Tuition for primary school and secondary school students is something that is very popular in the region, especially in Malaysia and Singapore. I am not sure if this service is also popular in other countries.

Many students benefited a lot through attending tuition offered by some very excellent teachers / trainers. I was not exception.

However, the cost for attending tuition is not cheap in Singapore or Malaysia. It is considered one of the big expenses during the study time of our students here.

Sometimes, I just wonder why after attending a long day study in school, students still need to attend tuition service. It is really tire … Is it something wrong with the education system … Anyway, I am not in any position to comment about this

It would be nice if this service can be available for free to everyone. Offering it through the Internet as an online education maybe one of the way to go. This is one of my dream. I hope that I can make it happen one day. ifreetuition is a site which I created to share about my thought about free education. It is still in development stage, hope that one day I will get something done.

Learning the Hiragana, one of the Japanese phonetic alphabets is key to learning basic Japanese.

Hiragana (平仮名, ひらがな) is one component of the Japanese writing system, along with katakana, kanji, and the Latin alphabet (Rōmaji.) Hiragana consists of 46 signs which originally were kanji (Chinese character) but were simplified over the centuries. When looking at a Japanese text, one can clearly distinguish the two kinds of signs: the complicated kanji and the simpler kana signs.

Even though one can theoretically write the whole language in hiragana, it is usually used only for grammatical endings of verbs, nouns, and adjectives, as well as for particles, and several other original Japanese words which are not written in kanji. Hiragana are widely used in materials for children, textbooks, animation and comic books, to write Japanese words which are not normally written with kanji, such as adverbs and some nouns and adjectives, or for words whose kanji are obscure or obselete. Also, if you forget certain kanji which are rarely used, you may substitute hiragana for them.

Hiragana are also sometimes written above or along side kanji to indicate pronunciation, especially if the pronunication is obscure or non-standard. Hiragana used in this way are known as furigana. In horizontal texts, the furigana appear above the kanji and in vertical texts, the furigana appear on the right of the kanji.

Among the syllables are the five vowels (a i u e o). (a), pronounced “ahh”, (i), pronounced like “e” in “eat”, (u), pronounced like “oo” in “soon”, (e), pronounced like “e” in “elk”, and (o), pronounced “oh”. All Hiragana characters end with one of these vowels, with the exception of (n). The rest are syllables combined by one of these vowels with a consonant (ka ki ku ke ko ra ri ru re ro…).

For a list of the Hiragana syllabograms, please refer to the following link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiragana

Many people say, “Japanese language is difficult”. The reason may be due to Japanese language consists of not one, but three different alphabets. Modern Japanese is written with a mixture of hiragana and katakana and kanji. It may also include romaji or Roman letters.

Japanese writing has evolved from its original Chinese script beginnings to become something that is intrinsically Japanese. There are actually different types or ways of writing Japanese characters and it has been a source of confusion for people who are not familiar with Japanese culture.

The three ways of writing Japanese characters are Kanji, Hiragana, and Katakana, with another version called Romaji being used for special purposed.

The word kanji is a Japanese derivative of the Chinese word hanzi, which translates to “Han characters”. Kanji are not syllabic and are used to represent abstract concepts as well as names and everyday words.

Hiragana are used for words without kanji representation, for words no longer written in kanji. It is a syllabic alphabet. Each Hiragana character represents a sound.

Katakana like hiragana, are a syllabary; katakana are primarily used to write foreign words.

There is also another script used in the Japanese language called Romaji. It is basically used to write the Latin alphabet into Japanese characters, especially for English or Latin alphabet-spelled words that do not have a direct Japanese translation.

The other day I learned an effective way of learning Geography. However, it is not yet tested. Whether it is effective or not, I am not sure yet

Just draw some blank maps and after that imagine you are on a tour to that country. Just start from one of the town in the country, write down the name of the town on your map, what are the special things about the town – what is it famous for, what are the products from the town, describe its climate or relate some interesting fact about its history or people and so on.

