HUMOR

According to Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, HUMOUR has the first meaning is “the quality in something that makes it funny or amusing, the ability to laugh at things that are amusing”. Humour appears from here to there in human life and soon becomes the active way of living for everybody.
In our modern time, more and more people complain about their stressful life without any answers for this. Jobs, duties, plans, relationships, daily problems... make them fall into the depressing thought. Maybe they’ve already forgotten where their smiles are. Have you ever heard: “Mot nu cuoi bang muoi thang thuoc bo”? In my opinion, HUMOUR simply means SMILE... Let’s remember this above saying so that you can easily throw this puzzle (van de nan giai) away.
Humour also helps us achieve our aims. Image you’re a lecturer. Appropriate humor relaxes audiences and makes you feel more comfortable if you’re speaker. Humour can bring attention to the point you are making; and humor will help the audience remember your points better. It can break down barriers so that audience is more receptive to your ideas more. You can make first good impression and win others’ heart with no difficulties if you have a sense of humour. Be able to set the sadness aside, relax your life and bring smlies to everybody is the same meaning as be an intelligent man.
At last, humour likes a slipping cycle making our life easily go on in many different corners. Don’t say “I can’t” or “I don’t dare” whenever someone asks you to tell a funny story.Why don’t you try?. Let’s enjoy our life with smiling everyday and bring the happiness to everybody.

Questions for discussion
1. Have you got a sense of humour? Have you ever told a funny story but after that, listeners don’t laugh?
2. What is the role of humour in human life? Should or shouldn’t we make thing become a subject for people getting stress?
3. Image you’re living in the humourless world, no smile, no laughs, no funny stories, no comedies in the stage. What will happen then?
4. Do you think that a funny story makes listeners laugh only? Have you ever read one which makes you think of further lately?
5. You have a joke or a funny game, don’t you? Share with us please.

Funny Stories
Story 1
A wife was making a breakfast of fried eggs for her husband.
Suddenly her husband burst into the kitchen: "Careful. CAREFUL! Put in some more butter! Oh my GOD! You're cooking too many at once. TOO MANY! Turn them! TURN THEM NOW! We need more butter. Oh my GOD! WHERE are we going to get MORE BUTTER? They're going to STICK! Careful. CAREFUL! I said be CAREFUL! You NEVER listen to me when you're cooking! Never! Turn them! Hurry up! Are you CRAZY? Have you LOST your mind? Don't forget to salt them. You know you always forget to salt them. Use the salt. USE THE SALT! THE SALT!"
The wife stared at him. "What the heck is wrong with you? You think I don't know how to fry a couple of eggs?" The husband calmly replied, "I just wanted to show you what it feels like when I'm driving.”

Story 2
The definition of “GUT” (lòng can đảm) :…when a man comes home late one night, as drunk as a lord. His wife is waiting for him with a broom (cây chổi) in her hand. As quick as a flash, he asks her: “Are you going to fly somewhere?”

Story 3
One day a little girl was sitting and watching her mother do the dishes at the kitchen sink. She suddenly noticed that her mother had several strands of grey hair sticking out in contrast on her brunette head. She looked at her mother and inquisitively asked, "Why are some of your hairs white, Mom?" Her mother repleid," Well, everytime that you do something wrong and make me cry or unhappy, one of my hairs turns white."
The little girl thought about this revelation for a while and then said: "Mommy, I’ve learn how ALL of grandma's hair is white”

Story 4
A couple had an argument while driving and then passed a pigfarm. Husband asked sarcastically: Relatives of yours?”. Wife responded. “Yip, my in-laws!"

Story 5
Little boy asks his spinster aunt: "Why have you never married?" She replied: "Because I have aparrot, a dog and a cat. They are just like a man...the parrot swears like a man, the dog continuously barks out (lớn tiếng ra lệnh) like a man and the cat strays (biến mất) at night...like a man."

Story 6
Wife stands in front of her mirror and said to her husband: ”I am fat, old and no longer pretty. I am wrinkled and my breasts hang..Give me a compliment” .He replied: “Your eyesight is still excellent though!”


