I stand corrected. Truth to be told, I've never had a formal English education, but an informal education had made me near-native to the language. This would certainly be a spark to begin an actual English study.

Informal education? As in home-schooling?
Care to elaborate?

I've dual-enrolled in kindergardens from morning to evening as to provide a language and literacy foundation, and that was probably my only formal education in English Language. From primary to current, I was constantly either excused from English syllabi for extracurricular trainings or was deprived of it since my English teacher, also my class teacher, used the periods to discuss extrasyllabi matters.
Informal education in my context is indeed home-schooling, but only for languages. Self-study as others call it.

That is really impressive.
Do you mind telling us what is your mother tongue, how many languages do you speak, and how fluent are you in all of them?

This post has been edited by EducationABC: Aug 13 2011, 05:45 PM

Hope you don't mind but there is a very common mistake in the above sentence.

The sentence should be written as:

Do you mind telling us what your mother tongue is, how many languages you speak and how fluent you are in all (each) of them?

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Added on August 13, 2011, 6:28 pmIt seems you spent most of your time on extra-curricular activities and didn't get to attend regular classroom lessons thoughout your school career. How come?

This post has been edited by tehtmc: Aug 13 2011, 06:34 PM

Thank you for correcting my mistakes^^

I think I got it. If I can replace the word after TO with "Something", then I will not need to use back the root word. For example,
I like to eat. I cannot replace eat using something, so I have to use back the root word.

Guide to becoming a lawyer. I can say guide to something. So I do not need to use back the root word.

Is it true? Thank you^^

That's right, there are many usages of the word 'to'.

As a preposition - I go to school. Guide to (a subject).

EducationABC,
My mother tongue language, as defined by the Oxford's Advanced Learners Dictionary to be my first language, is the English Language and is quite manipulative of my accent.
So far, I'm grown naturally to understand Malay Language, simple Iban, Mandarin and other Chinese dialects including Hokkien, Cantonese, Hakka and Foochow. Now, I'm interested in mastering them as well as other Chinese dialects or any local languages before even thinking of pursuing foreign languages.
How about you?

hello all, i need help in how to use
1)worse
2)worst
any help will be highly appreciated.

Worse is a comparative, a word that compare between two stuffs.
Therefore, worse should be used to compare between two things, such as in the phrase, "My apple is worse than yours". You can also break the comparison to two sentences, as in, "Your apple is bad. However, my apple is worse." Always note that comparative words must oppose to something.
Worst is a superlative, a word that express the highest level of something.
Therefore, for worst, it is the highest level of 'badness' you can achieve. In a phrase, "My apple is the worst." That means the apple is the baddest compared to all there is.
Briefly, you can treat worse as 'lebih buruk' and worst as 'paling buruk'.
Subject to errors and correction.

bad - worse - worst
(positive - comparative - superlative) in grammar terms

They are the different degrees of adjectives. Adjectives are words to describe a noun/thing.
The comparative is used to compare two things.
The superlative is used to compare three or more things.

Other examples:

good - better - best
happy - happier - happiest
beautiful - more beautiful - most beautiful

This post has been edited by tehtmc: Aug 14 2011, 12:50 PM

thx guys.

Want to ask... If I receive a call and I would like to know how to call him as? How should I say?

@DavidWKW How to address you Sir ? ( a lil too serious )

I think that's fine though. Perhaps, it can be "Excuse me sir, but may I know how should I address you?" Think it's a bit lengthy in my opinion. =/

Alright, here's another one on telephone etiquette. Let's say you are on the line and the person on the other side is looking for you (Good morning Sir/Madam, may I speak to Mr/Ms. [insert your name here]?), which of the following is the appropriate response?

1) Speaking.

2) This is he/she.

Are there any distinctions between the above two? The first one is by far the most common response and as for the second one, it's hardly used here in Malaysia (don't know about other countries) from what I have observed.

Also, are there any other responses besides the above two? Mind sharing them?

P.S If there are any grammatical errors, do point them out.

This post has been edited by edge_seraph: Aug 16 2011, 11:21 AM

There's multiple method for that, with each suits a particular setting.
For a formal, or serious talks, such as if you're a receptionist, an assistant or any career requiring you to answer calls, a formal reply should ensue.
"May I know how am I to address you, (sir /ma'am) ?"
"May I know your name (sir / ma'am) ?
The point that the sir or ma'am are in brackets is because they are optional. There's no need to discriminate their gender, just be direct. Don't use them especially if you can't differentiate the voice of a female or male.
A less formal alternative would be,
"May I know who's on the phone?"
"May I know who's this?"
"May I know who am I speaking to?"
Or the informal alternative, which is only suitable for a friend or if you're reluctant to promote English proficiency in Malaysia.
"This is?"
"You are?"
"Your name?"
It'll depend on the setting.

