How to Prepare for IELTS Writing

IELTS writing ကတော့ ဖြေဆိုချိန် ၁ နာရီဖြစ်ပြီး Task 1 နဲ့ Task 2 ဆိုပြီး အပိုင်းနှစ်ပိုင်းရှိပါတယ် ။Task 1ကို မိနစ် ၂၀ ဖြေရမှာဖြစ်ပြီး at least 150 words ရေးရမှာဖြစ်ပါတယ် ။ Task 2 ကတော့ မိနစ် ၄၀ ဖြေဆိုရမှာဖြစ်ပြီး at least 250 words ရေးရမှာဖြစ်ပါတယ် ။ ( စာအရမ်းရှည်သွားမှာစိုးလို့ task 1 နဲ့ task 2 က ဘာတွေလဲ ဘယ်လိုဖြေရမလဲဆိုတာကိုတော့  post နောက်တစ်ခုနဲ့ မျှဝေပေးပါမယ် )

💡Writing Improve ဖြစ်အောင် ဘာတွေလုပ်ရမလဲ ?

ဖူး လုပ်ခဲ့တာကတော့ formal style နဲ့ အင်္ဂလိပ်လိုရေးထားသမျှစာတွေကို topic စုံအောင် အားရင်အားသလို ဖတ်တာပါပဲ ။  အထူးသဖြင့် wrting task 2 မှာ topic က ဘာမဆိုလာနိုင်ပါတယ် ။ စာအစုံကို ဖတ်ထားတဲ့ input များများ ရှိထားမှသာ ဘာ topic ပဲလာလာ ကိုယ့်မှာ idea တွေရှိနေမှာဖြစ်သလှိုိ ရှိတဲ့idea တွေကိုထိထိမိမိရေးသားဖော်ပြနိုင်ဖို့အတွက် လိုအပ်တဲ့ topic-related vocabulary တွေလည်းအဆင်သင့်ရှိနေမှာ ဖြစ်ပါတယ် ။ ဒါမှသာ သတ်မှတ်ထားတဲ့ အချိန်အတွင်းမှာ အခက်အခဲမရှိ သေချာဖြေဆိုနိုင်မှာပါ။

📚 ဘယ်စာအုပ်တွေဖတ်သင့်လဲ ?

များသာအားဖြင့် ဖူးကတော့ Readers' Digest ၊ BBC news ၊ VOA news ၊ The Global New Light of Myanmar စတာတွေဖတ်ဖြစ်ပါတယ် ။ အခြားသော အင်္ဂလိပ်လိုရေးထားတဲ့ စာအုပ်တွေကိုလည်း အလျင်းသင့်သလို ဖတ်ပါတယ် ။ ဖတ်တဲ့အခါမှာလည်း notebook တစ်ခု ဘောပင်တစ်ချောင်းဆောင်ထားပြီး ကိုယ် သဘောကျမိတဲ့ အသုံးအနှုန်းလေးတွေ တွေ့ရင် note down လုပ်ထားပါတယ် ။ ကိုယ်မသိတဲ့ စကားလုံးအသုံးအနှုန်းတွေကိုလည်း Oxford Advanced Learners' Dictionary နဲ့ check ပြီး vocab တွေရဲ့ collocation တွေရော example sentence တွေကိုပါ လေ့လာပြီး notebook မှာရေးမှတ်ပါတယ် ။ အခွင့်ကြုံတဲ့အခါ မှတ်ထားတဲ့ vocab တွေကို ကိုယ်ပိုင်ဟန်နဲ့ ပြန်သုံးပါတယ်။ အတိုပြောရရင်တော့ ဖူးက စု၊တု၊ပြု ဆိုတဲ့ method ကိုသုံးပါတယ်။ဖူးကတော့ နဂိုတည်းက English vocab တွေနဲ့ ပတ်သတ်လာရင် obsessed ဖြစ်သူမို့လို့ ielts ဖြေမယ်လို့ မရည်ရွယ်ခင်ကတည်းက ကိုယ်ရဲ့ အကျွမ်းတဝင်မရှိတဲ့ vocab နဲ့ အသုံးအနှုန်း တွေကို note ရေးပြီး စုဆောင်းရတာ သဘောကျလို့ကိုပဲ အလေ့အကျင့်တစ်ခုအနေနဲ့ လုပ်နေမိခဲ့တယ် ။ အဲ့ အလေ့အကျင့်လေးကပဲ ielts ဖြေဖို့ ပြင်ဆင်တဲ့အခါ ဖူးအတွက် အထောက်အကူဖြစ်ခဲ့တယ်။

📚 Cambridge IELTS Exam-paper books တွေကို ဘယ်နှစ်အုပ်လောက် လေ့ကျင့်သင့်သလဲ ? ဘယ်လိုလေ့ကျင့်ရမလဲ ?