Let sing a song together: SEASONS IN THE SUN
TERRY JACKS

Goodbye to you, my trusted friend! We’ve known each other since we were nine or ten. Together we’ve climbed hills and trees, learned of love and A-B-C, skinned our hearts and skinned our kness. Goodbye my friends! It’s hard to die when all the birds are singing in the sky now that the spring is in the air. Pretty girls are ev’rywhere, think of me and I’ll be there.
*we had ioy, we had fun, we had seasons in th sun, but the hills that we limbed were just season out of time.
Goodbye papa! Please pray for me! I was the black sheep of the family. You tried to teach me right from wrong. Too much wine and too much song, wonder how I got along. Goodbye papa! It’s hard to die when all the birds are singing in the sky now that the spring is in the air, little children av’rywhere when you will see them, I’ll be there.
*we had ioy, we had fun, we had seasons in th sun, but the wine and the song like the seasons ever gone! (twice)
goodbye Michelle, my little one! You gave me love and helped me find the sun, and ev’ry time that I was down, you would always come around and get my feet back on the ground. Goodbye Michelle! It’s hard to die when all the bird are singing in the sky now that the spring is the air with the flower av’rywhere, I wish that we could both be there.
***we had ioy, we had fun, we had seasons in th sun, but the star we could seach were just starfish on the beach (twice)
(repeat ** )
All our life, we had fun, we had seasons in the sun, but the hills that we climbed were just seasons out of time.

Vietnam Idol - Is That Your Choice?

Vietnam Idol recently has created a buzz in music activities. With its Idol format, Vietnam Idol has made it differentiated with previous ones such as Sao Mai Diem Hen, Ngoi Sao Tieng Hat Truyen Hinh, and successfully become a most-watched show in last 3 months
During the contest, the audiences were so surprised and enjoyable of contestant’s performance. Some are impressive with their crazy performances. Some has shocked the viewer by their answers to the judge. Some made the audiences burst into laugh by themselves-made dancing.
Beside those happy moments, we also saw the tears shed when every week we must say goodbye to one of the contestants.
However, some people are still not pleased with the way MC acted and led the show, especially Nguyen Vu.
There are still more conagreement and disagreement. Today , we hope that we will have a chance to go deeper into it and share with the others about our opinions of Vietnam Idol.
Questions:
1/ What do you think of Vietnam idol? Do you think it is a successful show?
2/ What do you think of the contestant ?
Do you think some are so confident about themselves?
What is the most memorable thing you have in the show?
3/ Do you think this is a chance that could help to bring up their own personality to public?
4/ Which contestant do you like best ? Did you send message to vote for her/him? Why not?
5/ Which round did your favourite singer achieve? Do you know why she/he could not go further?
6/What do you think of the MC? Do you think they did their good jobs? Is there anything you think that they should improve?
7/What is your opinion of the judge? Are they cool? Did they give the sharp comments? Is the comment clear and straight-forward?
8/ Finally, we have found our new Vietnam Idol - Phuong Vy, do you think she is qualified for that prize ? Why ?
9/ In your opinion, what has supported Phuong Vy to win this prize ?
What do the others lack of ? For example : Hai Yen, Ngoc Minh, etc..
10/ Do you expect this show will continue this year? Why ?
11/ Will you join the contest next tear?? J
Further Reading
Accounting for over 53% of the total 720,000 voting messages, contestant Phuong Vy from HCM City passed Ngoc Anh from Ha Tay province to become the first music idol of Vietnam.

Further Reading

The award ceremony took place last night, October 3, at the Hoa Binh Theatre in HCM City.

The Vietnam Idol 2007 winner, Phuong Vy said that besides the real ability, luck and the support of audiences are very important to become Vietnam Idol.

After the contest, all music activities of the Vietnam Idol 2007 will be managed by Music Faces Company. This is an opportunity for Phuong Vy to have access to the professional music environment and to prepare for the ASEAN Idol contest in December 2007.

Before the awards ceremony, the top last contestants of Vietnam Idol 2007, Phuong Vy and Ngoc Anh met with fans at the waiting room of the Hoa Binh Theatre.

Phuong Vy, Ngoc Anh and eight contestants of the final round of Vietnam Idol 2007 performed at the awards ceremony.

“They (the last ten contestants) will create new vitalities to the music market and audience will have more choice of entertainment,” said song writer Tuan Khanh, a member of the jury.

