just minishorts.

You know, there's a very great misunderstanding of what becomes 'good English', over here in my side of the world. And this isn't something to laugh about really.

See the SPM is next week, and I just felt it was timely for me to bring this up.

Several years ago, when I first entered varsity, and people were still talking about how well one did in the SPM examinations, during a time when the 1119 examination was still considerably challenging, we oft spoke about how teachers graded papers, and how best to score in the examinations.

A friend, I can't quite recall his name right now, told me, that

1119 was no joke. I had to study the dictionary several times, to pick up as many bombastic words as possible. the A1s went to the essays that were flowing with bombastic words, you see, and everyone wants an A1.

Oh sure, looking up the dictionary to pick up bombastic words is NOT a joke, aye. I can try not to laugh at that.

Now pardon me for being arrogant, please. I wish to remind some people again that I deal with the subject every day, and I meet people who still think like that. I'm quite sure that some teachers and employers get impressed when they see apparent fluency in spewing out exquisitely difficult-to-pronounce syllables. However, I'd strongly advise parents and teachers to take the easier route.

Go for easy readability. That's far more exciting to read, and definitely more engaging than malapropism.

I've asked Yu Ming, who has been so kind as to allow me to cite his blog as an example. I've told him I'll be candid, maybe a little cruel, but seriously it's hard to come across such prime examples in recent times. But here goes, thank you Yu Ming for allowing me to use your blog to explicate (oh this is a bombastic word, my bad) why it is so important to be easily understood, than to cause nerve-wrecking returns to the drawing board, wondering, 'What on earth is he trying to say?'

When I was a fifth former, a friend wrote this line in her papers,

'I heard the tintinabulation of the chime bells and was very soon adrift in my journey to the mystical plaza of dreamland, the grateful gesture of appreciation attributed, no less, to its soothing ting-a-ling-a-ling.

MAHAI. But don't swear yet. My take is: wouldn't it be far simpler to say, 'I hear the ringing of the bells and was soon asleep.'

Sure, that friend had a fantastic command of English, no doubts to that, but when she came back to me cursing the teacher for giving her a less-than-expected C3, it was very hard to sympathize with her.

Simply put, I thought she 'tried too hard'.

I first came across Yu Ming, after I was 'flamed' on 'You're All Idiots'. Don't mind me, Yu Ming, I find the blog entertaining with a purpose. Flaming is a purpose, and I happen to find that site funny. Maybe I'm a masochist also lah but wtf, that post about minisotsux sent me off in guffaws. But I digress and back to you.

From that site I went to Yu Ming's blog, who was one of the victims of the two-girls-and-a-guy team. Well. I must say that baga-fym is certainly far too profound for my simplistic mind. The first word I saw on the site was 'gestation', near the tagboard, and immediately in my mind, I saw a very ugly scene of pregnant hamsters in labour. With blood all over the shavings. Nabeh. Disgusting vision, I tell you.

So here, it's true that to 'gestate' means to think of an idea, HOWEVER, I find 'gestations' far too absurd a word to be used in a situation when obviously, 'your thoughts' would be so much easier to digest, for sure.

I pointed out to Yu Ming that his English was amazing, the command is quite fantastic. I mean, how many blogs you read can actually come up with this fatalistically shocking line:

As complicated as the business web can get, so can the constantly fluctuating human heart. To give, receive, console, take, forget…it takes a gargantuan effort of desire, sacrifice and above all else? Love. In a vastly diversified, rapidly developing world, monumental to success would be this cushioning network…something that we can turn to in times of descendency.

I thought it was rather too 'geng chao' for my pea brain, and at the same time I'm amazed that students do write like this. I'm quite sure there are some teachers who will mark the kid as an A-grade, at the same time, I personally know some examiners who will plunk this into the B3 grade box for the heck of it being OTT.

I'm not famous for being 'nice' at all, and obviously I feel Yu Ming can write, however, I feel he tries a tad too hard. The presentation feels constipated. So I very candidly asked him whether he spoke the way he wrote. After which I requested the permission to use his blog in a blog post, namely, THIS post.

Incredibly, and understandably, some readers are quick to praise Yu Ming as a 19 year old with a lot of humility. On my part, I find Yu Ming's posts rather hard to follow, because the variety of vocabulary available on show seems almost as if he had carefully considered every single possible thesaurus alternative there is for each noun, verb, adjective and adverb before he decided to employ them. So no, I wouldn't be so hasty to call all that humility. Besides, he IS a blogger after all, and I've yet to come across a blogger who is truly humble. I'm definitely NOT humble myself. Heh.

I feel that perhaps, baga-fym has a gross misunderstanding of what good English involves. I don't think it's Yu Ming's fault really, his English is very good, no doubts about that.

A tad too good, perhaps, and the notion that 'too much is not good 'is not exactly easily explained to many young students out there. They hardly realize that it is far more economical to be simple and understood.

Shall we then throw the blame upon the many teachers, parents and senior friends who encourage a young and gullible generation that Good English = Bombastic Words? Maybe, but let's just keep this post a personal, highly opinionated blog post, shall we? And not crack knuckles over it.

Now please understand it was not my intention to put up rules as to HOW to blog well and be famous, here. Today, my concern is purely educational, and hey, SPM is coming, and I have f0ur students sitting the exam next week, and I am concerned. They can't write as well as Yu Ming can, and they do not have his exacting command of English that will enable them to differentiate between the meanings of 'exuberant', 'exited' and 'joyous'. To them, 'being happy' is 'being happy', and that's about the best way to describe 'being happy' (and why not).

My concern is the fact that I do not want students who do not have a 20k-word vocabulary to mull over unnecessary concerns as to whether one knows enough difficult words or not. As far as I'm concerned, I don't bother about lengthy, difficult to understand texts. As long as you call a spade a spade, and I like the honesty that breathes from your words, I like you. And that's that.