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Added on August 16, 2011, 2:39 pmI do realise that I had grammatical errors on my answer. However, the Edit link on the mobile site is currently unavailable. And, I'm really exhausted today.

This post has been edited by reconnaissance: Aug 16 2011, 02:39 PM

1) "No, I am pretending to be not the one you are looking for so that you can leave me alone because judging from your way of talking, I can tell you are just reading out a script tailored for telemarkerters, you sorry piece of sh*t!"

2) Yes, I am whom you are looking for (Warning, Malaysians cannot differentiate between "who, and "whom"!).

3) Yes, I am he/she (Similar to your "This is he/she"), but beware, Malaysians don't understand these eitquette nonsense!

4) "Speaking" is commonly used by ASIANS everywhere, if you believe class and distincition is leaned towards the language they are using.

You preferred English, and accpted not only as a language, but a WAY OF LIFE. THat's how you got it so good.

Others? They study English because it is important, but always trying to retain their "original culture", and it is because of their refraining acts, they can never speak as good as you, and as any native English speakers.

Food for thought. Guess which side I of the "culture" I am at.

You obviously haven't seen how dynamic English can be used in theatrics. Read a book of Hamlet, and you will understand.

This post has been edited by Deadlocks: Aug 16 2011, 04:00 PM

This is an incomplete sentence.
A proper sentence consists of a subject and a predicate.
There is no subject here.

It's like saying:

How to go there?
How to solve this problem?

You can say:
How should I address you, Sir/mdm?

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Added on August 16, 2011, 5:21 pmIf the call is for someone else, you can say:

Who should I say is calling, please?

(wrong)

Who am I speaking to?
May I know who I am speaking to?

'I am' is suiperfluous. Of course, you are speaking, who else?

May I know who is speaking, please?

This post has been edited by tehtmc: Aug 16 2011, 05:35 PM

Sorry for the late reply. My first language is......well I can't be sure which language it is! English is usually used for reading and writing(in almost every case, apart from a few mandarin homework and newspapers) while Chinese is used 85% of the time in conversations. The remainder is English and and a few Malay sentences used to communicate with teachers. In my school, Chinese students are the majority, obviously I live in Selangor.

1) Speaking - Not fluent in any languages that I have learned. For Mandarin, I use sentences with slight grammatical errors, sometimes serious ones and I am not fluent unless I am reading out aloud. Malay is almost nonexistent, but I could still read. As for english, I speak Manglish in daily conversations, but I could write a good script.

2) Reading
a) English-- upper intermediate.

b) Mandarin-- lower intermediate(I guess, I got A for PMR, not exactly rare, but not common either, considered "good" in class)

c) Malay-- I don't know, no problem understanding anything so far.

3)Writing
a) English-- Best among three, upper intermediate (Still, grammatical errors are there, try spot one in this post!)

b) Mandarin-- Lower intermediate, grammatical errors are few only because I don't use complex sentences often. Considered "good" in class. The truth is, the standard of mandarin is quite low in Malaysia, so I don't really know where I stand.

c) Malay- 60 to 80 out of 100 on SPM karangan, depending on the topic and time allocated.

Listening- Not quite a problem for any of the three languages.

2) Yes, I believe you. I was once that type of person.

3) Yes, I believe you. I have never heard about it before.

Of course there are exceptions, but generally, I agree with you. The first language that I have learned is English in kindergarten. But during 6 years of schooling in a SJK{C} school, I have immersed myself totally in chinese language and culture. It made English almost nonexistent in my daily life for that period, resulting in my poor English. After standard 6, I entered a SMK school and I immediately put in effort to improve my english. My english improved, but the negligence of Chinese language and the fact Smk schools have only 90 minutes of Chinese language lessons had worn off the edge I initially have in Chinese language. Now, I am lost between the two. Well, not exactly lost but it makes me hard to say which is my first language. I mean, when people ask you what is your first language, they often expect you to be proficient in that language, right?

I guess you are chinese as well, right?

Oops, I have used that a little too often.

This post has been edited by EducationABC: Aug 16 2011, 06:16 PM

My first language is......well I can't be sure which language it is!

This must be the commonest grammar mistake.