How to write right: it’s or its

It is actually not so difficult to differentiate between the two words, “it’s” and “its”. More over, we use them in speaking. The two words have the same pronunciation. It might be frequently wrong when we have to write them. It may be wrong often when we should write them. Perhaps we write them in hurry of typing them.

“it’s” stands for “it is” like in “she’s or “he’s”. You must remember that to include the apostrophe (‘) s in the words does not show the possessive pronouns like I have talked about in the former post titled “Possessive Apostrophe” , if you have not read yet, please read first. Now compare with the sentences below:

John’s crying over his lost car. (It stands for John is)
She’s looking at me (It stands for She is)
He’s OK. (It stands for He is)
It’s time to go now. (It stands for it is)
She’s gone to the Church (It stands for She has)

Now pay attention to the sentence below:

I would like to buy a car, but its price is too expensive.

The word “its” above is to replace the word “car”. It’s called Possessive Pronoun.

To learn more about Possessive Pronouns, I will talk about them in the next post.



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Merry Christmas in ten languages

Hello readers, today, December 25, 2008, is Christmas day. So in this opportunity I would like to wish you Merry Christmas. May your home will be filled with peace and joy.

Also I would like to wish you Merry Christmas in ten languages as follow:

Dutch: Vrolijk Kerstfeest en een Gelukkig Nieuwjaar! or Zalig Kerstfeast

French: Joyeux Noel

German: Froehliche Weihnachten

Greek: Kala Christouyenna!

Hindi: Shub Naya Baras

Indonesian: Selamat Hari Natal

Italian: Buone Feste Natalizie

Japanese: Shinnen omedeto. Kurisumasu Omedeto

Korean: Sung Tan Chuk Ha

Mandarin: Kung His Hsin Nien bing Chu Shen Tan



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Removing the comma (,) will change the meaning of a sentence

Someone asked me what’s the different between the two sentences below:

Toni’s car, which is green, will be sold
Toni’s car which is green will be sold

The first sentence has the meaning:

1. Toni has one car
2. Toni’s car is green
3. Toni’s car will be sold

The second sentence has the meaning:

1. Toni has many cars
2. One of Toni’s car is green
3. the green car will be sold

Now I have one description like this:

You have many stories. One of them will be published in a blog. The blog uses English.

And the combining sentence will be like:

The story which you tell us yesterday will be published on a blog which uses English.

Now please combine the sentence below into one sentence like the example above:

I have one cat. The cat always sleeps at 3.00 pm. The cat is sick.

Will the sentence be like this?

My cat, which always sleeps at 3.00 pm, is sick.

Or

My cat which always sleeps at 3.00 pm is sick.

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My Funny Story: I have unzipped my trousers.

I’m assigned a task by my best friend Yusa. The task is telling about my funny story that I’ve ever experienced. Indeed I’ve got a lot of such stories. Below is one of them.
The story or I prefer to say incident, happened several days ago …about three days ago.
There goes the story…

Since I often sit down in front of my PC from morning till midnight even till dawn, never do sports, my body becomes so fat, huh, my stomach is like a pregnant woman. I’ve got a bay window.

The problem comes! My trousers don’t fit again, they becomes too tight on my waist. As a result, my breath’s bated. It makes me uncomfortable to sit. To buy new ones, I still can’t afford or not at all, just lazy to go to Mall.

One day my office was not busy and only me in the office. Then I thought that I should unzip my trousers and open its button. “Oh my God, thanks, I can breathe again”.
(ha ha ha , stop! The story is still going, don’t laugh now)

A disaster came to me!

A guest came. “Wow the money comes” said me. I supposed he would buy a ticket from my office. You know that I work in a Tour and Travel Agency.

Guest : “Excuse me, Sir!”

Me : “Yes please sit down, is there anything I can help you? Do you need a ticket for your journey?”

Guest : “Thank you but I am afraid that I come here to meet Mr. Aris, I need to talk to him for something urgent. Would you please take me to his room?”

Me :”I am sorry but there’s no one by that name here, this is PT. Gemilang Travel, Tour and Travel Agency.”

Guest :”Oh I am sorry then, Mr. Aris works in Primagama, education institution”

Me :”Oh I see, it’s besides my office, let me show you!”


I stood up to escort the man.

But….can you imagine what was happening?

My trousers would be dropping down…

How shameful! Quickly I sat down again and said:

“I am really sorry, Sir, I can’t take you there now as suddenly my Boss sends me an sms to do some works. But Primagama is exactly besides this office, besides here!” while pointing towards the Primagama Office and my other hand held my hand phone as if an sms was in.

