Back on the Blog

Hiya there everyone.

I’ve been really busy getting the school ready and all . Weather here is unbearably hot.

I’ll be writing more regularly .

See ya

 

Not the best time to be in Mdy

Hello everyone out there . Now (the last week of  May and maybe for the next 2 months ) is definitely not the time to visit MDY. Why ? cause it’ll rain and MDY is depressing when it rains while when it stops raining, the sun will stew you ,boil  you ,bake you and bludgeon you so much you can’t  go out or  do anything then either.

 Horrid is the  term I would use to describe this weather.

THE SUN’S SO BRIGHT

AND WE’RE WITHOUT LIGHTS 

I WISH I HAD NO NERVOUS SYSTEM NOW

OR HAD THE CONSTITUTION OF A COW

I WISH I WAS A TREE

HAVE MY OWN SHADE AND COOL AT LEAST I’D BE

BUT THEY WILL ALWAYS BUNGLE

WHEN IT COMES TO CONCRETE JUNGLES

SO RETREAT THEY DID TO INNER SPACE

BEFORE BEING   KICKED RIGHT IN THE FACE

 

What’s up here ?

Hi everyone, I have been a little busy lately with getting the new school premises ready for opening on the 2nd of June. Also I had a trip to Yangon to see my mum which was nice but was the weather, really hot and humid. I was soaked in perspiration (sweat) nearly all the time I was there. I know Mandalay can be hot too but the hot muggy heat and humidity in Yangon really got to me. The new school premises are on the 4^th floor of the

Yadanarbon Market. We have 2 big classrooms, an office and a fine view from there, drop by if you can.Also seminars this month. There was Inswold School from Singapore which specializes in  “O” and “A: level prep and also Kaplan APMI which runs CAT and ACCA courses and Business diplomas and degrees.  At Best Language School we are introducing a new course, Diploma in Hospitality Management [F& B ] or  Restaurant Management in conjunction [ together with]  AEC  or Asia Education Consortium.It is a great course and I hope we get at least about ten students for the first batch. They study for 3 months in Mandalay ,then 3 months in Singapore, after that it is paid job attachments.When I was young we never had opportunities or even heard of things like that.

 Different times ,I guess.  I also gave a talk on studying abroad. Lots of kids want to do that and I don’t blame them if they want to either  In the next 2 months I am also thinking of teaching the Cambridge GSCE“O” Levels.I will have some of the young and best teaching talent in Upper Myanmar working together with me. It’s going to be a lot of work but I know I’ll enjoy it. 

Although we are much busier than usual, it does not mean we do not have time for students or visitors .It is just that we have  to manage our time better .And I think when the new school stuff settles down , I’ll have lots more time to write in my blog and talk to visitors. Here in Mandalay it’s been raining a bit everyday. Not seasonal the rains that we’re having at the moment. The roads are in a  horrible state though.
Mandalay people are going to have to change their habit of not going out or to school if this pattern of regular rainy weather goes on.   

And thank you readers from in Myanmar and all over the world for all your comments .For all visitors from abroad, the best months to visit Mandalay are middle of October to the end of February. Pagoda festivals ,cool nights and days of perfect weather.I can’t wait ! By the way , all you  football fans out there ,who do you think is going to win the Champions League final this Thursday ?
Liverpool or AC Milan ?  I’m going to spend half the night in front of the telly watching that match. Well, that’s all for now.

USL

 

We are relocating ( which means : moving )

We are moving the school to the 4th Floor of the Yadanarbon Market starting from June 1st, so I’m really busy with all the preparations . 

It’s Rooms 433 and 435 . Bigger rooms and better facilities , Especially electricity-wise. The view of the Sagaing Hills  is  really nice too.

Hey you know this climate change thing ,you know, its really happening.  This is supposed to be the really hot and baking season but we’ve had overcasts,whipping winds and light rain for 2 days now.The roads are terribly broken down . And Pyin OO Lwin / Maymyo has had a deluge flood of rain.    

