What is that makes it so hard to talk to each other & how to break down the emotional wall....

In this new era of modernization, most people find it easier to communicate especially with their family, friends and all the people who live in the same area with them. Major advancement in technology, has led to a decline of communication barriers with the aid of Facebook, Yahoo Messenger, the internet, and various selections of cell phones. Despite these advancements, there are some people who still find it difficult and hard to communicate or talk with other people. Why is it so? There are several factors that cause such a problem. In general these factors can be divided into two major types that are cultural and language. There also several steps which can be taken to reduce the problem of communication barriers.

One of the major barriers of communication is language barrier. Most people find it difficult to communicate with other people especially people from other countries because of different languages they are using. Besides that, different accents of a language also contribute to the difficulties in communication. For example, some people find it hard to understand certain English vocabularies because of different accents, pronunciation and spelling. Although there are some people who suggest the use of Universal Language among all people in the world in order to prevent miscommunication, this will lead to a bigger problem like extinction of other languages as people are using the same language around the globe. One obvious example to explain language as one of the factors that contribute to communication barrier which can be found in the movie ‘A Thousand Years of Good Prayers’ is the conversation between Mr. Shi and an Iranian woman where at some moment both of them prefer to speak using their own mother tongue while at the same time they try to speak English so that they can understand each other.

Another factor that cause communication barrier is the cultural aspect. Most people prefer to constantly interact with people who have similar views and who reinforce their beliefs and also having the same culture rather than interacting with other people from different culture. From this situation, it is obvious that most people are having communication barrier in terms of interacting with other people of different races or cultures with to some extent leads to bigger problems like discrimination and racism. To prevent this problem, people are suppose to practise multiculturalism in their country and try to respect each other’s culture. From the movie ‘A Thousand Years of Good Prayers’ we can see an example from the scene at the pool between Mr. Shi and an American girl to explain this situation. Even though the girl is wearing inappropriately at the pool which contradicts with Mr. Shi’s culture, he still talks with the girl as he does not want to offend the girl.

There are several measures which can be taken to prevent difficulties in communication. The first step to prevent communication barrier is to understand and to respect everybody else’s culture and language. We can also try to learn other languages without forgetting our own mother tongue. Other than that, we must also mixed up with other people of different races to suit with the environment and to adapt with the environment.

In conclusion, the problem of communication barrier has become very common even with advancement in technology. This is because of factors like differences in language and culture. Methods of prevention should be taken to curb the incidents of misunderstanding like racism and discrimination among races.

Hi everyone, for this week there were many things happened at the college. The first important event that happened in this week was a meeting with a JPA officer .It was held on Tuesday in the function room. The meeting started at 11a.m. and ended at 12.30 p.m. The purpose of the meeting was to know about our problems and also to know whether we are doing well in Ausmat or not. We also were given an opportunity during the one and a half hour meeting to ask some questions regarding about our scholarship programme and also about the place that we prefer to study in the future. At the end of the meeting, the officer advised us to put a lot of efforts in order to continue or study in Australia.

For the economic lesson, this week we have a group discussion in the class. For the discussion, we were discussing Australian economic indicators and we were asked to plot four different graphs for different types of indicators. We also learned about the fluctuations in economic activity which take place during the business cycle. While for the Chemistry lesson, we learned about shapes of molecules. There are seven different shapes of molecules with different names and sizes for each shape. We also learned about intermolecular forces between the molecules. While for the Physics lesson we made some revision on sound waves.

For the English lesson we watched all the trailers done by my classmates ( including my group’s trailer) for the documentary. For my group, my group members decided to do a documentary on Fusion Food. Do you know, what is exactly the meaning of fusion food?.Fusion foods are foods that combine elements of various culinary traditions while not fitting specifically into any. We decided to choose this topic for our documentary because it is something interesting and something that many people are not aware of. In our documentary we try to relate and emphasise that fusion food can be related with cultural diversity and also the impacts that the existence of fusion foods have on local traditional foods.

For the purpose of the documentary, we have interviewed some of the local people to ask about their opinions and preferences, whether they prefer local traditional foods or fusion food. We also went to a nearby ‘Pasar Malam’ to take some pictures of local traditional foods there. We also have interviewed some of the food sellers there.