Hey You! Stop laughing! It’s not funny you know! It may be funny for you but not for me. Ha ha ha

That’s the story. Now I would reassign this task to my best friends below. Tell us your funny experiences on your blog like mine above.

Seno

3 Musketeers

Ocim

Septian



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How to write a professional EMAIL.

Writing an Email as a professional letter is a must when you work in an office or when you are at university to send your lecturer or when you apply for a job. So what to be paid attention when we want to write an email politely?

1. At first you should know to whom your email will be sent so that you can determine your salutation. Here are the examples:

You email someone you don’t know well or your superior:
Dear Mr. John,
Dear Dr Agus,
You email someone who has a working relationship with you:
Dear Agus,
Hi John,
Hello Smith,

Don’t forget to end with comma.

2. The second you shouldn’t write a very long letter. Write about 3 or 4 paragraphs. Put double line break, don’t use an indent tab.

3. Write an email as you write formal letter with a paper, pay attention to the capital and so on.


4. End your email as follow:

# Use Yours sincerely, (when you know the name of your addressee) and Yours faithfully, (when you’ve addressed it to “Dear Sir/Madam”) for very formal emails such as job applications.
# Use Best regards, or Kind regards, in most other situations.•#Even when writing to people you know well, it’s polite to sign off with something such as “All the best,” “Take care,” or “Have a nice day,” before typing your name.

5. Use your signature with including the information about you and your company. Include your full name if you send to someone you don’t know well or your superior or your short name when you send to work mates. Also include email address, telephone number and postal address (where appropriate) when you send to your correspondents or other company as your company partner. It makes it easy for your correspondents to find your contact details: they don’t need to root through for the first message you sent them, but can just look in the footer of any of your emails.


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Possessive Apostrophe

The possessive apostrophe (‘ or ‘s) is all about making a statement of ownership. This blog belongs to me. This one belongs to you. In grammar speak, the apostrophe shows the possessive of nouns.

The rules of using the apostrophe to show belonging as follow:

Use apostrophe s to the end of s singular noun that doesn’t end with s

e.g.: Kang Rohman’s blog.

Use apostrophe s to the end of a singular noun, even if it ends with s:

e.g.: Haris’s book

Use apostrophe s to the end of a plural noun that doesn’t end with s

e.g.: children’s bag

Use apostrophe only to the end of a plural noun that ends with s

e.g. my brothers’ books

Now look at the examples below and find the meaning:
My friend’s sister’s dogs (it means I have one friend, my friend has one sister and my friend’s sister has some dogs)

Are phrases below possessive apostrophe?
Haris’s sad.
He’s so cruel.


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Poor Melati!!

Today I want to practice my reading and writing. Let’s read s story below:

There was a little girl whose father was a very poor farmer, named Melati. They lived in a slum and their house was not habitable. After primary school Melati almost could not continue to junior high school, there was, her older sister, who was willing to help Melati although the condition was almost the same but eventually Melati could pass. During the school, Melati’s performance was not too bad. She was always in big five. But how poor, when almost passed her sister died because of the accident, so Melati could not continue to senior high school. She tried to continue her study at Mr. B.J. Habibie’s, she received information about the school from her junior high school teachers. She sent a letter to Mr. B.J. Habibie, however, the reply that she had been waiting for, did not come.

One night she was proposed marriage by a youth. Short story, both young man and woman were match one another. They loved each other.

Open, honesty, and trust were their commitment so they were bonded more closely in love.

As the time passed Melati’s father is no longer able to farm, Melati was forced to receive the challenge from someone to work as TKI (migrant worker) in Malaysia to help find a better life. He asked for prayer and blessing to her family and her boy friend and she went finally. She felt so sad and hard to leave her hometown, moreover her love to her boy friend was newly sprout. However her intention had overcome all of the feelings.

In the first year Melati’s family received 2 letters from Melati. But in the second year there was no longer news. Several times her father wrote letters, but the replies as he hoped didn’t come as well. Melati’s father expected the arrival of his only daughter. Sense of fear, longing, worry and hope on Melati mingled in the heart of Melatis’s father. It made him write a letter containing the news that he was ill and needed Melati’s presence.

This was the beginning of the first disaster that would befall Melati.

