ESL Blogs

This fable is very famous among children in Malaysia and had been passed down from generations. A mouse deer is always being portrayed as a very pretty and intelligent animal. There are many fables portraying this intelligent animal, and I want to share with you one of the most famous one. It is about how a mouse deer played a trick towards a group of crocodiles. I hope you will enjoy reading it.

A Mouse Deer and Crocodiles

Deep deep in a quiet Tropical jungle, a crocodile was having a blast swimm

The speaking skills required in international speaking exams can be quite daunting for candidates because many candidates have no idea what the examiners are looking for.

Let's take the IELTS speaking task for an example.  The test begins with a few simple questions about yourself.  He/she will ask you questions about your job or studies, what you are doing now, what your role or responsibilities and duties include.  Here you are using a variety of present tenses.

He might ask about past employmen

When we are born, we don't know a word to let our mom know how much we are hungry. For this, we cry as loudly as possible to draw attention of mother. By doing so, we meet our requirement. At this stage, there is nothing in our mind, but satisfying our nutritional needs. So, crying, at this stage, is the just and the easiest mean of meeting our demand.

As soon as we grow up, the fact reveals on us that we are not born for satisfying our nutritional needs merely. A part from this, there are so man

   When saying about Greece what comes to our mind mainly is its rich, wise historic past because of its grand historical figures, like philosophers - Plato, Aristotle and many others. But, we can't forget Greece is too, an exuberant region with landscapes which take our breath way, by the way,landscapes like magazine covers or desktop wallpapers .

   First of all, Greece is a country which takes part of the southern  Europe, and has a temperature that is privileged by a lush vegetation, which ex

Hahaha ... I know, I know. When will this ends? LOL. I think my answer would be "Only God knows",  though I really hope you like this series.

In this blog, I am going to dedicate myself on writing the origin of certain expressions and idioms because I really like to read and know the origins of these idioms and expressions.

Did You Know? Series :-

1. Did You Know?

2. Did You Know - Continuation

3. Did You Know - Another Continuation

4. Did You Know - Not Another Continuation!

Did You Know?

1. Red tape

Th

I was reading this remarkable story about Richard Lee Norris who had "successfully" undergone a complicated face transplant procedure. I thought this story suits this month Writing Challenge : Pretty Paragraph since this is indeed a pretty remarkable story. Please click here to read the full article in Huffington Post UK.

Mr Norris lost most of his upper and lower jaw as well as his lips, teeth and tongue in a gun accident in 1997, and had been living as a recluse after that accident. Though the

You can listen to the audio version of the blog here: http://vocaroo.com/i/s1VHtM8qTZom

The nicest person I've ever seen

How do you feel if you enter a room full of balloons that you can’t be able to even see the person next to you? How do you react if you see your doctor wears a clown outfit while examining you? How do you feel if you go to a hospital, and instead of being afraid, you have to play games, listen to funny jokes, paint or even plant flowers?

All these sound unreal. At least, they

Welcome to this month's writing challenge! Anyone can join. You don't even have to be a member of MyEC. You just need a blog! 

This month we are going to review the importance of paragraphs. A paragraph is a single block of text. It typically focuses on one main idea. A good paragraph size for the web is 3-5 lines.  

Paragraphs are important to readers. They help readers follow a piece of text more easily. It is difficult to read a large amount of text that doesn't contain paragraphs. If your read

My friend Sima's love story of Shirin and Farhad had aspired me to write this story. The Legend of Mahsuri is a famous Malay legend which had been told and retold countless times and became a myth. I never read any of English version of this story, if any. I'm writing this story after gathering information from various local sources and trying my best to stay true to the legend.

Mahsuri - The Legend

According to the legend, Mahsuri was a beautiful Malay lady who lived in Padang Matsirat, Langkawi

My friend WMW asked me, how many Did You Know sequences am I going to write? Until now, I am yet to know the answer. However, here comes another blog Did You Know series, and I hope you can bear with me.