ဖူးကတော့ book 3 to 14 လေ့ကျင့်ခဲ့ပါတယ် ( အခုတော့ 15 အထိထွက်နေပါပြီ ) ။ အထူးသဖြင့် အဲ့စာအုပ်တွေထဲကမှ examiner ကိုယ်တိုင် ရေးထားတဲ့ writing sample answer တွေနဲ့ band 7 နှင့် အထက်ရထားတဲ့ sample answer တွေကို ဖတ်ပါတယ်။ ဖတ်တဲ့ အခါ ဘာအချက်တွေကြာင့် ဒီ essay က band 8 ရသွားတာလဲ စသဖြင့် မြင်အောင်ကြည့်ပါတယ်။ cadidate ရေးတဲ့ sample answer ဖတ်တဲ့အခါ error တချို့ရှိနေတတ်တဲ့ အတွက် အဲ့ error တွေကို မြင်အာင်လ့လာပြီး သူများအမှားကနေ learn လုပ်ပြီး ကိုယ့်ရဲ့ writing မှာ အလားတူ weak point မျိုး မရှိအာင် သတိထားပ်ါတယ်။ တချို့ writing တွေကို ကိုယ်တိုင် timer ထား ချရေးပြီး practise လုပ်ပါတယ်။ ချရေးတဲ့အခါ sample answer တွေကနေ learn လုပ်ထားတဲ့ knowledge ကို ပြန် apply လုပ်ပါတယ်။ ဖူးအမြင်မှာတော့ writing improve ဖြစ်ဖို့ဆိုရင် ကိုယ်ရေးထားတဲ့ writing တွေကို စစ်ပေးပြီး feedback သေချာပေးမယ့် ဆရာကောင်းလိုအပ်ပါတယ်။ ဖူးကတော့ ရေးပြီးတဲ့ writing တွေကို ဖူး IELTS သင်တန်းတတ်တဲ့ BSI Learning Academy က တီချယ်ကို ပြပါတယ်။ တီချယ်ပေးတဲ့ feedback တွေ ၊ tips တွေကြောင့် အချိန်တိုအတွင်း writing improve ဖြစ်ခဲ့တယ်။

💡 Cambridge book တွေက sample answer ကောင်း တွေအပြင် ဖူးကတော့ Google မှာလဲ band 9 writing sample answer တွေကိုအောက်ပါ link တွေမှာလည်း ဝင်ဖတ်ပါတယ်။

https://ieltsliz.com/ielts-sample-essay/

https://www.ieltspodcast.com/band-9-sample-essays/

https://www.ielts-practice.org/category/band-9-ielts-essays/

💻 YouTube မှာရော ဘာတွေ လေ့လာရမလဲ ?

ဖူးကတော့ You Tube မှာ IELTS tips and tricks video တွေလိုက်ကြည့်ပါတယ်။ video တွေထဲကမှ ဖူးကတော့ IELTS Liz နဲ့ EngVid channel က Emma တို့ရဲ့ video တွေကို ပိုသဘောကျလို့ ပိုကြည့်ဖြစ်ပါတယ်။ Liz နဲ့ Emma က ဖူးရဲ့ online teacher တွေလို့တောင် ပြောလို့ရပါတယ်။
💁‍♀️Line Graph ( writing task 1 ) by Liz
https://youtu.be/JxgA-qqw2m8
💁‍♀️Bar Graph (writing task 1 ) by Emma
https://youtu.be/QC8vN3GVQhI
💁‍♀️Pie Chart (writing task 1 )by Emma
https://youtu.be/wF_7ha05kxY
💁‍♀️Process (writing task 1 )by Emma
https://youtu.be/KNXvnbxU61w
💁‍♀️Map ( writing task 1 ) by Liz
https://youtu.be/PhVlFDNAmUQ

✅Writing Task 2 by Liz
How to write an introduction
https://youtu.be/YngqHl_BLOU
Expressing your opinion
https://youtu.be/SpAIW4p8wkw
Useful Academic Expressions
https://youtu.be/gCo9L1nLlQ0
✅Writing Task 2 by Emma
Paraphrasing the question
https://youtu.be/o9aVjBHEEbU
✅ How to score 8+ by Jay
https://youtu.be/Zx-JcXsbUqQ


🌟Writing အတွက် ဖူးလေ့လာဖြစ်တဲ့ course book တွေကိုတော့  ပုံတွေမှာ ကြည့်နိုင်ပါတယ်။ အင်းဝ ၊ စာပေလောက ၊ စိတ်ကူးချိုချို စသည့် စာအုပ်ဆိုင်များမှာ ဝယ်လို့ရပါတယ်။

✌ဖူးရဲ့ IELTS writing preparation အတွေ့အကြုံကို ဒီမှာပဲ ရပ်နားပါရစေ။ IELTS reading tips တွေကိုတော့ အောက်ပါလင့်ခ်မှာ ဝင်ရောက်ဖတ်ရှုနိုင်ပါတယ် ။
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=756434844765973&id=100011983931754

ကျန်တဲ့ listening နဲ့ speaking preparation experience တွေကိုတော့ နောက်ရက်တွေမှာ post ထပ်ရေးပြီး ဆက်လက်မျှဝေသွားပါမယ်။
Stay tuned if you're interested in......