Another important event that happened this week is that we watched Bowling for Columbine on Friday evening in the LT6.It is an American documentary film directed by Michael Moore. It is a film about the violent crimes that happened in the United States of America. In this movie, Michael Moore tried to portray about America’s obsession with guns and violence. One of violent incidents shown in this movie is the incident occurred on Tuesday, April 20, 1999, at Columbine High School in Columbine .Two students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, embarked on a massacre(mass murder), killing 12 students and a teacher, as well as wounding 23 others, before committing suicide. This incident is almost the same with the incident that happened in the campus of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (The Virginia Tech massacre) on April, 16, 2007. So, why do 11,000 people die in America each year at the hands of gun violence?

So, that is all for this week. See you again. Bye…

Hi everyone, this week is the last week before the Chinese New Year holidays. So many things happened to me within this week. Most are good things while some are bad things. This week I went to the college as usual to attend my lesson. But the most interesting lesson for this week was the English lesson because this week my group and I had done a presentation from the chapter The Great Mouse Plot in the novel Boy Tales of Childhood.

We chose this chapter because it is the most interesting chapter as compared to other chapters in the novel. Besides, my group only consists of 5 members and all of them are staying at the same house. So, it was more suitable and easier for us to practice for the presentation. We practiced until midnight and it was not as easy as I expected because I had to memorise the dialogues, and kept repeating the acting to make it perfect in front of the audience. But it was really enjoyable for me and other members of my group.

First, let me introduce the characters first. For the character, I chose to be Roald Dahl, while Aizat chose to be Thwaites. Aqil chose to be Mr Coombes, and Izat acted as one of Roald Dahl’s friends. And most importantly was Mrs Pretchett played by Firdaus. We took about a day to memorise the dialogues and practice for the acting.
For the Great Mouse plot, we prepared the ‘mouse’ by using the computer mouse and drew a pair of eyes and a mouth for the ‘mouse’ and for the Gobstopper’s jar, we took a plastic jar and put some fake sweets inside the jar. For the cane used by Mr Coombes ( the headmaster), Aqil used a belt to cane the boys.

For the first chapter, it was so interesting especially the part when Roald Dahl wanted to put the dead mouse into Gobstopper’s jar as well as when Roald Dahl and his friends had to face with Mrs Pretchett and at the same time the actor for Mrs Pretchett has to be one of Roald Dahl’s friend. For the next chapter, the acting was very funny especially to see the poster of my face entitled WANTED FOR MURDER because Roald Dahl was blamed by Thwaites saying that he had killed Mrs Pretchett and had caused her to suffer from heart attack. But at the end of the chapter, they saw Mrs Pretchett was talking to Mr Coombes and realized that she was still alive.And in fact, I created the poster.

For the last part of the acting, the Mrs Pretchett’s revenge, it was the most difficult part for me as Roald Dahl because I had to bend myself and waiting for my turn to be caned by Mr Coombes.Then after been caned by Mr Coombes, came the funniest part of all the parts in the acting that is when Mrs Pretchett said to Mr Coombes, ‘I am much obliged to you’. And he replied back by saying ‘ I am much obliged to you too’.
It was very funny to see both of them. We ended our presentation at 5 p.m. in the evening and it takes about almost ten to fifteen minutes to finish the whole presentation.

The next day was the first day for the Chinese New Year holidays. Everyone was preparing themselves to go back to their hometown. I also went back to my hometown on Friday evening. So before I end my blog for this week, I hope that everyone will have an enjoyable ‘Alam Ria Cuti Sekolah’.Thank you.

