haha.. I’m not one with many words of gratitude, wont go crazy saying how happy i am but i think this present’s really good.

Phantom of the Opera 2!! Heard it just came out in UK, and my friend got it for me!!! Cant wait to hear the fabulous singing and read the story (it’s a play so there’s a script that comes with the CDs), but really have to wait, cuz this few days still very very busy..

I have a connection with “Phantom of the Opera”. Maybe that’s why I feel quite so strongly about it..

Anyways, thks X 1000 for the gift!

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Unknown: want join us for dinner?

Me: (haiz another number that i dun know who e caller is, nokia sucks man.. )yo, sorry, my nokia phone hv certain numbers that cannot show e caller, may i know who this is? Ps. I didn’t delete your number seriously haha

Unknown: I’m your god

Me: (hmm.. interesting, there’s a god named bs, and another god (for only a day on the train, guess haha), dun tell me my “I GOD” came alive?!) My god? Can’t be haha.. 2 persons fit that description, and I checked both numbers, you’re not them

Unknown: I wonder who are those two

Me: haha.. where are u? Who else at e dinner? (sianz.. are we gonna do this all day?)

Unknown: huh what talking you? I’m damn handsome one

Me: Damn so u’re a guy? Haha.. (think he got wrong number liao, but not sure yet..)

Unknown: Lol 12 o clock soon careful your newly facial-ed face

Me:(okay, confirm wrong person.. and does he think i’m a girl?) Hmm, why is it that I get this feeling u’ve got e wrong guy, as in a wrong number? My name’s chong leong btw..

Unknown: Lol OMG wrong person sorry

Me: Haha.. I knew it.. actually I think this is e third time u got my number wrong liao haha, so we’re not exactly total strangers, good to know you fren, gd day!

Unknown: Lol! cause my friend’s number is 38 whereas yours is 83 sorry uh

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I dunno why pple keep texting me, esp. it’s e wrong number.. this was still ok, at least it’s friendly.. last time i got a person who thought i was her boy friend, so when i ask her who she was, vulgarities just came over, and she say I’m gonna get it from her (I’m expressing what she said mildly liao haha). Apologies to that poor guy, where ever you are, i was the misunderstanding b/w you two

话说农历新年将近，又该是华乐团和其它音乐团体上台演出的时候了。我还记得，我们演出的曲目是一首《恭喜恭喜》，就是那首“冬天已到尽头，真是好的消息……”，还有一首《迎春花》。虽然我把这事复述给了不同的朋友过，但现在想想，我想那时出丑时只是彩排，不是演出。尽管如此，这也可列入噩梦级的一天了。

当时的演奏彩排，是由一个个团体轮流上台演出的，而演出时处理声效的人会作调整，模拟当天的准备。我有一些在口琴团的朋友，也有一些在六弦琴社团的朋友，所以心情很紧张，一直祈祷不要出错。到我们演出时，大家开始弹奏了。我当时是整场演出唯一的一把扬琴（9级师姐没来，她好像直接出席现场演出），而开始时也都弹得不错，但到了中间一段时，整首新年歌转到了由我一人独奏的部分，我就开始受不了压力了。轮音轮不上，节拍乱掉，音节明显弹错，最后我脑袋一片空白，停了下来。那时候真的是，真的是，不知道怎么形容。好在当时的华乐主席也在场，来个巾帼英雄勇救文弱书生！她太帅了！当时她不是演出的一分子，而是在台下做管理方面的工作，但她见我崩溃后（对，就是这个形容法。我那时像弱智一样，两眼呆滞，就只差没流口水了），不疾不徐地拿了一把琵琶，缓缓走到台中央，坐在一个位子上，抓住大家的注意力后，就开始接着我的独奏弹下去……世界又开始转动，齿轮恢复转动，时间重新流动，我非常感动，而且松了一口气，大伙也在独奏结束时默契地又开始了大合奏……

我那天紧张、害怕、不知所措、最后发愤图强，新年时才好运气没出状况。那时的主席后来到了新加坡华乐团了，我去过她的个人华乐独奏音乐会，看她谈古筝的气势，太酷了。

此贼亦是天王之一，名副其实地爱“采花”。当时我们问他在干嘛，为什么午休不去食堂吃，他竟然跟我们说他吃花蜜就行了。哇噻，酱夸张，吃花蜜？我倒无所谓，一盘鸡饭肚子也就差不多了，可就苦了学校里的花了，究竟要摧残多少花才吃得饱啊？更不得了的是，此天王的采花癖好，大为其他天王赞赏，而他们竟也纷纷仿效！真令人怀念啊，虽然这种奇人的怪异行径仅持续几天，但那几天里却有许多班里的人从班里的不同角落慕名而来，一睹菜花异象，看五大天王如何选花，如何将犹如玉液琼浆的花蜜“挤出”，还大大地赞叹他们以此为生的，不食人间烟火，不去食堂吃饭的大毅力！令人意想不到的是，此人现在已经是个模特儿，就不知，以前的采花真花作假，如今是否有达到返璞归真的境界？