Wishing you best of luck for your IELTS test!🍀

Sharing is Caring...❤
Kyal Sin Phu ( ကြယ်စင်ဖူး )
31 December 2019

How I manage to Achieve 8.5 in IELTS READING

                           

ဒီနေ့တော့IELTS Reading band score 8.5 ရအောင် ဖူးဘယ်လိုပြင်ဆင်လေ့ကျင့်ခဲ့လဲ ဆိုတာလေး မျှဝေပေးချင်ပါတယ်။

ဖူးရဲ့ အတွေ့အကြဲုံအရတော့ IELTS reading score ကောင်းဖို့ဆိုရင် စာအမြန်ဖတ်တတ်တဲ့ အလေ့အကျင့်ရှိဖို့နဲ့ Time Managementလုပ်တတ်ဖို့ တကယ်ကို အရေးကြီးပါတယ်။ Reading Test မှာ မိနစ် ၆၀ အတွင်း စာမျက်နှာနှစ်မျက်နှာရှိတဲ့ passage ၃ခု ( စုစုပေါင်း ၆မျက်နှာ )ကို ဖတ်ပြီး မေးခွန်းအခု ၄၀ ကိုဖြေဆိုရတာဖြစ်တဲ့အတွက် သေချာ practise လုပ်မထားရင် သတ်မှတ်ချိန်အတွင်း အဖြေမှန်ရအောင် ဖြေဆိုဖို့က ခက်ခဲပါတယ်။ ဒါကြောင့်လည်း  Reading test ဖြေတဲ့အခါ အချို့လည်း အချိန်မလောက်တာမျိုးဖြစ်တတ်ပါတယ်။ ဖူးကိုယ်တိုင်လည်း reading ကို စပြီးပထမဆုံးလေ့ကျင့်တဲ့ အချိန်တုန်းက အချိန်မလောက်တာမျိုး ကြုံတွေ့ခဲ့ပါတယ် ။  ဒါပေမယ့် reading strategies ကောင်း တွေကို စနစ်တကျသုံ့းပြီး  အချိန်အတိုင်းအတာတစ်ခုအထိ သေချာလေ့ကျင့်လိုက်တဲ့အခါမှာတော့ သတ်မှတ်ချိန်အတွင်း အခက်အခဲမရှိ ဖြေဆိုနိုင်ပြီး Reading scoreလည်း သိသိသာသာ တတ်လာခဲ့ပါတယ်။ ဖူးသုံးတဲ့ reading tactics လေးတွေကို အောက်မှာ ဆက်ဖတ်နိုင်ပါတယ် ။

🔑 ဖူးကတော့ passage တွေကိုဖတ်တဲ့ အခါ Reading subskill နှစ်ခုဖြစ်တဲ့ Skimming နဲ့ Scanning ကို သင့်လျော်သလို သုံးပြ်ီး ဖတ်ပါတယ်။ Skimming ကတော့ Text ကို main idea ရဖို့အတွက်  အမြန်ဖတ်လိုက်တာဖြစ်ပြီး Scanning ကတော့ specific information တစ်ခုခု ( e.g. name, number, year,etc )ကို စာအမြန်ဖတ်ရင်း  လိုက်ရှာတာမျိုး ဖြစ်ပါတယ်။ ဒါကြောင့် Heading matching ၊ True/False/Not Given ၊ Yes/NO/Not Given ၊ Multiple Choice စတဲ့ concept  understanding ကို စစ်ဆေးတဲ့   Question Type တွေကိုဖြေတဲ့အခါ Skimming ကိုသုံးပြီး passage ကိုဖတ် အဖြေရှာပါတယ်။ Scanning ကိုတော့ specific word or phrase ရှာဖို့လိုအပ်တဲ့ Sentence completion ၊ Table Completion စတဲ့ question type တွေ ကိုဖြေဖို့အတွက် passage ကိုဖတ်တဲ့အခါ သုံးပါတယ်။

🔑 IELTS reading test မှာ ဖတ်ရတဲ့ passage အများစုဟာ ဖူးတို့ daily life မှာ အကျွမ်းတဝင် မရှိတဲ့  ( e.g. Space , Nanotechnology , Artificial Intelligence, etc ) အကြောင်းအရာမျိုး တွေဖြစ်နေတတ်ပြီး technical terms တွေလည်း အနည်းနဲ့ အများတော့ ပါနေတတ်ပါတယ် ။ ဒါကြောင့် passage မှာ ကိုယ့်မမြင်ဖူးတဲ့ vocab အသစ်တွေလညိး ပါကောင်းပါနိုင်ပါတယ်။ ဒါပေမယ့် reading ဖြေနိုင်ဖို့က passage မှာသုံးထားသမျှ စာကားလုံးတိုင်းကို နားလည်ဖို့ မလိုတဲ့အတွက် new words တွေ့တဲ့အခါ panic မဖြစ်ဘဲ သုံးထားတဲ့ context ကိုကြည့်ပြီး meaning ကို predict လုပ်ပြီး စိတ်အေးအေးနဲ့ ဆက်ဖြေဖို့ လိုပါတယ်။  paragraph တိုင်းရဲ့ topic sentence နဲ့ concluding sentence တွေကိုဖတ်ပြီးတော့ လည်း key ideas ရအောင် လုပ်လို့ရပါတယ် ။