After that, moving from that town, you are traveling to another city in this country. Continue to key in the relevant points on the map about the city.

Continue this traveling until you visited all towns / states in the country. By then you should be able to understand better about the country and hopefully you will be able to have more interest in the country. By doing these exercises, you will develop a visual feel for the areas you are studying.

By the way, you may download maps of the areas with which you are interested. There are a number of online maps that can be downloaded free.

Let me know if you find this method effective or not.

“Who” Vs “Whom”

Do you remember Johnnie Cochran, the powerful lawyer who lead OJ Simpson’s defense team? He was good, really good. And he used good grammar.

One of his more powerful statements, actually a rhetorical question to the jury, was, “Who is kidding whom?” I admit to cheering when I heard him say that.

“Whom” is starting to drop out of the English language, I suspect, because many people don’t know what it means or how to use it. Those who do are sometimes considered snooty by those who don’t, like wearing a suit and tie to a ball game might be considered snooty by those who are dressed in shorts. Using “whom” isn’t snooty; it’s correct. Let’s look at “who” and “whom,” what they mean, and how they are used.

1. Using “Who”

“Who” is a subject pronoun. This means that “who” does something. “Who” has an action and is followed by a verb.”. One way to check whether or not “who” is the right word is to replace it (temporarily) with the word “He” or “She,” which are also subject pronouns.

Examples:

“There is the man who stole my cookie!” (“Who” is the subject of “stole”; “he stole.”)

“Who wants to buy me another cookie?” (“Who” is the subject of “wants”; “he wants.”)

2. Using “Whom”

“Whom” is an object pronoun. This means that “Whom” is the recipient of an action or completes a prepositional phrase. One way to check whether or not “whom” is the right word is to replace it (temporarily) with the word “him” or “her,” which are also object pronouns.

Examples:

“Officer, my cookie was stolen, but I don’t know by whom.” (“Whom” is the object of the preposition “by”; “by him.”)

“I’m looking for the cookie thief whom you didn’t see.” (“Whom is the object of “you didn’t see”; “you didn’t see him.”)

3. Where this gets tricky

The “who/whom” can start a clause that serves as an object. For example, consider this sentence: “I gave my cookie to the man who/whom wore a red tie.” “The man who/whom wore a red tie” is an object of “to.” So which do you choose? Actually the answer is pretty simple. Find the verbs in the sentence first, and then locate their subjects. The subject of the verb “wore” is “who/whom.” Because we need a subject here, we use the subject pronoun “Who.” Thus, we have “I gave my cookie to the man who wore a red tie.”

Another way to decide is to identify the clauses in a sentence. This sentence has the clause “I gave my cookie to the man” and “Who wore a red tie.” The first clause has the subject-verb combination of “I gave,” and the second has the subject-verb combination “who wore.” Again, we see that “Who” is the subject of the clause, so we need the subject pronoun. This also gets tricky when the Subject-verb-object order is disrupted, such as when revising sentences so they don’t end in prepositions. For example, consider this sentence: “To whom shall I give my cookie?” “Whom” seems to be in the subject position as the subject of “shall.” However, “whom” is the object of the preposition “to.” Another way to write this sentence (poorly) is “I shall give my cookie to whom?” Now, the selection of “who” and “whom” seems pretty obvious.

On the other hand, in the sentence “Who shall buy my cookie?” “who” is serving as the subject of “shall buy,” which is why we use “who” and not “whom.” In this sentence, as in the previous examples, finding the verbs will help you decide which to use.

4. Quick summary

Who: Subject, can be replaced by other subject pronouns, such as “he” and “her”

Whom: Object, can be replaced by other object pronouns, such as “him” and “her”

5. One final note

We sometimes get questions about “whomever” and “whoever.” These two words follow the same rules as “who” and “whom.” You can correctly write, “Whoever has the cookie can give it to whomever he chooses.” “Whoever” is the subject of “has,” and “whomever” is the object of “chooses” (as in, “he chooses whomever”).