五大天王中是天不怕地不怕的。当年拍candid shot照片时，竟然心血来潮出了个“挖鼻孔”搞怪动作，学校以破坏校风为由并没把照片洗给我们……唉，太强了。

还有一阵子，他们研究出来一个新玩意儿，吹泡泡！吹泡泡，多么好看又好玩的活动。一颗颗泡泡吹出来，在阳光的照耀下都有彩虹在泡泡面上流动，晶莹剔透，随风飘飞，好不浪漫。但人家是谁啊，是天王！他们玩的吹泡泡，堪称天王恐怖级别的，竟是以口水吹出泡泡，再加上多一点口水使泡泡凝而不破 ，往楼下吐去！唉，五大天王就在那里看谁能凝出更大更多的泡泡……连我都受了些影响，尝试了一下下，但失败了。天王级的玩意儿不容易学啊……

1. when it appears last before a pause. eg. car /kɑ:/, door, floor, fear, fair

2.before a consonant. eg. card /kɑ:d/, park, heart, form, party, forty

3. the final ‘re’. eg. care /kɛə/, rare, dare

clear L: used before a vowel or semi-vowel

eg. light /lait/, lute /lju:t/

dark L: used before a consonant or at the end before a pause.

eg. milk /milk/ (say /mil/ first, then add a ‘k’, /milk/), all /ɔ:l/, table, people, pupil

/m/:

some of it—> ‘sʌməvit (sum-merv-vit) (take note all the ‘i’ is not ‘i:’)

let him in—> ‘leti:m’ in (let-tim-min)

what time is it—> wɔ’ taimizit (wot-time-mi-zit)

ask kim again—>’ɑ:ski:mə’gen

/n/:

in a minute—> inə’minit

which tin is it—>witʃ ‘tinizit

in and out—>’inən’ ɑut

/ɛə/:

air, pair, pear, bare, care…

/uə/:

poor, tour, cruel, curious, sure…

schwa, or/ə/, is pronounced like/ə:/, but shorter, lighter, and it only appears in a unstressed position.

/ə/:

a’gain (the syllable before ‘ is the unstressed syllable, the syllable after ‘ is the stressed one.)

a’bove (ə-bove)

for’get (fər-get)

ca’thedral (cə-thedral)

one 0′clock (one-nə-clock. you bring the “n” to join with the schwa to get “nə”)

half an ‘hour (half-fən hour)

boys and ‘girls (boys-sən girls)

cut a ‘cake (cut-tə-cake)

unlike the chinese 轻声, the english schwa appears everywhere haha.. it makes speaking so much smoother, fluent

raise the centre of your tongue, spread your lips, you get /ə:/.

examples: her, stir, year, skirt, hurt…you get the idea.

1)”diu+ring”, or 2) “du+ring”, 3) “ʤu+ring” (or “dju+ring”)

so we hear diurians/djurians(durians), opport-chu-nity/opport-tu-nity and en-di-ure/ en-djure (endure)..

such a mess!

first we clarify all the /u/ and /u:/sounds, I’ll get to the ʤ sound next time.

it’s actually the same as /i/-/i:/.

1) /u:/ is longer, /u/ is short

2)say “pool” (/u:/)and open your mouth wider, let down the tongue a little and relax a bit and you’ll have /u/.

/u:/                /u/

luke                look

food                foot

fool                 full

pool                pull

new                   -

tune                  -

-                      book

“new” and “tune” is read as /nju:/ and /tju:n/..

1./æ/ is longer then /e/.

2./æ/ is tense and /e/ is lax.

3. different lip shapes as mentioned above. compare below:

/e/                    /æ/

pen                   pan

men                 man

lend                 land

set                    sand

bed                  bad

dead                dad

said                  sad

peddle            paddle

“my dad said he’s sad because the pig is dead.”

/e/ is the sound in the “A” in “ABC”.

so we have:

bet;   get;   let;

bed;   head; Ted;

beg;   egg;   leg;

pen;   ten;   men;

many;   twenty; ready (“r+air+dy”; not prnounced “ray+dy”)

So from above it’s quite clear how we should pronounce bed, head (listen to the tv shows!), and egg, leg, but from what happened to Ris Low when she said “red” (r+air+d, anyway it’s r-A(as in ABC that A)-d), i think i better go the singy way.

/i:/ is the same “i” in hanyu pinyin “ji”, “qi”, “xi”. “:” means the timing is longer.

/i/ is the same “i” in hanyu pinyin “zhi”, “chi”, “shi”. Open your mouth a little wider, hold your tongue loosely, say it in a short and lax manner.

/i:/               /i/

Seat            sit

Sheep        ship

Eat              it

Feat            fit

Read           rid

Deed           did

Green         grin

Heel            hill

Feel             fill

Peace           piss

“My name is Joanna Fung. I am seventeen this year, studies at a top junior college, have good results and is at the best of health.

But when I am twelve years old, I killed my parents.

That is when I realize that the past is not just history: They are reflected images of the future.”

CL: a simple yet very touching singapore story.. never had a movie or book caused me to shed a tear but well chapter 18 did.. (I wanted to post the story on my blog but couldn’t find a download for the piano accompaniment “You are here” (composed by the author), so please read the story from the links I’ve listed)