Lasting for over six months, the first Vietnam Idol attracted 6,000 contestants, mainly young people. According to the organisers, this will be an annual contest.

HAPPYNESS IS A CHOICE

Do you sometimes ask yourseft why you don’t feel happy, or happiness does not stay long with you ?
You get aggravated with your colleague who neglect thei works, but still get higher salary than you – a person who works responsily - just because he/she has close relationship to the boss? Just thinking about him/her, you get angry
You yell at your little brother for accidentally pill the Coca on your favourite shirt, you and he don’t talk each other for a week
You feel that life is hard. There are a ton of little things all around waiting to bug you. You don’t feel happy. You may get happy when you sing Karaoke with your friends, or take part in a birthday party. You may get excited getting to know you have passed a big test. But those precious moments will ultimately pass. You feel that happiness is uncertain. You want to be happy, but HOW?
Life is too short not to enjoy every single day ! [Joel Osteen]
So, do you think that you can choose to be happy ? Pls voice your ideas !

Aggravated (adj): buc minh, kho chiu
Colleague (n): dong nghiep
Neglect (adj): tho o
Yell (v): la mang
Bug (v): lam kho chiu
Ultimately (adv): cuoi cung
Uncertain (adj): khong chac chan


How to Be Happy

Everyone just wants to be happy. That's why people go on diets, spend too much money for clothes, or suck up to popular people - because they think it will make them happy! Happiness can be a "comfortable-good" or an "excited-good" or a "chilled-out-good" because it has many flavours and faces, depending on whom you are with, or what you are doing. However, if you get to know all different people, you will see what makes the happiest people happy.Steps

1. Change your thought process.

If you catch yourself thinking that things aren't going to work out, then think again. Remember that most things work out better than you fear - so imagine that your fears are ungrounded and that success is ahead. Rather than thinking of the problems and getting desperate, imagine the best outcome and then work out what you need to do to make that happen. Follow your "inner guidance system." If the thoughts you are thinking are not giving you a good feeling, then think about something else that will make you feel good in that moment. Monitor your thoughts consistently throughout the day. Sometimes this may not be as easy as you think if you are stuck in a "negative" train of thought and your brain chemicals are getting fired up and forming an "anxiety or anger" pathway. Anxiety, fear and anger patterns can be interrupted by focusing on doing a math problem, counting backwards, counting in odd numbers, doing a sudoku puzzle, etc. - this will dissipate the rush of chemicals that are making you feel bad. Immediately then go back to picturing

2. scenes/remembering things/imagining, planning stuff that makes you feel GOOD.

3. See the world for what it really is.

You have friends and family that love you. Learn How to be thankful. Think of all the things you have to be happy about. Relax, calm down, take things slower. No one has everything, and everyone has something of sorrow intermingled with gladness of life. The trick is to make the laughter outweigh the tears. We cannot change the past, but we can enjoy today, and look to the future. But if we are prepared to take credit for the past and accept that everything that happened in our life, good and bad, has made us the person we are - the battle is half won.

4. Lighten up. Don't take yourself too seriously.

Stress can cause many mental, physical, and spiritual problems in your life. One of the major causes of stress is worrying about things that are out of your control. Learn to recognize these things and if you can truly do nothing about them, then just let them go. Take time to laugh at yourself and the situations you find yourself in. Laughter is a powerful, positive medicine and the calmer and more peaceful you can take things, the happier your life will be.

5. Be yourself. You can't please everybody. Don't let criticism worry you. Don’t compare yourself to other people – at work or in your personal life. In the first place, no one knows what other people are going through. More importantly, when you compare yourself to other people, you always tend to see yourself on the "short end". So this is never a good or helpful thing for you to do. One way to get in touch with yourself is through journaling. The goal is to open up completely to yourself and learn to be your best friend by knowing that the truth (to yourself) will set you free from fear! Practice self-acceptance no matter what. Never do something you're not comfortable with. You'll respect yourself for sticking to your guns, and that self-respect will make you happy.

6. Make a scheduled time every day for relaxation.

This is a good time to go over any therapy that you’re working on. Having a "relaxation" time or a "quiet time" every day strengthens you, allows the stress and tension in your life to evaporate, and keeps you more on a positive, even keel.