Meanwhile, in the city Tawao, Malaysia, Melati imagined the situation of her hometown while sitting. On that day her employer-family was out. Suddenly there was someone voice outside, Melati found out a postman there. Melati received a letter from him. To be written there: “for my beloved Melati”. A smile and sense of happy were seen on her face. What she had been waiting for all the time finally had come. But after she read the letter her face changed into sadness. She got the news that her father was ill. The letter made her intention to escape from there become stronger. She felt that it was the time after she often got physical torture from her employer due to a small mistake. Finally she escaped, went to the port Emigresen Tawao.

The sky looked dark. Lightning strike started, and the storms came. The boat that brought Melati was adrift and eventually drowned. Melati found herself in a house owned by a fisherman. After conscious, Melati retold all that happened to the old fisherman who had found her on the beach of Pesona Pangkal Pinang. Melati asked him to escort her to the opposite island, Java Island. The fisherman wanted to help but he did not have a boat, only IDR 30,000 that could be given to Melati. The fisherman told that there was a rich merchant who had the boat. The boat sailed once a week to Java Island brought goods.

Melati came to the merchant. The merchant was very friendly, in short, Melati came along with the merchant sailing to Java Island. On the way the merchant asked Melati to go into his private room. There was a converstion between them. The merchant could escort Melati to Java Island if Melati served him as if his wife or else the merchant would throw away Melati to the sea. Melati would like to scream out but she had no choice, she received it.

When arrived at the Port of Tanjung Priok, the merchant gave some money to Melati. With a pale face, slow steps, and no more happy face she knocked at the door of her house. Her father opened the door. Melati cried and held tight her father and so did her father. After that her father told that he missed Melati so much. So he told a lie if he was sick in order to make Melati come home. Melati was very angry to hear that.
“So what you said in the letter was a lie?” asked Melati. “You have to know that I have sacrificed something very worthy in my life, that was only for seeing you as you told me that you were sick.” Added Melati. “You are so cruel!”

Melati ran while crying. She went towards her boy friend house. She told all that had happened to her. She still hoped him to receive her condition. But her boy friend was very angry and he asked Melati to get out of his house.

The day was almost dark. Melati walked slowly with no intention where to go. Melati was so sad finding herself like that. She remembered how her employer in Malaysia served her, the letter from her and or from her father would be taken, so that there was almost no communication between her and her father. Almost three years she worked without expected result. She continued crying her fate.

The next day the residents were so shocked by the body of a girl that was hung down on a tree. Melati committed suicide.

This story was taken and translated from Seno’s Blog

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You get stuck when you’re writing an article

Do you ever experience of getting stuck when you’re writing an article? It must be because of a lack of ideas, right? I do as well.
What do you usually do when it happen? Drink a cup of coffee or tea first? Or Stop writing then go to bed? Ha ha ha those things what I used to do, not now. Because now I am used to getting up in the early morning so I can write an article with fresh mind. And bright ideas flow smoothly. Now what if I still get stuck although I write in the early morning?


I do these below when I get stuck in writing an article:

1. Take my notebook and pen then start to scribbling. Because sometimes I feel confused where to start my writing, by writing the points of my ideas, I can determine what to start on.
2. Relax for a while and leave my writing.
3. Read my reference book.
4. Then start writing again.

So what do you usually do when you get stuck?
Please tell us by commenting here.

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Blogging will improve our “Writing”

Are you a blogger? If you are a blogger, do you sometimes feel that you have wasted your time by writing articles for your blog? I don’t think so.

I feel blogging is good for us to improve our writing, why?
This is my experience that I am willing to sit in front of PC for a long time is just to write an article to be published in my blog. Before that? Never!!! What about you?


So blogging will improve our writing because:

1. It becomes our habit to write regularly and of course we will write as well as we can because we will publish it.
2. Our readers is our big motivation. Of course we will be very proud if we have many readers and they like our articles. Since that we will try to do our best to publish a good writing.

Finally our writing will be gradually better and better.

What do you think?


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Applying for a job in English (2)

In the entry before titled “Applying for a job in English” I promised to write and post some examples of application letters in English for other jobs. So at this entry I give some of them.

1. Applying for a nurse

Bandung, October 31st, 2008

Dear Sir,
With reference to your advertisement, I would like to be considered for the post of Nurse, as it appeared in Kompas dated October 28th 2008.

I am 21 years old and have just graduated from Bandung Nursing Academy, Bandung, with merit. I am literate in computer and I have ever joined handicapped therapy seminars launched in my campus. I have acupuncture certificate issued by Lao Ma Acupuncture Course. I can speak English fluently as well.