🔑 Reading ဖြေရာမှာ Synonyms တွေကို သတိထားဖို့လည်း အရေးကြီးပါတယ် ။ စကားလုံး တစ်ခုတည်းကို Passage မှာရော question မှာရော အများအားဖြင့် သုံးလေ့မရှိတဲ့အတွက် question ကိုအရင်ဖတ်ပြီး passage မှာ အဖြေရှာတဲ့အခါ question မှာသုံးထားတဲ့ key word ရဲ့ Synonyms  တွေကိုတွေ့အောင်ရှာသင့်ပါတယ်၊ ဥပမာ question မှာ crucial လို့သုံးထားရင် passage မှာ of paramount importance စသဖြင့် သုံးထားတတ်တာကြောင့်  synonyms တွေကို မြင်အောင်ကြည့်နိုင်ရင် အဖြေရှာဖို့ ပိုလွယိပါတယိ ။( တချို့ကတော့  passage ကိုအရင်ဖတ်ပြီးမှ question ကိုဖတ်ပြီး ဖြေကြတာလည်းရှိပါတယ်။ ဖူးကတော့ question ကို အရင်ဖတ်ပြီးမှ passage ကိုဖတ်ရင်း အဖြေရှာတယ် ။ကိုယ့်အတွက် ပိုအဆင်ပြေတဲ့နည်း အားသန်တဲ့ နည်းနဲ့ ဖတ်နိုင်ပါတယ် .)

🔑 Passage အလွယ်အခက်ကိုလိုက်ပြီး ဖူးကတော့  time allotment ပြန်လုပ်ပါတယ် ။ Reading test မှာ instructionအရ့ passage တစ်ခုစီကို မိနစ် ၂၀ သုံးခွင့်ရပါတယ်။ ဖူးကတော့ Passage 1 က passage သုံးခုထဲမှာ အလွယ်ဆုံးလို့ယူဆတဲ့အတွက် ၁၅ မိနစ်ပဲ သုံးပြီးဖြေပါတယ် ။ Passage 2 ကတော့ Passage 1 နဲ့ယှဉ်ရင် နည်းနည်းပိုခက်လာတဲ့အတွက် မိနစ် ၂၀ သုံးပါတယ် ။ Passage 3 ကို အခက်ဆုံးလို့ထင်တဲ့အတွက် ၂၃ မိနစ်သုံးပါတယ်။ ပိုတဲ့ ၂ မိနစ်မှာတော့ ဖြေထားပေမယ့် သိပ်မသချာဖြစ်နေတဲ့ အဖြေတွေကို ပြန် reflect လုပ်တာရယ်၊  ကိုယ့်အဖြေတွေက spelling မှန်မမှန်၊ instruction ကို follow လုပ်မလုပ်  ပြန် check ပါတယ်။

🔑 Reading Test မှာ listening test လိုမျိုး question booklet မှာ ရေးထားတဲ့ အဖြေတွေကို  answer sheet မှာပြောင်းထည့်ဖို့အတွက် အချိန်ပိုထပ်မပေးတဲ့အတွက် အဖြေတွေကို question booklet မှာမရေးဘဲ answer sheet မှာ သာချက်ချင်း တမ်းရေးဖို့ လညိး အကြံပြုချင်ပါတယ်။

🔑 Reading ဖြေဆိုရာမှာ. Instruction ကို အမြဲဖတ်ပြီး follow လုပ်ဖို့လည်း အရေးကြီးပါတယ်။ Instruction က TRUE /False / Not Given ရေးဖို့ပြောထားရင် True / False နေရာမှာ Yes /No သွားရေးလို့ မရသလို့ No More than Two Words လို့ instruction ကပေးထားတဲအခါ ကိုယ့်ရဲ့ အဖြေက Two Words ထက်ကျော်မနေဖို့ လိုပါတယ်။

