salam
satu artikel yang menarik dari star online. Semoga kita berusaha melahirkan penulis dari kalangan pelajar SMIAA. Dah ada pun buku hasil tulisan murid SMIAA.

Sunday July 26, 2009
Writers in their own right
Young Chinese authors who write on a wide range of issues affecting teens are becoming overnight sensations in their homeland.
BY her own admission, 19-year-old Jiang Fangzhou is a typically insecure Chinese teen with little experience in the world. But that hasn’t stopped her from becoming a successful writer.
She began writing at the age of seven, published her first book at nine and has churned out several more novels since.
As precocious as she is, Jiang is hardly unique in China, where a wave of fresh-faced authors have found incredible success amongst young readers who have been drawn to their depictions of teen angst in China’s fast-changing society.
“People need to have the right values, morals and standards which are usually instilled in them at a very young age. However, many people seem to lack these basics.
“I am often looking at how people must maintain high standards and values. This is what I also try to convey in my books ... about what is good and bad,” said Jiang, who just completed her freshman year at Beijing’s Tsinghua university.
Chinese writers are categorised according to the year or decade they were born in, and the “post-1980” and even “post-1990” authors are increasingly dominating the best-seller lists.
One author, Guo Jingming, who recently turned 26, is considered China’s highest-selling writer through his often dark tales of teen suicide, violence and decadent lifestyles.
His works accounted for 20% of literary book sales in 2008, according to a survey by Chinese book market research firm OpenBook. His success has inspired even more younger writers.
“These writers are expressing their values, feelings and thoughts on a variety of subjects. “They must be heard, their views cannot be dismissed,” said Ma Xiangwu, a People’s University Literature professor.
A recent college graduate Wang Xiaoguo, who expressed frustration with a bleak job market and the pressure from his parents to marry, said the views of younger writers give a voice to people like him.
“They are different from anything else out there. They are the writings of our generation, expressing some of the feelings young people have,” said Wang, 23, while browsing at a Beijing bookstore.
But as publishers rush to cash in, a debate has arisen over the literary merit of works by such inexperienced writers.
Many critics dismiss them as a by-product of a commercialised era in which the Internet has made it vastly more easy for mediocre writers to get noticed.
No one is as critical as Jiang as she sits in her spartan dorm room at the university leafing through several of her novels, fairy tales and fantasy books dealing with adolescent angst.
“My biggest worry is about today’s readers. If they are always fed on something bad, how will they know what is good and what is bad? There is no standard,” said Jiang, who has endured charges that her photogenic looks fuelled her success.
Her own angst might be related to stress from her childhood in central Hubei province.
She began writing at the age of seven after her schoolteacher mother - whose own dreams of being a writer didn’t pan out - told her the police take away any child who does not publish a book in primary school.
“Every time I hear a car in front of our house I get really scared,” she said.
She has since become a mirror image of the anxious young reader she writes for.
Countless hours spent writing have left her unable to easily mix with her peers, she said, and the thought of romantic love terrifies her.
Meanwhile, due to her age, Jiang’s parents keep her in the dark about her literary earnings, although the family recently bought a new house and car.
In perhaps the ultimate rebuke to writers of her generation, Jiang never reads any living author, preferring books whose quality has been proven over time.
Ma said it remains to be seen whether the works of today’s young writers will have any staying power, but he adds that every generation will have writers who tap the prevailing zeitgeist.
“These novels are a kind of fast food, and people sometimes do need fast food too,” he said. — AFP

Saya amat bersetuju dengan tajuk ini dari thestar online. Kita mesti banyak membaca. Kawan-kawan yang terror English, semuanya kaki baca

Sunday July 12, 2009

Reading maketh a man

By ALYCIA LIM

READING the newspaper is a habit that all students should cultivate, if they want to improve their language skills. This was why Goethe Institut Malaysia has sponsored a total of 10,000 copies of The Star’s NiE (Newspaper- in-Education) to 14 secondary schools, from May 20 until Nov 4.

Its director Dr Volker Wolf told students of Sekolah Berasrama Penuh Integrasi Gombak (SBPI) that reading the newspaper was the best way to improve in a language.

“Reading may not be a habit with many of our youngsters today, but it will become so if they start reading regularly,” he said during the mock voucher presentation ceremony at the school.

He added that the best way to learn a language was from newspapers because the sentences in most of the articles were constructed in a simple manner, making them a much easier read compared to reading literature books.

“It is also best for new learners of a language to refer to a dictionary while reading as it will help them improve their vocabulary,” said Dr Wolf.

He added that newspapers, regardless of what language they were in, were also a good way to get youngsters involved in voicing their thoughts.

“Students can start by writing to the media should they have issues to bring up, as this is one way of improving their language and literacy skills over time.”

Debat Antarabangsa MUSLEH 2009

Tahniah kepada semua pendebat SMIAAG!

SMIAAG ungguli Debat MUSLEH 2009

(Juara Debat Bahasa Melayu, SMIAAG bergambar bersama Datuk Zamani dan Pengerusi MUSLEH, Ust Megat Mohamed Amin)

Kuala Lumpur, 12 Julai – Sekolah Menengah Islam Al-Amin Gombak (SMIAAG) muncul juara Kejohanan Debat Antarabangsa Pelajar MUSLEH 2009 kategori Bahasa Melayu setelah menewaskan Sekolah Menengah Islam Hidayah Johor Bahru (SMIH JB) pada perlawanan akhir yang diadakan di Hotel Putra di sini hari ini.

Dengan usul yang dibahaskan bertajuk “Pemansuhan PPSMI Adalah Wajar”, para pendebat SMIAAG yang bertindak sebagai kerajaan yang terdiri daripada Khalilah Alhuda Kamilen, Nurazlina Azizi, Nur Diyana Nas Tamimi dan Nabil Afham M Fuad telah berjaya menarik perhatian juri, seterusnya membawa pulang Piala Pusingan Kejohanan, trofi serta wang kemenangan berjumlah RM500.00.

Tambah manis bagi SMIAAG apabila pendebatnya Khalilah Alhuda telah dipilih sebagai pendebat terbaik dalam perlawanan akhir tersebut.

Dalam kategori Bahasa Inggeris, SMIAAG sekadar menjadi naib juara setelah tumpas kepada SRI Ayesha Islamic School pada perlawanan akhir dengan usul “Indonesia Should Not Stop Sending Their Maid to Malaysia”.

Selaku naib juara, SMIAAG yang terdiri daripada Tengku Amirah Tengku Johari, Affan Torla, Adibah Bahiah Awang dan Ali Uthman meraih wang kemenangan berjumlah RM300.00 serta trofi.

Namun, kehampaan SMIAAG sedikit terubat apabila pendebatnya Adibah Bahiah diumumkan sebagai pendebat terbaik perlawanan akhir.