For this week I would like to tell about all the events that happened throughout the week especially in the class. There were many exciting events happened in the class. For Economics lesson, this week my friends and I have done a presentation. Our presentation was that we want to invest RM2.5 million in Agricultural Industry. After almost five minutes presenting our project, at the end of the presentation, we were tortured with tonnes of unpredictable questions from our classmates. For example ‘do you think that this project is going to succeed?’. But the funniest part of all was when one of our group members tried to explain about ‘DESERT GOAT’. Besides that, we also learned about demand and supply graphs as well as substitute and complementary goods like apple and pear, petrol and car and also someone said CURRY AND POTATO………

For our Physics lesson, it was exciting as we did some experiments in the lab.This was the first time we entered the Physics lab and someone got lost when she was trying to find the lab. The first experiment we did in the lab is about measurement. We were given some apparatus like Vernier Calipers and Micrometer Screw Gauge to measure the diameters of a marble, a pendulum bob, a thin copper wire and a half-meter ruler. Even though it sounds very easy to do the experiment, it is harder than I expected because we have to repeat the same steps to get accurate measurements. The second experiment is about the properties of waves. Each group was given a Slinky spring to carry out the experiment.

Like our Physics lesson, our English lesson for this week was also exciting as we played a game called the ‘Selfish’ game. It was an interesting game because we have to think of a character in the novel ‘Boy Tales of Childhood’ and at the same time we were only given the characteristics of the character by our classmates and we had to guess the character who had those characteristics. By doing so, it helps us to memorize the characters in the novel. We also had a ‘Theatre Performance’ by our naturally-talented actors who acted like the characters in the chapter ‘Goat’s tobacco’ in the novel. It was very funny, as funny as ‘America’s Funniest Home Videos’ especially to watch the manly-lover screamed after he realized that he has been smoking goat’s tobacco made by Roald Dahl by putting goat’s droppings into the pipe.

For the Chemistry lesson, there is nothing much to write in this blog because we learned in the class as usual. This week our Chemistry teacher taught us about solutions and solubility. She taught us that ‘like dissolves like’ which means that polar solutes dissolve in polar solvents while non-polar solutes dissolve in non-polar solvents. It is like an idiom ‘birds of a feather flock together’.And last but not least, for our Mathematics lesson, we were served with tonnes of questions on Matrices to improve our understanding on this chapter.

Therefore, in conclusion all the events that happened within this week were very interesting, challenging and exciting. Not to forget, I would like to take this opportunity to wish all the Chinese a very happy and prosperous Chinese New Year. Thank you.

About Myself

Hello. My name is Muhammad Hafeez Bin Abdul Nasir.Most of my peers call me Hafeez.I am nineteen years old and I was born on 8^th of April 1990. Now I am studying in KBU International College, doing the AUSMAT programme. My ambition is to become a successful architect in the future.My primary school is Sekolah Kebangsaan Sultan Ahmad Tajuddin.I studied at that school until Year 6. After I finished my UPSR examination, I went to Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Jitra to continue my secondary education.

I come from a family of six. I have three siblings, two sisters and a brother.Like myself there are all still studying.I am the third child of my family. Both my elder brother and sister are studying in Universiti Malaysia Perlis,UNIMAP.They are studying engineering.While my younger sister is studying in Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Jitra in Form 2.This school was my secondary school before I came to KBU International College.

The next thing I would like to write is about my hobbies. I have many hobbies. One of my hobbies is reading. I like to read different kinds of reading materials like novels, magazines, newspapers and journals.Recently, I have finished three novels namely,Desert Flower by Waris Dirie, Falling Leaves by Adeline Yen Mah and Boy Tales of Childhood by Roald Dahl. I found that Falling Leaves is the most interesting novel between these novels because it contains many moral values and it helps me to improve my English.I also like to read many sorts of magazines like Reader’s Digest and National Geographic.These kinds of reading materials help me a lot in order to improve my English because reading makes a full man.

During the weekend, especially on Saturday morning, I used to go to the college library to make some revision and finish my assignments . This is because there are many books and different kinds of reading materials there to search for information. Futhermore, I also love to go to MPH bookstore during the weekend to buy some books or magazines.

Here in KBU, I enjoyed so many things with my friends.They are all so cooperative and friendly.There were so many activities we have done in this college like ice breaking and Gala night.Besides my classmates help to cheer up my life and they are also helpful in many ways.But in the class they are as quiet as a mouse. Sometimes we do presentation together in the class and help each other if we cannot understand certain topics taught by the lecturers in the class.We also enjoy to play bowling and go to the cinema together.