Cheers

USL

 

Reading Tips

1.  Don’t read every word. Just the important nouns and verbs.

2.  Try to guess the meaning of some words from the surrounding words , pictures  and graphs etc.

3.   Know that the main topic/points  of an article  are in the starting sentences and last      paragraphs. and mostly at the start of each paragraph.

4.  Read all kinds of writing as in last post.

5.  Try to think what you can  infer from the text and what the author implies . ( more abt that later. It’s also called reading between the lines.)

6.  Don’t translate every word

7.  Don’t believe in everything that is written /  published /in a book or newspaper.

    Think of the author’s purpose of writing that piece. Does she or he want you to believe in something that is against common sense ? or giving you true or verifiable facts or just opinions ? or stating half-truths or total lies?  or trying to manipulate you in any way  ?

Lots of stuff that is written ( and said ) looks good and logical on the first read but read it a few more times and  it can turn out to be a lot of rubbish. Don’t make me give examples !  LOL LOL LOL .

8. Think how you can use the information read and how it affects you, your family ,your  country and the world.

9.   Read silently not aloud 

10. Try to put what the author writes into your own words.

11. Start from a reading level of difficulty that you are comfortable with. Not something too difficult or too easy.

12. Read what you like ,what you are interested in.

 

Some Books For Students To Read

Here is a list of books to read and enjoy . You can either buy them or go borrow them from a library  .

The list is rather eclectic which means it includes a lot of genres ( types) of writing,literature and topics.

If the original book is a bit too difficult for you , try to read an abridged version first or even one rewritten as a graded reader ( Lots of those graded readers at the British Council  reading centre in Mandalay)

Even though I am a teacher, I sometimes enjoy graded readers too because I can find out about the plot ( storyline ) very quickly.

Enjoy !

1.  Little Men ( Louisa May Alcott )

 Review :www.buildingrainbows.com/bookreview/reviewid/18

2. Lost Horizon ( James Hilton)

Review : http://www.sfsite.com/~silverag/hilton.html

3. All of the Harry Potter books

www.harrypotter.warnerbros.com

4. The Adventures of Tin Tin   comics  ( Herge )

5. The Horse Whisperer ( Nicholas Evans )

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Horse_Whisperer

6. How to make friends and Influence people

( Dale Carnegie )

7. Brigdet Jones Diary   ( Helen Fielding )

8. The Da Vinci Code   ( Dan Brown )

9.  Anawrahta of Burma  ( Khin Myo Chit )

10. The Thirty Carat Diamond and other stories

    ( Khin Myo Chit )

11. Julius Caesar ( William Shakespeare)

12. Kim ( Rudyard Kipling )

13. The Jungle Book ( Rudyard Kipling)

Kipling also wrote the poem ” ( On the Road to) Mandalay”and made this city’s  name known all over the world as it has been taught in schools in many English speaking countries. .The words of the poem : http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Mandalay.

 And please notice that Kipling is talking about Mawlamyaing ( Moulmein) not Mandalay . And the writer was a real to-the-core imperialist.The bugger probably never was in Mandalay.

14. The Old Man and the Sea ( Ernest Hemingway )

15. The Happy Prince  ( Oscar Wilde)

16. 20,000 leagues under the sea ( Jules Verne )

17. Satanic Verses (Salman Rushdie )No abridged or graded reader version of this

18. The God of Small Things ( Arundhati Roy) 

19. The Lonely  Planet  Travel Guides

20.  Norwegian Woods ( Haruki Marukami )

21. Murder on the Nile ( Agatha Christie  ) Actually all the books are entertaining ! 

22. A Christmas Carol ( Charles Dickens )

23. The Burman ( Shway Yoe )

24.   She was a queen  ( Maurice Collis )

25.   7 Habits of highly effective people ( Steven Covey )

26.   7 Habits of highly effective teenagers ( Sean Covey )

27.    Reform and the Reformers / Herald of Freedom

          ( Henry David Thoreau)

28.   Empire of the Sun   ( J.G Ballard )

29.   Burmese Days ( George Orwell )

30.   Dracula         ( Bram Stoker )

31.   Original Short Stories   ( Guy de Maupassant )

32.   Memoirs of a Geisha     ( Arthur Golden  )

34.   Rendezvous with Rama  ( Arthur C Clarke )

Please write and tell us about any good books you’ve read lately.