Learning Corner
joke (noun): something said to make somebody laugh; a trick played on somebody for fun

to joke (verb): to make jokes; to be not serious

PHRASES to tell a joke to tell someone a funny story to be no joke to be a difficult or serious matter to be beyond a joke to be worrying

OTHER WORDS jokey (also joky) adjective jokily adverb jokiness noun joking adjective jokingly adverb

Please be happy with event below on 28 Oct 07

The Need Of Entertainment For The Youth

Talking about young people, most of us think of their dynamic quality, and enthusiasm. Entertainment is one of their basic needs – however, how can we meet such a pressing need ? Some people don’t want the youth to have much entertainment and amusement. They don’t think that it’s a serious need. On the contrary, they think that the main duty of young people is to study and to work. According to them, we may indulge the youth too much if we let them play and enjoy entertainment. What the youth generation needs is discipline, orientation, and useful guidelines, not entertainment !

These above mentioned conceptions are right just in some extent. Entertainment is surely necessary for the youth. After hours of studying and working, what can refresh the youth? Just entertainment ! Such a need exists and we have to take it into account

Which kinds of entertainment appeal most to young people? Perhap music. We recently have seen a “new wave” of Vietnamese songs, and such lovely songs have fully replaced foreign ones. In performance of popular singers, the audience enthusiastically sings loudly with them at the songs they love very much. A lot of contest concerning music have been organized and all of them are welcome by the youth. Beside music, some other kinds of entertainment as watching movies, taking part in social activities going climbing, going for picnics, … General speaking, entertainment serves as an indispensable part in our life

Last but not least, we should criticize the wrong way for entertainment applied by some young people. They play and enjoy the life days and nights without thinking of any bad consequences. Try not to be tempted by any bad game and please join healthy entertainment activities, then you can enjoy your life perfectly


- dynamic quality: tinh nang dong
- pressing need : nhu cau can thiet
- On the contrary: trai lai
- indulge (v): nuong chieu
- in some extent: trong chung muc nao do
- to take it into account: phai noi den
- appeal (v): hap dan, loi cuon
- indispensable : khong the thieu
- consequences: hau qua, ket qua
-
1/ Do you agree with the statement that entertainment is dispensable demand for everybody, especially the youth? Why? Why not?
2/ whenever you have free time, what do you often do?
3/ Do you have any favorite hobby? What is it? Why?
4/ At weekend, what do you often do? Where do you often go? Who do you often meet? Why?
5/ How do you think about the entertainment activities in Bien Hoa city, nowadays? Does it diversify or poor? Why?
6/ Do you think that the activities of ICSC Bien Hoa English speaking club is a form of entertainment?
7/ Do you remember the activities (game, party, picnic, …) of ICSC Bien Hoa esc? Did you join?
8/ Today is 30 Sep 07, the end of Oct is coming, do you know any special event will happen at the end of this month? What is it?
It’s halloween

English Learning Corner


1/ Don’t waste your breath: Đừng có phí hơi
Alice: I’ll go in there and try to convince otherwise
Tôi sẽ cố gắng tìm cách thuyết phục bà ta hiểu
Fred : Don’t waste your breath. I already tried it
Đừng có phí hơi. Tôi đã thử rồi

2/ Not on your life : Không, không bao giờ
Sally : Do you want to go downtown today?
Hôm nay anh muốn xuốn phố không?
Bill : Not on your life! There’s parade this afternoon
Không bao giờ! Chiều nay có diễu hành.

3/ Speak of the devil : Mới nhắc đến tên thì thấy người
Tom : Speak of the devil, here comes Bill
Mới nhắc đến tên nó thì nó đến, Bill tới kìa
Mary : We were just talking about ou Bill
Bill, chúng tôi mới nhắc đến anh

4/ You ‘ll be death of me : Tôi khổ vì bạn quá
Henry : You ‘ll be death of me yet. Why can’t you ever do anything right?
Tôi khổ với anh quá. Tại sao anh không thể làm cái gì cho ra trò hết vậy?
Andrew : I got a talent for it. I guess.
Tôi nghĩ, cái tài của tôi là không làm ra trò gì hết mà.