David Bowman is the Owner and Chief Editor of Precise Edit, a comprehensive editing, proofreading, and document analysis service for authors, students, and businesses. Precise Edit also offers a variety of other services, such as translation, transcription, and website development. Click here for more information about Precise Edit’s services

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=David_Bowman

Pronouns like “he,”, “she”, “it”, “which,” “none,” and “you” are use to make your sentences less cumbersome and less repetitive. Here is an article on “Pronouns”.

Working With Pronouns

For the most part, you can think of pronouns as the general, non-specific nouns used to replace proper nouns in the English language. For example, “John” is the name of a man, but you can use “him” or “his” as a replacement pronoun. The sentence, “John went to John’s house,” seems clunky – but you can improve it by replacing John’s name with a pronoun. The sentence, “John went to his house,” is a lot easier to read. Pronouns can be very useful, but you do need to make sure that your sentences are clear in terms of who you are talking about.

Possessive Pronouns

Unlike many other languages, the English language uses pronouns to describe ownership. For example, if Jane and Bob own a home, they might say, “this is our home”. Or, if you own a watch, you might say, “This is my watch”. On the other hand, if someone else is trying to explain who the watch belongs to, they might say “The watch belongs to him.” As you can see, this is very different from other languages, where prepositions are often used in order to delineate ownership.

Using Pronouns to Create Variation

When reading, if you see someone’s name in one sentence and then again in the next sentence, you’ll start to feel bored with what you’re reading. Consider how you feel when reading the following pair of sentences: “Paul was mowing the lawn. Paul moved the lawn mower aside to avoid a rock”. Boring, right? In this case, the use of pronouns to replace Paul’s name gives the author more freedom of expression, creating a more enjoyable text.

In some cases, constant repetition of a name can actually be construed as sarcasm or aggression. You’ll need to take into consideration the age of the person speaking, as well as the tone of voice and the situation. On the other hand, the following pair of sentences is more likely to hold your attention, and conveys a less aggressive meaning: “Paul was mowing the lawn. He moved the lawn mower aside to avoid a rock”.

Preventing Confusion When Using Pronouns

In some cases, you may be discussing two people in a sentence that need to be distinguished by their names in order to prevent confusion. Consider the following pair of sentences: “Jessica and Laura went to Wal-Mart. While she was there, she found a beautiful violet plant.” As you can see, it’s impossible to tell which woman found the violet plant. In order to fix this, you’ll have to repeat one of the names in order to clarify the discovery. Therefore, you might change the second sentence to read: “While Jessica was there, she found a beautiful violet plant”. It’s important to note that you don’t need to repeat information about the store, since both women went to the same location.

As with any other part of a language, there are specific times and places when it’s appropriate to use pronouns. Because they are not specific nouns, your sentences can become confusing if you aren’t clear about which noun you’re replacing. That said, it’s also important to try and avoid repetition of nouns, as this can be interpreted in a number of unflattering ways.

At http://1-language.com, there are several articles to help people learn English as well as a free online English course.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Charles_Johnson

NLP or Neuro Linguistic Programming is widely used in studying and modeling personal excellence. Through NLP modeling, a person would be able to fully replicate a desirable skill or behavior that another person has.

The following article by Yvonne Ellis talk more about changing your mental programming with NLP.

Changing Your Mental Programming With NLP

In my last article I introduced Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) as a great tool to use for changing subconscious programming. In this article, I’ll introduce you to Neuro Linguistic Programming (or NLP) and give you an NLP technique you can use yourself to change an unwanted or unproductive program or eliminate an unwanted habit.

NLP was developed in the early 1970′s by Richard Bandler and John Grinder. “Neuro” refers to the way information is processed by the mind through the senses; “linguistic” refers to the way we use language to communicate our experiences to ourselves and others; and “programming” describes how the brain codes experiences to create personal programs that determine our ways of being and behaving in the world.