But remember, you can also read anything and everything ,labels , signboards, menus, schedules, catalogues,brochures,magazines, manuals,newspapers,advertisements ,websites online  and even what’s written on T-shirts although most of it is meaningless ( I mean the stuff on T-shirts but you have to be careful about the rest too) 

Read in Burmese too. Buy books and have your own little library. Visit a bookshop buy the books first . Remember you don’t need to read them immediately. Read them when you’ve got the flu, plain bored,can’t go out for some reason. Books don’t need electricity to be read either. LOL LOL LOL.

These kind of books/topics  benefit everyone too .

(1)Management

(2) Psychology 

(3) History

(4) Travel

(5) General Knowledge

(6) Marketing

(7) Sociology.

( Biographies of famous people.

 (9) Collections of Detective / Mystery/ Horror stories

(10) Books and Articles About Myanmar ( Your own country ! ) 

(11)  Culture /Religion /Philosophy

OR ANYTHING THAT INTERESTS YOU !!!

Don’t buy textbooks that you will never read or more than one dictionary. If you need a dictionary, get one with a thesaurus (lots of similar meanings in it )

A language Activator like the one from Longman publishers is good too.   

 Make a list of all the things you want to read or find out about 

AND

if you can’t buy a book on a subject/topic that interests  that you , find that topic in Wikipedia ,print it out and read it later. Keep a file of everything too.

You know, I once read this somewhere :

” A person who doesn’t read is no better than a person who can’t read “

I think that is true

So,  if you are too LAZY to read anything else , you are always welcome to READ the posts in THIS BLOG regularly.

USL

 

Best of April 2007

1. Bird flu scares ( Don’t know if that’s the best news to begin

    with)

 2. I continue eating chicken ( very brave ,don’t you think or

     stupid maybe) 

3.  8 students of mine leave for Singapore to atttend 

     hotel,tourism, accounting ,computer schools.Altogether

     about 35 have left for there in the past 4 months. 

4. I work on my blog try to think of stuff to put on it. I enjoy it

     though.

5.  It’s getting real hot, the afternoons are only to be spent in the

     shade. The new shopping mall in a good place to hide from

     the sun .

6. A teacher of mine becomes a monk for seven days to please 

   his   mum. But his bald head afterwards ,probably didn’t 

   please his girlfriend tho ( but you never know )

7. Before the Water Festival the number of students in my

    classes drops substantially. I am left with a lot of extra hand-

     -outs.

8. The wife and I talk about going to the beach , then about the

    Inle lake, then we decide to stay at home during the

    Festivities and take a short trip to Maymyo instead. 

9. The Water Festival is quite fun , but moderate not so go-getting . Well with the economy in the state that it is . put together with the fears of the powers that be ,that the whole thing would get out of hand and their ” I don’t give a shit attitude” towards the populace made the whole festival down beat.

10. Myanmar/ Burmese students ( according to New Year custom    here in Mdy ) give me a lot of presents  .

   Thank You  and   My Best Wishes to You All.

   Being a teacher here is great, you   are still very much

   respected ( if you do your job well , that is )

  and you really become an integral part of the community. The

  community is really important here.Everyone knows everyone

  but not to the extent of a small town where everyone knows

  everything about everyone else .

11. One of my favourite sayings :

“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing”

11. And anyone who wants to know something about the Bel

     Air/ Falcon pyramid scheme ,disguised as a Multi-level Marketing  ,go    to : http://www.sgforums.com/?action=thread_display&thread_id=177899

These are the kind of things that happen when education and common sense is scant and  greed is in excess. Especially in countries like this and Albania etc will people fall for these scams .