5/ Hang in there : Bình tĩnh, đừng bỏ cuộc.
Mary : Sometimes I just don’t think I can go on
Đôi khi tôi nghĩ mình không thể tiếp tục công việc được nữa
Sue : Hang in there, Mary. Things will work out.
Đừng bỏ cuộc, Mary. Đâu sẽ vào đấy cả

6/ Hold your horses : Chậm chậm lại, đừng nôn nóng
Mary : Come on, Sally. Let’s get going
Nhanh lên Sally, ta đi thôi
Sally : Oh, hold your horses! Don’t be in such a rush!
Ô từ từ! Đừng nôn nóng!

Visiting disable children house ( sep 22)

Hello everyone. It is so great that last week we did something meaningful to those disable children.
On behalf of club, i would like to say thank you to all of you for your contribution as well as your willingness to spend time and join with us in this activity.

Hope that we will see you all in coming activities

Have a nice day.

MID-AUTUMN FESTIVAL, NOWADAYS, FOR CHILDREN OR ADULT?????!!!!!!!!

hell

Tet Trung Thu - Mid Autumn Festival

One of most wonderful, ancient Vietnamese holiday, the Mid-Autumn Festival, occurs on the 15^th of the 8^th month of the lunar calendar and is especially dedicated to children. Children take part in several activities such as singing, dancing and parading with lanterns shapes as moons, stars or animals. During the Mid-Autumn Festival, the moon will appears larger than at any time of the year and take on reddish glow. The Mid-Autumn celebration is a celebration and a prayer for the fullness and completeness of life.

Several types of special cakes called banh trung thu are eaten at the festival time and are sold over places which are traditional and very rich in taste. The cakes are filled with lotus seeds, meat, green peas …and have an egg yolk in the center to represent the moon. The unicorn dance is an important aspect of this festival: there is the Lord Earth, called Ong Dia in Vietnamese, is the dancer who dances around the dragon, urging it on. Ong Dia has a very round, happy smiling moon face. He represents the wealth and fullness of the earth.

The meaning of Mid-Autumn Festival

Mid-Autumn is colorful and happy time for families, an opportunity for parents to show their love and appreciation for their children, so the Mid-Autumn Festival is also called the Children’s Festival. After spending much time working hard and away from the family, Mid-Autumn Festival is period for spending time with children and do something special with them.

The Story related to Tet Trung Thu

A favorite folklore is about a carp that wanted to become a dragon. The carp worked and worked and eventually transformed itself into a dragon. This story behind the mythical symbol, Ca hoa rong, parents use this story to encourage their children to work hard so that they can become whatever they want to be.

There’s also a story about how the Moon Lady ascended to the moon. A man named Chu Cuoi found a lucky tree that had special healing powers. Because this tree was sacred, people were forbidden to urinate at the foot of this tree. Unfortunately, Chu Cuoi’s wife, chi Hang forgot the rule and urinated on the tree. On day, while she sitting on the tree’s branch, the tree started to grow and grow. Eventually, it reached the moon. Since the, chi Hang lived on the moon for the rest of her life as a punishment for desecrating at sacred tree.

Nowaday, Mid-Autumn Festival is for Children or Adult?

The Mid-Autumn is coming so soon, the atmosphere of this event is warming up day by day by plenty of Moon cake shops have grown so much in almost streets of our city. Today, when you come out, you easily see a lot of Moon cake trademarks as KinhDo, DongKhanh, Duc Phat., Hy Lam Mon …However, their price is sky-high, you can not find the cost under VND 20 000 on the price list of some prestigious Moon cake producers. The lowest prices per one Moon cake today is VND 28 000 even up to VND 80 000 per one cake weigh only 220gr…The component is extremely delicate, filling with bird’s nests (yen sao), abalone (bao ngu), lobster, lotus seed, honey…The high price also because of cake’s packing: almost Moon cake now are put in superior carton box which designed by colorful and luxurious pictures. The name for cake are also complicate and very difficult to understand such as: Thuong Nguyet, Vong Nguyet, Thu Nguyet, Nhat Nguyet (Bibica) , Phung Nhap Hoa Lam, Ngu Nhan Nguyet Binh ( Dong Khanh)…Specially, this season, Anco bakery introduced to consumer one Moon cake box is worth VND 2 999 999 named Anco King Moon cake, which if you want to buy, you have to order directly to Anco company as the quantity is limited: only 999 boxes. But until now, more than 700 boxes were placed…

From above prices (with so beautiful names), of course the producers are not forward to the low (even medium) income classes, that means poor children have to eat sell-off Moon cakes after Mid-Autumn or poor –quality cakes which no expiry date, no original information …but the prices is acceptable.