In other words, NLP is a way to describe precisely how people perceive experiences, represent them to themselves, communicate them to others, and encode them within their brain. Understanding this process makes it possible to change an experience or replicate someone else’s experience. How NLP is mostly used (outside of a therapeutic setting) is in studying and replicating (or modelling) personal excellence. It is a tool that is widely used in business and personal development.

NLP is extremely effective in changing subconscious programming whether that is eliminating a belief and installing a new belief, disrupting old disempowering patterns or programs and installing more empowering patterns or programs, turning on and off emotional states at will and eliminating conflict within yourself.

The downside with NLP is that it does require training in order for you to be truly effective in using many of the processes and, because much of what we say and do is out of conscious awareness, it can be more difficult to use NLP on yourself. For example, if you were to ask a highly successful business person how they succeeded, they probably couldn’t give you a precise answer. They most likely don’t even know, consciously, what made the difference and therefore are unable to articulate it. Similarly, we often aren’t aware, at a conscious level, of how we sabotage ourselves – only that we do.

The key to success or failure then is often unknown at the conscious level. That’s why an athlete can be sensational one time and fail the next, even though their preparation was, on the surface, exactly the same. Dig a little deeper, however, using NLP, and the differences start to emerge that explain the contrast in results. Eliciting these unknown pieces of the puzzle is sometimes referred to as the ‘magic of NLP’ although, of course, it’s not magic at all. Once elicited, you can ‘interrupt’ the sabotaging program that was running and change the end result.

The brain processes information and stores our life experiences using our five senses. When we later remember those experiences we do so using our five senses again. That is why, if you remember or imagine biting into a lemon, you ‘see’, ‘smell’ and ‘taste’ the lemon even though it’s only happening in your mind. In NLP these senses are called modalities and there are three main ones: visual (seeing), auditory (hearing) and kinaesthetic (feeling). Our other two senses, olfactory (smell) and gustatory (taste) are a part of the kinaesthetic modality. Most people have a preference for and operate primarily from one main sensory modality.

Here is an NLP process that you can easily use on yourself.

The Swish Pattern

The swish pattern allows you to ‘rewire’ an old response by programming in a new response to the same trigger. It re-programs the mind to respond in a new and positive way to a situation that previously resulted in unwanted thoughts, behaviours and emotions. It can be used on everything from stopping habits like nail-biting or smoking to changing perspectives on situations like cold call selling (eg from dislike to ease or enjoyment) and changing behaviours like yelling at the people you love, acting like a doormat instead of standing up for yourself, or compulsively replaying old memories in your head that make you feel bad. Here’s how you do it:

Step 1: Identify what it is that you want to change eg stop biting your nails.

Step 2: Identify the Cue Picture. What do you actually see just before you start doing the unwanted behaviour? Since a lot of behaviours happen on ‘autopilot’ it might help to actually do whatever you do just before you start the unwanted behaviour eg move your hand towards your mouth just as you would if you were about to bite your nails. What do you see/hear/sense? This is your Cue picture.

Step 3: Create a Desired Outcome picture. How would you see yourself differently if you had already made the change that you desire. Not just longer fingernails – what would be the value of changing this? What difference would it make to you as a person? How would it change your self-image? How would that all look/sound/feel like? Create a picture of that New You, the you that you would be if you no longer had this habit, behaviour or feeling. See yourself in the picture as though you were watching a movie and adjust the image until you feel really drawn to it. Increase the brightness, size and distance of the image and add in desirable qualities like confidence, assertiveness, inner power and kindness etc until you find it really compelling.

Step 4: Swish the two pictures. Start with seeing the Cue Picture, big and bright. Then put a small, dark image of your Desired Outcome in the lower left corner. Now as you say ‘swish’ allow the Cue Picture to get dimmer and smaller and further away and at the same time allow the small dark picture (your Desired Outcome) to grow big and bright until it completely covers the Cue Picture and fills the screen of your mind. You do this very quickly – in less than a second – the time that it takes to say swish. Now open your eyes. Repeat this process a total of five times making sure you open your eyes in between each swish.