🔑 ဖူးနောက်ဆုံးအကြုံပြုလိုတာကတော့ Cambridge Book တွေထဲက authentic reading test တွေကို  Practice များများလုပ်ဖို့ပါပဲ။ ဖူးကတော့  Practice Makes Perfect လို့ယုံကြည်လို့ test မဖြေခင်အထိ အတတ်နိုင်ဆုံး  practise များနိုင်သမျှများများလုပ်ခဲ့တယ် ။ Cambridge Book 3 to 14 က reading test အားလုံးကို ၂ ခေါက်လေ့ကျင့်ခဲ့တယ်။ အချိန်ပေးနိုင်တဲ့နေ့တွေမှာ တစ်နေ့ကို  Reading Test တစ်ခု practice လုပ်ပြီး အချိန်သိပ်မပေးနိုင်တဲ့နေ့တွေမှာ အနည်းဆုံး Passage တစ်ခုလောက်တော့ လေ့ကျင့်ဖြစ့့်တယ်။  Practice လုပ်ပြီးတိုင်းလည်း ကိုယ့် အဖြေတွေကို Answer key နဲ့ check ပြီး ကိုယ်မှားတဲ့ အဖြေတွေကို ဘာကြောင့်မှားလဲ ဘာ့ကြောင့် အခြားအဖြေက မှန်လဲ စသဖြင့် reflect လုပ်ပြီး အမှားတွေကနေ လေ့လာသင်ယူရင်း IELTS reading test ရဲ့  tips & tricks တွေကို ပိုမြင်လာတယ်။ အဲ့ဒါကြောင့်လည်း  Reading Test ဖြေတဲ့အခါ confident ရှိရှိနဲ့ဖြေနိုင်ခဲ့တယ်။

🔑 Reading test တွေကို practise လုပ်အပြီး reflection လုပ်အပြီးမှာ ဖူးကတော့ reading  passage တွေမှာ သုံးထားတဲ့ vocab အသုံးအနှုန်းတွေ ၊ grammar structure တွေကိုလေ့လာပါတယ် ။ ဖူးနှစ်သက် သဘောကျတဲ့ အသုံးအနှုန်းတွေကို note book ထဲမှာရေးမှတ်ပြီး writing လုပ်တဲ့အခါ အလျင်းသင့်သလို ပြန်သုံးပါတယိ ။

 That's all about my preparation experience for IELTS Reading test and some study tips that help me hit a high score of 8.5. Hope you get to learn something from this post. If you want some tips for IELTS writing, just click the link below.👇👇👇
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=730008494075275&id=100011983931754

And, stay tuned if you also want more study tips for IELTS Listening and Speaking.

Wishing you best of luck for your IELTS test.....🍀

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 Kyal Sin Phu ( ကြယ်စင်ဖူး )
4 February 2020

45

You Can’t Drag Me Down

You Can’t Drag Me Down 

Though you give me the pain
I turn it into push using my brain
Make progress again and again
Thus, it finally ends in gain.

You mock at me
To arouse my frustration
But, I stay calm in maturation
Then, keep on moving towards my destination.

Thanks for those annoying situations
I learnt how to get comfortable
With being uncomfortable
This way, I’m no longer vulnerable.

At the end of the day
I become stronger and smarter
Training myself to be better
Hoping my potential to be greater.

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Kyal Sin Phu
Sunday Special
The Global New Light of Myanmar
12 January 2020

Youth & Social Media

                               Youth & Social Media

             
Everything has pros and cons, especially social media. So we should not blindly say that social media is either fruitful or deleterious, because it depends on the individuals and how they use it. In other words, it is beneficial to us if we use it productively, and it can bring undesirable consequences or can put a serious damper on our lives if we use it improperly.

            
Among social media such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Viber, Facebook is the most popular social networking site in our country. It is prevalent among youths, some of whom use it for more than just posting selfies and keeping up with friends. Facebook offers valuable sources of information on assorted fields such as education, economics, politics, and technology.

        
Via Facebook, they are accessible to valuable information, which lets them gain once-in-a-lifetime opportunities, such as studying at prestigious universities abroad through fully-funded scholarships. Such information would never have possibly been seen if not of the popular social media site. It is undeniable that such an opportunity seems like a divine gift from the heavens for an impoverished youth who is passionate  to pursue a quality education abroad. Moreover, through available information from Facebook, underprivileged students  can also  apply for stipends, and continue their tertiary education. For some youths, Facebook becomes a place to search for information about free seminars, talks, workshops and online courses. Some of  young people who have a thirst for knowledge can read local and international news from the official pages of media companies, and keep abreast of the latest developments in technology and hot issues of the world. Some are seeking jobs on Facebook, where various types of jobs in a wide range of industries are disseminated by companies large and small.

           
On the other hand, the drawbacks are more likely to outweigh the advantages for some teenagers who use Facebook in a wrong way. Some of them tend to encounter cyber-bullying and security attacks. Others are likely to become distressed, depressed and discontented when they happen to compare their lives with those of others that they come across on Facebook. Some tyoung people happen to allow  Facebook to take up too much of their time. As a negative consequence, they have less time to study, and to engage in face-to-face communication with their beloved ones. This, in turn, causes them to suffer academically, and their physical interaction with others gradually fades away. What’s worse, some teenagers have a tendency to spend their time on cyber-chatting with strangers they have never met. What's worse, they often find those strangers charming and admirable. In some cases, they fall in love with them without considering the potentially disastrous situations of committing themselves to someone they have seen only on the screen of a smartphone. This impulsiveness could probably put them in danger. In these afundesirable aforementioned  cases, social media could be regarded as a source of trouble.