 

Everyone is welcome to drop in

To all the readers/visitors from Burma / Myanmar  and around the world, thank you for reading this blog and I invite you to visit us here in Mandalay anytime .

 Just give me ( U Soe Lwin ) a phone call  (+95 - 02-36596 ) in advance .

Best Language School  is at :

Rm.10, 2nd /3rd Fl , NanYadanar Building ,37th st, Btw 78th & 79th sts ,Mandalay

Visit our classes . All the students would love to talk to you in English.

Cheers

 U Soe Lwin 

P.S.

And can someone tell the Lonely Planet that the range of places to eat etc. in their Myanmar  book is so limited .

 

Best food ,drink and all in MDY

The best places for chow ( a slang word for food ) etc  , in my own  and my friends’ opinion and as of April 2007  are as follows  :

1. Best Yunnan-Chinese  style Barbeque  :

Shwe Pan Saing   Restaurant     30th X 66th corner

Shwe Khaing  Restaurant         33thX 82nd corner 

Yunnan Restaurant                   39th st Btw 78th & 79th

Kaung Kaung                            35th st  Btw  68th & 70th  

2 . Internet Cafes     :

Imagine   38th BTW 78th &79t

Acme.net   26th BTW 78th & 79th

 CityNet   80th BTW 30th & 31st

3. Cafes & Tea shops            : 

Minthiha     28th X 72nd corner

Friends      73rd   BTW 39thX 40th

Cafe City  66th st    , Near National theater

There’s one near the Nylon Hotel  83rd X 24th I think ( forgot the name ) 

4. Food Courts           :

 At Sky Walk Shopping Center, 2nd Fl. Yadanarbon Market ,  78th st BTW   33rd & 34th

At 4th fl of 78 Shopping Mall   78th Btw 37th & 38th

5.  Best places to buy computer parts and accessories :

     Innwa computer         73rd st BTW 30th&31st

     DCD                               82nd st    BTW 34th X 35th

     I-net computer             Yadanarbon Cyber Corporation  ,Yadanarbon 

                                           Market    78th BTW 33th& 34th        

6. Southern Indian Cuisine ( Chittee food )

    Lachimi 28th BTW 80th&81

   Pan Cherry   81st  BTW 27th & 28th

7.  Muslim food  and Biryani ( Danbauk )

     Karaweik 35th Btw 74th & 75th

                     26th & 83 rd corner

     Tin Win     35th  Btw 75th & 76 th 

                                                

8.  Myanmar/  Burmese Food      : 

  Tu Tu  Lay   27th St  Btw 74th & 75th

   Daw Lay May  73rd btw 29th & 30th

   Unison  78th  Btw 39th & 40th

   Daw Yee   80th X 81st and 18th X19th  compound

9. Shan Cuisine / Food :

Shan Yin Yin  62nd Btw 34th a& 35th      

Maw Kam Noon  31st Btw 80th & 81st

Shan Yoe Yar    23rd & 84th corner

10.  Cold Drinks & ice-cream

Nylon  83rd & 25th corner  

Paung Taw Thi   80th Btw 34th & 35th

Easy Ray    78th St Btw 32nd 33rd

Ko Ju       22nd & 83rd corner ( Drinking  Yoghurt )

            10:45 - 11:45 am ( Runs out very quickly )

11.   Bakeries :

        Dumbo     80th Btw 28th & 29th       

        KK             32nd Btw 81st &  82nd       

        Seasons     1st fl.   78 Shopping Mall , 78th st Btw , 37th & 38th sts

12. Bookshops

Nagar     83rd st  Btw 30th & 29th

Tun Oo   84th st  Btw 28th & 29th

13. Libraries :

British Council Library     SY compound, Btw 30st & 31st , 78th & 79th

14. Night open-air markets/ Bazzar

Night market    Btw  34th &35th , 77th & 78th

Night market    84th st  Btw 27th & 29th

15. Playing Billards / Pool :

Relax      3rd Fl. Yadanarbon Market 78th Btw 33rd & 34th

Fantasy World    78th st  Near the railway Station Btw 31st & 32nd ( I think )