Step 5: Test. Now try and picture the Cue Picture This should be hard to do as it will tend to be replaced by your Desired Outcome picture. Alternatively, try to trigger the behaviour eg lift your hand as though to bite your nails. If the old behaviour is still there, go back and swish some more and add more sensory elements to your images to make them compelling.

The Cue Picture should feel unpleasant since this is a behaviour you wish to change and the Desired Outcome should feel really attractive. The keys to a successful swish are speed and correctly identifying the trigger or Cue Picture. Happy swishing!

Following is an article that introduce us to the four major parts of speech.

Recognizing the Four Major Parts of Speech

In grammar there are eight parts of speech which break down into four major parts and four minor parts. A part of speech is a category assigned to a word or a phrase. The four main parts of speech are noun, adjective, adverb and verb. In English, a word can be more than one part of speech depending on how it is used.

A noun is a word that is used to name a person (Nicolas), place (Guatemala), thing (television), quality (beauty), action (flight,) or idea (mercy). There are several different kinds of nouns including proper nouns, common nouns and abstract nouns. Proper nouns are used to name specific people, places or things and are capitalized. Dawn Williams, Dawson City and Golden Gate Bridge are all examples of proper nouns. Common nouns refer to all nouns that are not proper and they are not capitalized. Abstract nouns name ideas, qualities and other intangibles. Some of these include words such as fear, happiness and honesty.

Adjectives are words that describe, modify or qualify a noun or a pronoun. An adjective tells us how many, what kind, or which one. In the following sentences, the italicized words are examples of adjectives.

“Jordan gave his mother the silver bracelet for her birthday.” (What kind?)

“There were thirty coats for sale in her shop.” (How many?)

“Out of the sisters, Sarah was the older one.” (Which one?)

Adjectives can also change form by adding -er or -est to the end of if they are preceded by “more” or “most”. The easiest way to find an adjective is to find the word that describes the noun. Articles are considered to be adjectives as well. There are two different kinds of articles and they are: definite (the) and indefinite (a, an).

Verbs are words that describe an action (walk, jump, think) or a state of being (become, is, seem). A complete verb is made up of the main verb as well as any helping verbs that may or may not be used with it. The most commonly used helping verbs are called the nine models which are could, should, would, might, may, shall, will, must and can. These models express how the writer feels about the verb. They give the verb a sense of urgency or obligation. Every verb has five forms which include; base form (walk), past tense (walked), past participle (I have walked), present tense (he/she/it walks) and present participle (I am walking).

Adverbs modify verbs, adjectives or another adverb. To find out which words in a sentence are adverbs, ask yourself when, where, how, why, under what circumstances and to what extent, as the answers to all of these questions are in fact adverbs. The italicized words in the following sentences are all adverbs.

“She walked near her house.” (Where?)

“She walked yesterday morning.” (When?)

“She walked carefully.” (How?)

“She walked because she needed to get to work.” (Why?)

“She walked while feeling sad.” (Under what circumstances?)

“She walked quite carefully through the snow.” (To what extent?)

Another way to recognize an adverb is to look for words that end with the suffix -LY. Most of these adverbs are created by ending -LY to the end of an adjective. Some examples of this are slowly (slow), aggressively (aggressive) and hopelessly (hopeless).

The four major parts of speech are found in any good writing. Learning to use them correctly is the best way to ensure that you´ll understand them when you come across each part as you read or write.

“a” and “an” is used to refer to a non-specific or non-particular member of the group. For example, “a computer” means any computer rather than a specific computer.

It is also used before nouns that introduce something or someone you have not mentioned before. For example,
“I read a book this morning.”

A and an are also used when talking about your profession. For example:
“I am a network engineer.”

Using a or an depends on the sound that begins the next word.

We use a when the noun we referring to begins with a consonant (b, c, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, q, r, s, t, v, w, x, y or z), for example, a keyboard; a mouse; a laptop; a flower; a pencil.

We use an when the noun we referring to begins with a vowel (a, e, i, o, u), for example, an orange; an egg; an engineer; an one-way street.