          
In a nutshell, it is manifest that the use of social media can result not only in  harmless fun, but also in serious danger. So, being human beings with sapient brains, we should aim to be the masters, not the slaves, of social media, by availing ourselves of the ample opportunities they offer.

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Kyal Sin Phu
Sunday Special
The Global New Light of Myanmar

15 July 2018 

University Life and Extra-curricular Activities

University Life and Extra-curricular Activities

        
We normally go to university to continue tertiary education. In my view, it is not worthwhile going to university with a mere purpose of getting a degree. We should go beyond the confines of the classroom to spread our wings. In other words, we should not be bookish at all times like we used to be in high school. Apart from pursuing academic qualifications (hard skills), we should partake in extra-curricular activities to equip ourselves with soft skills such as interpersonal skills, leadership skills, problem-solving skills, etc. that can hardly be acquired in the classroom.

       
During our salad days at university, we have the opportunity to participate in a wide range of extra-curricular activities – from sport, music and dancing to personal development and community service programs. We can choose the activity that suits our pastime. For example, if we are articulate and fond of engaging in debate, we can join a Debate Club. Through volunteering activities, we have a chance to meet new people of different personality traits and diverse backgrounds. So, we can build up friendships outside our usual circle, and expand our social network. We can also learn how to interact with others effectively, how to establish harmonious relationship with them,  and how to team up with them for the sake of common welfare. In other words, extra-curricular activities instil the spirit of cooperation in us, and cultivate the habit of building unity in diversity. Simultaneously, it helps us understand the saying “Many hands make light work”.

          
Furthermore, getting together with many people makes us feel a sense of belonging,  and boosts our confidence to assimilate into our community. It combats loneliness and depression as well as paranoia. It encourages us to be compassionate and considerate towards others, and respect different viewpoints of the others. In this way, we can improve our communication skills that are essential to live in concord with different types of people in our society. 

         
When we take part in extracurricular activities, we have to balance our time to study and to engage in activities on a regular basis. Thus, we can enhance our time management skills, and get to perceive the value of time. If we run a club as organizers, we have to tackle the challenges to promote reputations of the club, and to fulfill members’ expectations of the club. In this way, we can gain hands-on experience of leadership skills, problem-solving skills and negotiation skills. Moreover, occupying  such leadership positions reinforces a sense of responsibility in us, and enlightens us about the qualities of a good leader.

        
Nowadays, the job market is highly competitive. Thus, only academic achievement is not enough to project ourselves as ideal candidates among the sea of applicants. We need to showcase a range of best traits over and above our academic qualifications. Here, we can apply the aforementioned soft skills we have aquired and experiences we have gained through  extracurricular activities to create an impressive CV.

          
To sum up, in the springtime of life at university, we should get out of our comfort zone, and attempt to discover our potential by participating in extra-curricular activities rather than fiddling around and wasting our precious time. 

        
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Kyal Sin Phu
Sunday Special
The Global New Light of Myanmar
30 December 2018 

A Change in My Perspective on Literature & the Impacts of Literature on me

          A Change in My Perspective on Literature & the Impacts of Literature on me

         
According to Oxford Advanced Learner' Dictionary, Literature is defined as `` pieces of writings that are valued as works of art, especially novels, plays and poems (in contrast to technical books and newspapers and magazines, etc.). Many people tend to assume that reading books of knowledge is more fruitful than appreciating aesthetic values embedded in literary works. I used to be one of those people before my journey of majoring in English at University of Yangon.

          
When I was young, reading literature was not my cup of tea. I used to be skeptical about the importance and values of literature. I even thought that those who are enjoying pieces of literature are wasting their precious time. Ninety-nine times out of a hundred, I used to pick up books that I consider to enrich my knowledge, and assist my intellectual development. I rarely appreciated literary works, and underestimated the benefits of reading literature. As a negative consequence of not reading literature, I didn't know much about the world or human beings. So, I used to lack social skills, having no idea how to communicate with different types of people effectively. 

            
However, when I attend university specializing in English, I have to study not only English Language but also English Literature. It is compulsory for me to read English poems, proses, stories, novels and plays as part of English literature. Each and every day, I have to deal with a wide range of literary works created by different poets, novelists, authors and playwrights. I have to analyze those literary works in terms of characterization, themes, messages, moral lessons and so on. Here, in those different pieces of literature, I get to witness various characters with different personality traits and diverse backgrounds, their reactions towards each other, how they struggle and overcome hardships in life. Reading literature gives me insights into ups and downs of life as well as trials and tribulations that can be encountered in our lifetime. Furthermore, I come to understand the nature of human beings through the actions and behaviors of the characters I come across in stories, novels and plays. Such an understanding helps me deal with assorted people in my social circle, and build up amicable relationships with them. In this way, I am no longer nervous to meet new people like I used to be in high school. I am now confident to make friends with anyone. Reflecting on improvements in my social skills, I find out that I happen to unconsciously acquire interpersonal skills while reading various pieces of literature. 

