua ini boleh digunapakai pada bila2 kamu nak jalan. "see ya" ~= "jalan dulu eh".

Cikgu Ben: Ben Bradshaw

The Next Part of the Story: YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter

Cerita Pasal Abang Adam, dalam Bahasa Inggeris

Pelajaran Slang America: November 2010

Next:

Just the beginning