Did You Know Series :-

1. Did You Know?

2. Did You Know - Continuation

Did You Know?

1. Black Book expression/idiom

The idiom "in someone's black book" means that you are out of favour with someone. There are several stories with regards to the origin of this expression. One of the most popular is the

This morning, when I wanted to go to work, I heard a mewling sound coming underneath my car. Knowing that sometimes kitten(s) loved to lay down underneath my car, especially when it was a bit cold previous night, I tried my best to shush it away. I looked underneath my car, and was so relieved when I saw no kitten underneath it anymore, or so I thought.

As usual, it took me about 40 to 45 minutes to reach my office. Once I shut down the engine and took my handbag, suddenly I heard another mewling

I've noticed that some of our active members are so tired of unpleasant things or members here and even considering leaving MyEC, or rather, some of them may have found MyEC was not so good a place to stay put and already left. That's so bad for MyEC itself and for those who loved and had to leave it - I'm so sorry for that, too.

So many members here find MyEC is one of the best English-leaning places and they may have said to themselves that "MyEC is just the site I've been trying to look for."

The English Language is like a vast ocean.  It isn't uniform, and it contains a lot of variety with many possibilities lurking out of sight, hidden away under its murky waters.  In some places its depth is shallow and easily understood while in other areas it may go very deep indeed - deeper than even experienced ocean voyagers may realize.

As you are fishing in its depths where you are, you may not catch every possibility.  The rule you have reeled in may not be uniform; it may have some snags a

This is a continuation of my previous blog; Did You Know. Feel free to add additional information or introduce new item(s). 

1. Post-its Notes were invented by accident.

Thank you for Vanessa for triggering about "Post-its" Notes. 

Post-its notes were also invented by accidents. Dr. Spencer Silver, a scientist worked with 3M in the USA had accidentally developed "low tack reusable, pressure-sensitive adhesive" instead of super-strong adhesive. However, his invention was not well received among his

I like to find and read the origin of certain thing, be it words, inventions, or simply silly and obscure things. Here, I have collected a few things that I want to share with everyone. Feel free to add.

Did you know?

1. Corn flakes were discovered by accident

Dr. John Harvey Kellogg and his brother Will Keith Kellogg discovered corn flakes by accident when they left their cooked wheat unattended to attend more important matter. The cooked wheat had became stale, but due to their strict budget, the

           Hello my friends!!

   Naming customs vary from one country to another. Having this huge diversification led me to ask this question: How did our ancestors around the world find their babies' names? Ethnic and religious customs and so many other factors can drive you to a strong, ethnically rooted, meaningful name. Is this not so? I have made some researches about naming customs in the world and I am going to cite about some countries

  Both in Russia and in the US, babies’ names are com

This blog hasn't corrected, it’s full of mistakes. I didn't want it to be viewed or checked by any native speaker, as I usually do. Because I think it would be quite charming to be posted with mistakes. ‘’Blog fits with the title’’

In this blog, I want to talk about the mistakes that I used to make throughout my learning.
As far as I am concerned the learner isn't impeccable from making errors, therefore everyone can make mistakes and even in his/her native language. That could be in grammar, sp

I used to make mistake in writing the Number 19 in Words...I ll often get confused whether the Letter "e" should be there or not....

whether it is Nineteen or Ninteen....

This doubt I always have for almost all the words that ends with the Letter "e"...

I dont know when it has entered into my mind that if we have to add "ed" or "ing" or "teen" to the word ending with the letter "e" then that "e" (Bee is called as "E" in our Tamil Language) should be waved off... i think my kindergarten teacher woul

Learning from each other's mistakes is very useful. There are many common errors that people make when they are learning a language. Learners who share a native language often make similar mistakes. This is because they are bringing the rules of their own language to their new language.  

Members often send me private messages with questions about the English language. I usually ask them to put their questions on my wall instead. Sometimes I ask them to pose their question at the Grammar Help Des