         
The more I devote my time to studying English Literature, the more I come to see the importance and values of literature. It arouses my interest to read Myanmar Literature as well. Now, I can’t help but appreciate literary works in both Myanmar and English languages. I even feel like I am missing out on something on the days when I cannot make time to enjoy Literature. In short, Literature has become what I cannot live without in my life. 

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Kyal Sin Phu
Sunday Special
The Global New Light of Myanmar

28 April 2019 

Determined Efforts behind the road to Success

          Determined Efforts behind the road to Success

       
Nothing in this world comes for free as the saying goes “No Pain No Gain”.  Manifestly, we are supposed to go through and overcome some obstacles  so as to achieve our objectives since the path to success is not a bed of roses but a grueling journey. Thus, it is undeniable that the achievement is all about the result of years of hard graft mingled with unwavering perseverance and driving ambition as well as undiminished zeal.

     
Let me give some examples to illustrate the aforesaid statement. An ambitious student who aspires to pass the exam with distinctions or vastly  high marks has to burn the midnight oil day in and  day out in order to hit the target he has set, while the less-ambitious students with a mere intention of just passing the exam  are not devoting themselves to studying that much. Similarly, an athlete who aims to chalk up on the day of tournament has to put all-out effort into practice during the training period. He must be determined to be able to come out on top at any cost. Likewise, the obese people who long for weight loss have to work out vigorously,  and stick to a strict diet plan for a considerable period of time in order to shed their unwanted pounds. 

       
While pursuing our goals, we need to bear the proverb “Rome was not built in a day” in our mind. It points out that we should not expect to execute a complicated task, or capture a remarkable accomplishment by leaps and bounds within a fairly short timeframe. In other words, success does not come overnight. Therefore, we need to struggle for years putting sheer exertions before a significant breakthrough happens. For instance, we cannot master a foreign language unless we work on it relentlessly and passionately for many years.For example, if we take up  learning English today, we cannot hope to  become a guru of English language tomorrow. We need to live and breathe English, and put in a great deal of effort in order to achieve an excellent command of English.

        
To sum up, in order to stand out as successful individuals , we must get out of our comfort zone, and take some risks as needed since there is  a proverb “Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained”. On top of that, we must boldly face the obstacles in the path, and pursue our goals with an indomitable spirit. In this way, we will be able to surmount the challenges, and our long struggle will end in triumph.Then, we can taste the fruits of our hard-earned success.

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Kyal Sin Phu
Sunday Special 
The Global New Light of Myanmar

12 May 2019 

How do you define Happiness?

          How do you define Happiness? 

There is no one in the world who does not want to be happy in life. Everyone regardless of nationality, race, religious faith, gender, or age craves to possess a blissful life. However, there has never had a fixed definition of happiness since happiness is a  sort of intangible quality and different people perceive the meaning of happiness in different ways. Accordingly, the requirements to be cheerful and the pursuits of happiness vary from one person to another.

           
The majority of people tend to link happiness to success and popularity. These people are more likely to be happy in life only when they achieve the prestigious record of success,  and they have distinguished themselves as successful individuals in this present-day competitive world. Others define happiness as material possessions and belonging to high social class. For those people, happiness means earning substantial profits from their lucrative business, possessing a mansion in the poshest part of the city, and leading a life of luxury. By contrast, some people have a tendency to find pleasure in the state of being contented with what they have got and making others happy.

           
In my view, several factors are of paramount importance in order to achieve happiness we all are longing for. First and foremost,  physical soundness plays a vital role to lead a life filled with joyful moments since Lord Buddha had pointed out that `` Being Healthy is a Blessing ´´. Because, if we are robust, we can do whatever we are passionate about with all our hearts and pursue our goals to our heart's content. In this way, we can gain tremendous self-satisfaction, and boost our self-esteem that is one of the contributing factors of happiness. Another factor that I find important to be happy in life is economic stability. Because, it is impossible for a person who lacks basic necessities in life such as food, clothing and shelter to find the life enjoyable and meaningful. Furthermore, I think doing what we love is another important attribute to happiness as we cannot achieve happiness from doing what we are not apathetic about. More importantly, it is crucial, in my opinion, to count our blessings so as to taste happiness to the fullest extent. In other words, we should be grateful for the good things we have got in our lives such as unconditional love and lifelong support from our caring family, and having reliable friends who stand by us through thick and thin. Because, we, human beings tend to take what we have got for granted. Moreover, as the saying goes ‘The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence ’ ,we  are less likely to be pleased with what we have, assuming that other people have better situations than us.

             
 In a nutshell, the way we define happiness is different from each other. Thus, based on our own definitions of happiness, our pursuit of happiness and the way we attain happiness may not be the same.

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Kyal Sin Phu
Sunday Special
The Global New Light of Myanmar

9 June 2019 

Why we should turn foes into friends?