We use a also when the noun we referring to begins with a consonant sound: a university; a united team; a uniform.

In the same case, we also use an when the noun we referring to begins with a vowel sound. For example, an hour, an honest man.

Following is an article which introduce the use of NLP to help children to learn, get along with others and working toward positive states.

NLP Tips For Parents

NLP provides parents with a great toolkit for helping their children learn, get along with others, and opt in to positive states. Using exactly the same techniques and principles they would apply to working with adults, parents get great results. As a bonus, they also get a chance to share the positive states their children experience. It’s a win-win!

All NLP techniques are grounded in the fact that human beings experience life as a series of continuous, unified states. Our minds, bodies, emotions, beliefs, knowledge and memories are all present and active simultaneously. Our neurology links every part of us that is active at a particular moment so that we create life as a flow and not as a discontinuous assortment of data.

Parents are often amazed at the ease with which children move from one state to another. A three year old who is howling one moment can be giggling the next. A teenager with nothing to say to her parents can be overflowing with words when her cell phone rings. Children are experts at changing states.

As parents, our first job is to notice the state that our children are in and to notice the benefits of this state. It often seems that the easier it is to notice the state, the harder it is to find benefits in it. Yet recognizing that even very small children have good reasons for bad behaviour is an enormous jump on changing that behaviour with relatively little stress.

In order to really appreciate the state your child is in, you need to observe the way your child observes: using all your senses and quite a bit of your physiology. You need to become a mirror of your child’s expressions, movements and postures. As you take on his/her physical characteristics, you will learn something of his/her internal experience.

Try it. Join your child in an activity and instead of teaching him/her how you do it, learn how s/he does it. Pay attention to every aspect of his/her movement, gestures, shifting attention and expression. See how precisely you can replicate them. Notice what changes in your feelings and perceptions as you take on the characteristics of your child’s state. Ask yourself: “what are the benefits of this state?”

When you identify a state as positive for the child (and possibly for you, too!), then you anchor that state. Anchoring means associating a state with a physical stimulus. If your child is engaged in a physical activity, elements of that activity will already be anchored to that state. If you want to transfer the state to other contexts, try anchoring the state to a particular word, touch or facial expression. Practice reinforcing the anchor whenever you notice that state as your child engages in the same or different activities.

What if your child enters a state that you don’t believe is positive? Your first goal is to replicate aspects of the state in yourself so that you can notice its benefits. This means watching a tantrum and noticing how powerful you feel as you scrunch your face, shake your head or bang your fist repeatedly. Or it might mean noticing how interesting it is to move your attention very rapidly from one thing to another – noticing how it changes your relationship to what is around you. It’s always valuable to accept that states have benefits for the people engaged in them – even when they don’t seem beneficial.

The goal of the exercise is not usually to leave the state unchanged, but to find a way to change it that preserves some elements of its benefits. Once you have a great read on your child’s state, you can change it by interrupting it, by firing resource anchors, or by helping your child move into a more positive physiology.

Last, but certainly not least, you can share stories with your child to establish a connection with his/her state and then transform it. Telling stories together invites you to share your voice, rhythms and expressions with your child – whether you are doing the telling or the listening. The point of the story is not to get the story right – it’s to get the best transformation into a shared, positive state. Stories are a natural technique for observing, engaging, connecting and transforming. Your kids will benefit – and so will you.

Linda Ferguson, Ph.D. is a senior partner at NLP Canada Training Inc. in Toronto, Canada. With her partner, Chris Keeler, Linda develops training that allows people to experience stronger integrity and better results. Clients experience rapid, sustainable change and long-term learning about how their thinking drives success. Drawing on fields from the arts to business to neuroscience, NLP Canada Training Inc. provides spring-training for the mind: clients sharpen their perceptions, focus their efforts, and become better at knowing what they want and communicating to get it. Read more from Linda at http://www.nlpcanada.com or http://www.squidoo.com/integratedthinking or http://www.nlpcanadatraining.blogspot.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Linda_Ferguson