Your question: Afro-Asian literature

This was a question from the popular Very very basic Afro-Asian Literature resources page.

Anonymous asked:

excuse me,I'm just a li'l bit confused

Is afro-asian literature different from asian and african?

I answered:

Hi, anonymous.

"Afro-Asian Literature" the 2nd year subject in high schools in the Philippines is not different from African and Asian literature. Literature from those two continents are taught in the same year level.

Although I see what may cause confusion. The term looks like it refers to literature by people of African and Asian heritage, but not in the context of the Philippine educational system.

Your question: APA style?

mecah asked:

OK...My question is how do I write references from 5 web sites in APA Style? I have to do a paper on a criminal topic and i had to pick references off of 5 different web sites, and write a references sheet in APA Style..Can you help me understand?

I answered:

Hi, mecah!

There are several ways to cite references in papers, and APA is one of those styles.

If you've been asked to do your bibliography APA style by your teacher, then head on over to these sites:

APA style on Wikipedia: Go to "Electronic Sources" and follow the instructions based on the kind of online site your reference is. The wiki's got a sample that you can use as a basis.

Long Island University's APA Citation Style: The samples here are simpler but the wiki has more of the explanations if you need to understand what it all means.

Hope this helped!

What does "magkatugma" mean?

Back from a long break to post some questions sent in through the Need Help? page.

Anonymous asked:

If synonyms are 'magkasingkahulugan', antonyms are 'magkasalungat', what are magkatugma?

I answered:

Wow, that's a head-scratcher.

I would say "magkatugma" are words that rhyme, but it doesn't follow that they're homonyms. "Magkatugma" doesn't imply that the word is spelled the same way, only that certain syllables sound similar.

This seems to be a popular question online. I hope someone posts an official answer too.

OK, so this answer doesn't necessarily make it easy for students who need the correct answer right now but I suggest that you step back and focus on what you can learn, not what'll score you points with your teacher. Filipino/Tagalog and English grammar are similar in some ways but different in others. It's possible that you won't find an exact counterpart in English for a particular word or grammar rule. (For example: what is "kilig"?)

Where the students are

This blog is by no means super popular, but I feel good that it gets hits from outside of Manila. I've seen how net-savvy students are, even in areas considered slums. If they use a fraction of their Net Cafe time to do research on their homework then that's a good start.

That's what this is, by the way -- a start. We all have a LOT to do to make sure that all Filipino students get world-class education.

Need help?

Got a homework question? Leave a comment and I'll try to post a reply as soon as I can. Take note though that I will be providing "help" -- links to where you can find the answers -- rather than actual answers. In other words, copying and pasting my response probably won't do you any good.

If that doesn't turn you off, then yay! I hope I can help! Write your question as a comment and I'll do what I can!

Pi

Typing "pi" onto the Google search box leads to this simplified value of Pi = 3.14159265.

In high school we used 3.1416, but your school may be different. Find out more about pi by going to these sites:

• Wikipedia: Pi
• The Math Forum at Drexel: About Pi
• The University of Utah: Pi to 10,000 digits

Mga panghalip (Pronouns)

Pronouns such as "he", "she" and "it" replace nouns in sentences. Panghalip is the Tagalog/Filipino term for it.

More on them here:

• Wikibooks: Panghalip
• filipinosubject.blogspot.com: Panghalip
• germanlipa.de: Pangngalan at Panghalip

These resources are in Filipino and require a more-than-basic understanding of the language.

Practicing English

Much of what we learn in Philippine high schools is already in English... but that doesn't mean we don't need to practice anymore. Practicing helps build our vocabulary, and can be done a few minutes a day if you have a computer or a portable music player like an iPod.

• English as a Second Language podcast
• Better @ English: 2-minute English - http://www.betteratenglish.com/category/listening/2-minute-english/

Mga pandiwa (verbs)

I'm trying to find more online resources for very specific aspects of Filipino grammar. Try these if you need help with verbs:

• Tagalog Wikibooks: Pandiwa
• filipinosubject.blogspot.com: Pandiwa (verb)

These resources are in Filipino and require a more-than-basic understanding of the language.

Studying the periodic table of elements

In case you lost your own copy of the periodic table...

• Webelements.com - Online periodic table
• Chemicool.com - Another online periodic table
• Wikipedia: Periodic Table of Elements
• Dayah.com: Dynamic Periodic Table of Elements - Mouse over an element to see more about it, or highlight elements one group at a time

Noli Me Tangere guides

Because my first post on Noli just pointed to the free full text, here are links to some of the study guides online for it:

• Viloria.com: Buod ng Noli Me Tangere (Chapter Summaries in Tagalog)
• Webmanila.com: TOC Noli Me Tangere Chapter Summaries and Notes (in English, but incomplete as of this posting)
• Knowledgerush.com: Noli Me Tangere
• Wikipilipinas: Noli Me Tangere

As always, these resources are just a guide. Let them help you form your own analysis of the text -- learning how to do that is more important. :)

Quadratic equations

A polynomial equation to the second degree. As it happens, I don't encounter this anymore in my line of work, but many high school students have to deal with this on a daily basis. Hope these links help...