According to market survey’s result, in recent Mid Autumn Festival season, manufacturers was not pay their attentions on retails markets, the colorful Moon cake kiosks at the stress corners is just for trademark advertising purpose ( don’t care about turnover). The target what they are looking for is foreign companies (especially Asia companies), they are profitable markets as the ordered quantity for presenting to their partners or employee is too much.

Nowadays, Moon cakes have lost its real meaning; it contains hidden intention of donors. Moon cakes, one of children’s products, now to become a useful tool for adult in business, relationships…and leave children’s reach.

Mid-Autumn Festival now also have degreased its ancient feature because of industrialization and modernization, in the past lanterns are made bamboo( the frame), the center is made of a multi-colored plastic material. A candle holder is located in the center so that children can put a candle inside the lantern and light it in the dark night. It’s so glistery... But now, more than 80% lanterns which were sold on the market are made by plastic with light bulb inside, imported from China. The shapes also changed so much to be suitable for modern children demands. They are supper man, famous carton character: Mickey, Winne The Pooh, Snoopy, Doremon …instead of star, carp, lotus…

Glow: anh sang ruc ro, su phat sang

Prestigious: co uy tin

Donor: nguoi tang, nguoi bieu

Glistery: long lanh, long lay

1/ What do you think about Mid-Autumn Festival nowadays? How many percentage for children and how many percentage for adult?

2/ What will you do in this Mid-Autumn Festival? Have you ever think that you will give a high-cost Moon cake box to your boss or someone with intention is hidden inside?

3/ If you were president of big company, you received Anco King Moon cake from your partner who want to become one of material supplier for your company , what do you think and what will you do?

4/ What do you think about the poor children in Mid-Autumn Festival? Do you have some suggestion to give the smile and happiness for them on this Children festival?

English Learning:

Interjections Hi! That's an interjection. :-)

"Interjection" is a big name for a little word. Interjections are short exclamations like Oh!, Um or Ah! They have no real grammatical value but we use them quite often, usually more in speaking than in writing. When interjections are inserted into a sentence, they have no grammatical connection to the sentence. An interjection is sometimes followed by an exclamation mark (!) when written.

Here are some interjections with examples:

interjection	meaning	example
ah	expressing pleasure	"Ah, that feels good."
	expressing realization	"Ah, now I understand."
	expressing resignation	"Ah well, it can't be heped."
	expressing surprise	"Ah! I've won!"
alas	expressing grief or pity	"Alas, she's dead now."
dear	expressing pity	"Oh dear! Does it hurt?"
	expressing surprise	"Dear me! That's a surprise!"
eh	asking for repetition	"It's hot today." "Eh?" "I said it's hot today."
	expressing enquiry	"What do you think of that, eh?"
	expressing surprise	"Eh! Really?"
	inviting agreement	"Let's go, eh?"
er	expressing hesitation	"Lima is the capital of...er...Peru."

BOOKS ( 8 Sept )

All around the world can not refuse the importance of books.

Books supply us a lot of useful information, sometimes precious lessons from this wonderful but complicated life. We can know many things in many fields such as science, politic, society, travel, religion.Books also are the most faithful of friends. In fact, our friends may change or die but our books are always patiently waiting to talk to us. They never cross, peevish or unwill to converse as our friends sometimes are.

In the past time, books were precious things which were used to value the education in each family, decorate the houses because the price of one book was very high that there were many poor people who could not afford even the price of a cheap edition.

Nowadays, there are many kinds of books and the price is not expensive at all.

Some books we read simply for pleasure, and amusement for example goods novels, novelettes, funny stories, picture stories.Then we are tired or the brain is weary with exhausted study, workings, it is the time for healthy recreation to lose ourselves in some absorbing stories written by a master hand.

And as we need plain, wholesome food for the body, we often read serious books for the mind. We can choose according to our taste such as: history, biography, philosophy, religion, travel, science, psychology.These kinds of books will give us not only pleasance but also an education.