                    Why we should turn foes into friends?

          It is natural that we, human beings, want to be surrounded by those who love us and those whom we love. However, it is not always possible for us to deal with only those who cherish us and whom we adore. At times in life, we may encounter antagonists who dislike us, who hate us,  who oppose us and who negatively criticize us for whatever we do. Most of us tend to consider those antagonists as our enemies, and we usually feel uncomfortable to communicate with them.Thus, we happen to avoid them as possible as we can. But, the problem is we cannot keep ourselves away from those people all the time. In this small world, we may have some situations that need us to interact with them.For that reason, in my view, it is not a sensible approach to find ways to stay away from those antagonists. I believe we should turn our foes into friends for some reasons as follows.

       First of all, if we see them as enemies,  our heart is more likely to be filled with anger and resentment towards them. We may sometimes fuel those unpleasant emotions day in and day out. As a consequence, we are less likely to gain the peace of mind and inner pleasure. This points out that reciprocating hatred does more harm and good. Therefore, as a Myanmar proverb goes `` Let love live long, let hate short live’´,we ought to let go of our anger and hatred instead of bearing resentment in our mind. Then, we should see those antagonists  with the eyes of love, and treat them with kindness. It is apparent that we should convert our enemies into friends for the sake of our peaceful mind.

        Secondly, it is often said that ``One enemy is too many; thousands of friends are too few´´. Accordingly, it is really important to maximize the number of  friends, and minimize that of foes.So, why would we let those antagonists be our enemies? Abraham Lincoln once said ``I destroy my enemies when I make them friends ´´. Thus, it would be smart of us to befriend our enemies and beat them. In this way, we can also expand our social networks.

        Thirdly, we can create win-win situations if we can build up cozy friendship with the enemies. For instance,  they may excel in the areas we are weak in since different people tend to have different strengths. They may also have different perspectives towards life and experiences in different situations. So, if we become friends with them, we can exchange our insights, learn from each other, collaborate with each other and help each other. 

         In a nutshell, aforementioned reasons point out that it seems better to turn foes into friends for our inner peace and other social aspects rather than avoiding them,  bearing resentment or reciprocating hatred.  

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Kyal Sin Phu
Sunday Special
The Global New Light of Myanmar

18 August 2019 

Let your Weakness be your Strength

Let your Weakness be your Strength

It is true that we, human beings, are naturally endowed with  both strengths and weaknesses. Although we all know the fact that Nobody is Perfect, most of us tend to strive for perfection, and we are more likely to feel dissatisfied with the areas we are weak in rather than appreciating the areas where our strengths lie. In other words, as the saying goes ``The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence´´, we often envy others for their impressive capabilities, and feel bad for those competencies we lack while taking our strong points for granted. In fact, such our seemingly weak points  could probably become our unique strengths if we see them from a different perspective, fully exploit them , and make the most of them.

Let me give you a few examples to illustrate the aforementioned scenario. Firstly, some students are not academically gifted, i.e. they can hardly ever demonstrate an outstanding performance in academic tests. In short, it seems that they are not high achievers in terms of academic grades. However, they, on the other hand,  may actively partake in a wide range of extracurricular activities, and well-equipped with some valuable soft skills such as interpersonal skills, communication skills, public speaking skills, teamwork skills, negotiation skills and problem-solving skills. They might have also established broader social networks, creating opportunities for their future career development.

The second example I would like to mention is that being multi-talented is hailed as one of the admirable assets nowadays. However, it does not mean that we should feel  inferior if we do not happen to possess a variety of talents. Because, we could survive and even thrive if we have a profound aptitude in a specific field.

Thirdly, I would also like to give an example from my personal experience. This is what I perceived as my weakness turns out to be my strength when I see it from a different angle. Since I was young, I have not been a fast learner. It usually takes me  longer hours than my peers in order to understand a particular lesson. Ninety-nine times out of a hundred, I have to work hard, and almost double my efforts so as to catch up with my classmates. At the first glance, I thought being a slow learner is a stumbling block to my academic achievement.  And, I used to blame myself for not being bright like some people. At that time, I often wish I was a fast learner. However, with the passage of the time, I came to realize that being a slow learner is not something that holds me back, but indeed `` a blessing in disguise ´´. Because, having understood that I am not a fast learner, I tend to be motivated to work hard , devoting myself to the tasks that I have to do. As a positive consequence, I usually get them finished in time. I hardly ever postpone something I have to do until the last minute unlike most of  the fast-learners who tend to be deađline fighters. In this way, my seemingly weakness as a slow learner shapes me up as a committed and well-prepared person. Most people admire and appreciate me for my dedication, persistence, and for being a well-organized person.

All in all, it is undeniable that strengths and weaknesses are two sides of the same coin. Thus, we need to accept some of our weak points like we embrace our strong points. Then, we should maximize our plus sides and minimize our less capable aspects.

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Kyal Sin Phu
Sunday Special
The Global New Light of Myanmar
9 February 2020