16.   All kinds of Restaurants

Golden Duck      17th st & 80th corner ( Chinese )

No. 12                 Kandawgyi Lake Rd     ( Shan Chinese )

Ko’s Kitchen      19th & 80th corner   ( Thai )

Kaung Kaung      Kandawgyi Lake Rd   ( Barbeque & Chinese)

JJ’s                       Corner of 78th & 38th   ( Western & Chinese)

J34                       Corner of 34th & 73rd  ( Beer & Barbeque )

MD                       2nd Fl   Skywalk shopping mall 78th st Btw 33rd & 34th 

 

17.  Hotels

Hotel Mandalay 78th st Btw 37th & 38th

Power Hotel       80th st Btw  39th & 40th

Tain Phyu ( White Cloud) 29thst & 73 rd corner

Mandalay View Inn  66th Btw 26th & 27th  

Mandalay City Hotel  26 th Btw  82nd & 83rd

Sein Sein   81st Btw 32nd & 33rd  

Hongta   82nd st Btw 26th&27th ( Big rooms under reno but should be good soon )

  ( more to come )

Please look in the Lonely Planet and other guide books too ,they list a lot of convenient and inexpensive places for backpackers. 

18. Supermarkets :

City Mart   Supermarket  :   1st fl , 78 Shopping Mall 78th st Btw

                                                     37th & 38th

Blazon  Supermarket  : 80th st  Btw 28th & 29th sts

Orange Supermarket  : Skywalk shopping center , Yadanarbon

                                               Market 78th st Btw 33rd & 34th sts                                                    

 

Just after the Water Festival, MayMyo/Pyin Oo Lwin

Downtown area of the cool ,quaint and unhurried town of Maymyo/Pyin Oo Lwin 

Road to Maymyo /Pyin Oo Lwin

Up and down  the mountains

Great view of Shan Highlands

Quiet village along the way

Nice trees at the Pwe Gauk / BE Falls

At the Botanical Gardens

It has been really hot /baking in Mandalay for a few weeks now, so I went up to Maymyo aka Pyin Oo Lwin for a two-day break from work and the heat. 

I was at the Botanical Gardens  for an afternoon. Great breeze and wouldn’t you  want to take a nap in the shade somewhere here  ? I did . Totally refreshing ! The kids wanted to swim but the swimming pool there had no water in it. Being summertime, quite strange , don’t you think ? But that’s Burma for you !  LOL LOL LOL !  Anyway I had the kids  fill the tub at the hotel and splash in that instead.

 We stayed at the Star Hotel, downtown near the market and restaurants and all. No view from windows and bit small ,the rooms but with A/C and they run the generator if the electricity’s out( some places don’t ). But we didn’t spend any time there  except while  we were sleeping , so I guess it suited our purpose. Next time  which will be in a few  months , I’ll try the Thiri Myanmar Hotel.

I had pizza and  hamburgers with the family at the Golden Triangle Cafe , wasn’t that good to be honest. Even my younger daughter was complaining  “The pizza’s not like last time “. But their garlic bread is still OK.

But a dinner of  Chinese dishes at the San Fransisco Restaurant was really delicious. Great cooking ! The baby corn with mushrooms was fabulous. We got around by  a motor-cycle taxi, something like a tuk-tuk in Thailand. It was nice strolling in the evening along the main road looking at the shops too.

I’ll have more photos from that visit and the Water Festival soon in this blog .So drop in again in a day or two . And also a list of my favourite places in Mandalay to eat out, use the internet ,play billards /pool ,buy baked stuff etc.

If you want to see lots of photos of  and info about Maymyo/Pyin Oo Lwin go to www.pyinoolwin.info

Tomorrow, it’s back to the classroom. I’m looking forward to seeing all the students.

Cheers !

USL