Another kind is books of inspiration. The best poetry can give us noble thoughts and beautiful imaginings about every thing in this life.

Each person can own a private library which includes any books he likes. But the importance here is that he reads them or not. The reading habit should be built up when we were still young, especially children, because this good habit will help us much to get a widen knowledge and great success gradually in many fields.

1) Have you got a private bookshelf in your house?

2) What kind of books do you have?

3) Which kind of books do you like best?

4) How can you find a good book when you are in a books store?

5) Do you have reading habits at free time or before sleeping?

6) How can you build up the reading and collecting books habit for your children?

7) What do you think about the quality of books nowadays?

Who would have ever imagined that an unemployed single mother, dependent on government handouts, would author a series of groundbreaking children books?

This is the success story of Joanne "Jo" Rowling, popularly known as J K Rowling, the indisputable heroine of the Harry Porter series.

The series have not only gained a worldwide cult-like following, but have also won multiple awards and sold over 350 million copies.

Rowling's fortune is touted to be over $1 billion (Sh68 billion). And the venture has earned her honour in the literary world.

Her writing has put her on the roll of Britain 's richest women.

So, if writing is this lucrative, why are gifted Africans not borrowing a leaf from Rowland to pen their way to glory and wealth?

There are several explanations to this. Photocopying of both new and old literature denies African writers an opportunity to attain Rowland's popularity, success and wealth.

In Kenya , many readers opt to photocopy books to avoid buying original ones, in the belief that they are expensive. The often-blamed poor reading culture has not helped the situation.

Bookshops are the least visited places and many people prefer to patronise social joints during their free time.

European novel shows an element of timeless in stories that candidly demonstrate how moral corruption, murder and deceit affect the society. And this appears to be the main key in their propulsion to fame and wealth of these authors. But advanced prior media hype plays major role.

Kenya has never been a literary desert, as Prof Taban lo Liyong once said of East Africa . We have hundreds of renowned writers and dozens of younger entrants all bubbling with talent.

Prof Ngugi wa Thiong'o remains one of Kenya 's most outstanding writers. Well known as a novelist, playwright and literary critic with numerous published works, Ngugi's first novel, Weep Not, Child (1964) catapulted him to the African literary scene.

Other great novels that followed were The River Between, A Grain of Wheat, Petals of Blood and Devil on the Cross.

Meja Mwangi is a among few local novelists who have captured the hearts and imaginations of Kenyans with classics like Kill Me Quick, Going Down River Road, The Cockroach Dance and The Last Plague.

On the other hand, Grace Ogot has gained prominence as a pioneer female short story and novel writer.

In fact, she was the first female fiction writer to be published by the East African Publishing House.

Marjorie Oludhe Macgoye is another respected, prolific woman writer, not only in Kenya but also in Africa . She has distinguished herself as an author of remarkable talent in penning deeply thought-out novels, poetry and children's stories.

Her historical novel, Coming to Birth, which she wrote in 1986 won the Sinclair Prize for Fiction, while Homing In (1994), won second place in the Jomo Kenyatta Prize for Literature in 1995.

What lessons do we learn from J K Rowling?

First, an aspiring creative writer should never be idle. Rowling was waiting to connect a train when the idea of Harry Porter struck her mind.

Budding writers should never accept rejection.

In publishing, perseverance is the key. Though a record 12 publishers rejected Rowling's manuscript for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, she did not let her ambitions crumble.

A talented writer with poor economical background should never let the penury state hinder his/her ambitions. Media hype and power of suspense help in creating an advance desire on readers. It creates theories, fuels speculations and positions the book on an exhilarating level, turning it into a must-read.

And finally, a writer should build a strong brand and capitalise on it. When the first Harry Potter book proved a hit, Rowling never deviated to another genre of writing or different title.

A COW GRAZING

Artist : “That, sir, is a cow grazing”

Visitor : “Where is the grass?”

Artist : “The cow has eaten up”

Visitor : “But where is the cow?”

Artist : “You don’t suppose she’d be fool enough to stay there after she’d eaten up all the grass, do u?”

Next topic (15 Sep 07): Mid-autumn Festival (Composer: Ms.Tran)