I have permission to give the name of the following gentlemen as reference: Mr. Dr. Surya Cipta, Sp.Og, Sp.Kj, M.Med, Principal of Bandung Hospital Nursing Academy, Bandung.

I am waiting the opportunity of personal interview.


Best regards,

Elis Kurniasih


2. Applying for Public Relation

Yogyakarta, October 31st, 2008

Dear Search Committee,
Herewith I beg to apply for position Public Relation as advertised in Kompas dated October 28th 2008.

I am 26 years old.

Date of birth : March 13th, 1977
Education : Mass Comunication department, Gajah Mada University (S1)
Certificate : National English Certificate, Inetnational Japanese Certificate, National French Certificate
Experience : Two years PR in PT. Kirai Jaya

I can speak English, French fluently as well as Japanese. I also handle translation and correspondence among those languages above to Indonesia or vice versa. I have my own translation business.

I apply PR position so as to enlarge my horizon about communication worls, as I can deal with more people from any different backgrounds and nationalities.

If you would like to know more in detail, please make contact to Mr. Johan. Devisa translation house. I am sure that he will delightfully be generous to give information that you nee.

I should appreciate the privilege of an interview.

Respectfully yours

Lucy Permatasari, S.Sos


Well, I think that’s enough as the examples, the most important things to do before write an application letter in English is five points as I write here.
Good luck

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How to write a blog in English

Now there are a lot of blogs in English, bloggers share their ideas in Englsih, here I will share some tips before you write a blog in English.
The first thing you should do to is think about your readers, not all of your readers speak English, and of course your readers are from children to adults, so use simple English. Write as if you are talking to them. Share your great ideas with a simple English so they will understand your idea and they will enjoy your writing.

For your reference please read 10 Practical Tips for Writing in English

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Applying for a job in English

This posting is for them who will apply for a job in English.

How to write an application letter :
1. Write a specific greeting e.g. Dear Mr. Brown, or use the name of department of him/her e.g. Dear HRD Manager, Dear Recruiter, Dear Search Committee, or Dear Sir/Madam.
2. Explain the origin of the information, e.g. Kompas October 27th, 2008 Edition. And here in the first paragraph you can explain the purpose and reason you apply for a job.

3. If you know someone in the company, mention his/her name there so the employer will pay attention.
4. In the second paragraph you can explain your working experience and skill that show that you are the right person to occupy the vacant position. But don’t write and explain too long here, let the employer know this in your resume.
5. In the end of letter should be short like: “I look forward to hearing from you soon”. Don’t for get to write :” Thank you for your consideration”.

Below are some examples:


Applying for Marketing Manager

Dear Hiring Manager,

I wish to be considered as Marketing Manager as advertised in Kompas October 27th, 2008 edition.

I am nearly 35.

Date of Birth : March 9th, 1970

Education : Management Department University of Indonesia
Magister Management University of Airlangga with Marketing specialty.

Certificate : Best Marketing Staff 1994 by Mr. Hudoyo, Chief Executive Officer of PT. Sirikit

Experience : 9 years marketing staff
3 years Marketing Manager of PT. Sirikit

I have made hundreds significant decision on Marketing which enhance (boost) company’s product sold in the market.

I wanted to leave that job because I would like to gain more challenges and experiences in another enterprise. I am in good health. I can operate Microsoft Office applications both as operator and programmer. I am also literate in English and fluent in Japanese.

If you want to get further information; I beg you to refer to Mr. Hudoyo, Ex-Chief Executive Officer of PT. Sirikit, Lampung. I guarantee that they will be willing to give any information you need on my integrity and willingness.

Thank you for your consideration.
I look forward to the pleasure of a personal interview.

Respectfully yours,


Yusa Indra, SE, M.M

Next I will write and post the examples of the other positions and how to write resume. GOOD LUCK.

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Story Time Joke: Hair Today

A man goes into a hairdresser's. He only has three hairs on his head. The hairdresser says, "Good morning, how would you like it?"
And the man replies, "A side parting, please!"
So, the hairdresser tries to give him a side parting, but it is imposible. "I am sorry," says the hairdresser. "Could we try something else?"
"OK!" says the man. "How about a midle parting?"
So the hairdresser tries that, but it's still no good.
"I am really, really sorry," says the hairdresser.
"Oh, don't worry," says the man. "Just leave it in a mess."

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