• Quadratic Equation on Wikipedia
• Youtube: Solving Quadratic Equations (in under 4 minutes!)
• Purplemath: The Quadratic Formula Explained
• Purplemath: Solving Quadratic Equations by Factoring
  

More Homework Help: Skoool.ph

Intel and the Department of Education have launched www.skoool.ph, a site that provides interactive math and science lessons for students and teachers.

You can browse it according to year level or subject. It requires that you have Javascript installed, which shouldn't be a problem if you watch Youtube on that computer anyway.

HOWEVER, some feedback for the people behind skoool.ph, based on my "surface scan" of the site:

1. Please get rid of the "concept paper" language! And with bad grammar too. For example:

The learner shall developed the following competencies:

The site is online now; talk to your audience directly, instead of referring to them in the third person. Right now it looks like a site targeted to your donor rather than the Pinoy student. And do a grammar check!!!

2. The math lesson I tried out was too UK-centric. Is there an effort to localize this? Not to dumb down the content, but only because it's not generally in a Pinoy high school student's experience to pay "2.50" for a sandwich and eat "bonbons."

Frog anatomy

The dissection of frogs is still happening in high schools all over the country, apparently. Poor frogs!

Here are some links so you can study their anatomy without actually poking through their guts.

• Youtube: 3d visualization of frog anatomy (see the related videos too)
• Kent School District: Frog Anatomy
• About.com: Male Frog Internal Anatomy (icky photo)

Home Economics: Cross-stitching

My worst subject was Home Economics. I don't know how this is being taught today, but when I was in my co-ed high school (in the '90s) they at least didn't have "boy" and "girl" subjects. Everyone, regardless of gender, had to learn how to sew clothes, cook dinner, and wire series and parallel circuits.

We also had to learn how to cross-stitch. I don't know, maybe high school kids in the Philippines don't have to do this anymore, but just in case...

• Wikihow: How to Cross Stitch
• Yarn Tree: Learn How to Cross Stitch in 5 Minutes
• Free Cross Stitch Patterns

Prepositions: On my mind or in my mind?

Prepositions tell you the relationship the object has to the rest of the sentence.

The necklace is on the table, in the jewelry box, under the pillow, so on and so forth. Prepositions are short words that we take for granted (I interchange them more often than I care to admit), but it's important to get them right because they affect what the sentence is trying to say.

• Englishclub.com: English preposition rule - A simple site for English as second language learners.
• The Writing Centre, University of Ottawa: What is a Preposition?
• Betterenglish.com: Preposition quiz!
  

1898 events

Happy Independence Day, students!

Here, from Wikipedia, is a page about the other things that happened in 1898.

The US annexed the Hawaiian Islands, Marie and Pierre Curie discovered radium, and the carbonated beverage that used to be called "Brad's Drink" was renamed to... "Pepsi-Cola."

Back to school post! Asian history

Philippine high school students just went back to school... so this blog should be back as well. Today, we look at Asian history -- required for 2nd year students, and it's good for you to do well on this because it might show up again in college. And also, because it's good to understand the region we belong to, and what events led us to where we are now, and world peace, etc etc.

I admit to never reading more history than what my textbook provided, which is NOT a good thing. We don't need to rely purely on our required books anymore. (In my case, my required book had an obvious political and religious bias, which is difficult to shake off.) Plus, Asian history, like Afro-Asian literature, is just too broad. Just reading one website on the same topic as your assignment this week may give you something new and interesting to bring to class -- or to your test.

• University of Washington: Asian History sources - Many, many links, covering general Asian studies, Central, East, South and Southeast asia as well.
• History for Kids: West Asian History - Covering the history of areas we commonly know as the Middle East.
• Asiasource: This Day in Asian History
• Columbia University: South Asian History
• Asean Focus Group: History of Southeast Asia
• Newton.uor.edu: History of East and Southeast Asia

The Scientific Method

From sciencebuddies.org:

The scientific method is a process for experimentation that is used to explore observations and answer questions. Scientists use the scientific method to search for cause and effect relationships in nature. In other words, they design an experiment so that changes to one item cause something else to vary in a predictable way.

The process itself goes like this:

1. Ask a question
2. Do the research
3. Construct your hypothesis
4. Experiment
5. State your conclusion

However, it's not exactly that simple. How do you do research? How do you test your hypothesis? What if your experiment's results don't support your hypothesis, is that OK? There's more reading to do, and these sites will answer those questions and more:

• Sciencebuddies.org - Steps of the Scientific Method
• Brandonbeltz.com - The Scientific Method
• Discovery Education Science Fair Central - Scientific Method
• Biology4kids.com - Reasoning in Science
• Wikipedia - Scientific Method

Entrance Exam Cram: Basic English

Even if you feel comfortable enough about basic English (you've been studying it since elementary school, how hard can it be right?), you'll need to brush up on it again for entrance exam season.

My instinct for studying for exams was to tackle the subjects I have the most trouble with -- science and math, for example. That's a good plan, but don't forget to refresh yourself on the basics. It's your chance now to find out if you need to be corrected, and that's better than finding out on exam day.

• Big Dog's Grammar: A bare bones guide to English
• University of Calgary: Grammar Tutorials
• English Grammar Exercises - There's a lot of material here and it's been designed for ESL (English as a second language) learners. If some of these quizzes are too basic for you, still look at tests such as "Parts of Speech" or "Prepositions."