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Monday, September 24, 2001
Kids chat

Improve English at comnet.edu

HELLO friends and welcome to our weekly kids chat.

Cliparti: Hey guys, do you think we will have a war?

Windy: My father says that it is a global war against terrorism. And all countries will be a part of it.

Fluppy: No, my mummy says it will be between the USA and Afghanistan. So we don’t have to worry about it.

Cliparti: Fluppy, do you even know where Afghanistan is?

Fluppy: Yeah, it is adjoining Pakistan.

Cliparti: Good, at least you know this much. What else do you know about it?

 


Fluppy:
Not much. But I would certainly like to know more.

Windy: Then pack your bags.

Fluppy: Hey, thank you. I don’t wish to go there to know more about it. In spite of school and studies, I think I still like my life.

Windy: Stupid, I am talking of travelling on Net.

Fluppy: Oh, that way? Righto!

Windy: At www.emulateme.com/India.htm you will find all information you want. It not only covers Afghanistan or India but a lot of other countries. You can select a country and know about its economy, defence, geography, government, people, national anthem, and lots of other related things. You can find things you wish to know about its culture and even the latest happenings and news about each country. Isn’t that nice?

Cliparti: Yeah, it sure is. I think, at this point of time when so much is happening in the world, which is affecting even our own country, all of us would want to know of such site that tells us about other countries.

Windy: Not only about them but also how events in these countries leave an impact on our own country.

Cliparti: This truly means globalisation of the countries.

Fluppy: God! What are you guys talking about? It is all going over my head.

Cliparti: Why, we are talking plain English.

Fluppy: But it is sounding so difficult. All these difficult and fancy words and these sentences!

Windy: I think it is time you paid some attention to improving your own English.

Cliparti: Fluppy, I know of a site which can help you there.

Fluppy: Even you think I don’t know English?

Cliparti: Of course you know it but there is always a scope for improvement for everybody. You see languages are so vast and no body is perfect. So, I think every body should be in the habit of improving it whenever they can.

Windy: Truly said! There are some words that we should avoid using, some words are so confusing that we often get mixed up using them. All this should be taken care of while speaking.

Fluppy: But I don’t think most people take care of that while speaking.

Cliparti: Yeah, and that is why we hardly remember what they said. Now, our very own Prime Minister has such a good command over English and Hindi, because of which people really want to hear what he says. You will always find him speaking to the point and using extremely forceful words.

Fluppy: Is that why he speaks so slowly?

Cliparti: Yes, because he always thinks before speaking unlike others who speak and then think if they spoke the right words.

Fluppy: Then that is why he is our Prime Minister.

Cliparti: Ha, Ha! Not just because of that. He has many other qualities too. Of course this is one of the main qualities that any successful person should have.

Fluppy: Okay, then tell me how to go about improving my English language?

Windy: Fine. Go to http://ccc.comnet.edu/grammar/textonly.htm and you will find your guide to grammar and writing. You can select your sentence level, paragraph level, Essay level and start working on it. Learn phrases, punctuation, nouns, modifiers, abbreviations, spellings and many other things in various sentence levels. Then you can go about learning sentence variety, consistency of tense, sentence combining skill and paragraph development in the paragraph level. The essay level will tell you the principles of composition, like, handouts on getting started, structure, tone, transitions, editing, logic, format etc. accompanied by abundance of sample essays. Further it will tell you the forms of communication and finally it also has some interactive quizzes to test your knowledge of grammar.

Fluppy: Okay, so I will improve my English and then be successful.

Cliparti: Stupid, this is the first step to success.

Fluppy: You mean there are more steps to follow?

Windy: A whole set of staircase!

— Ira Verma

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Hey, kids! Let’s be friends. You can send your suggestions and queries to us at Kids Chat. Our e-mail address is [email protected]. Cliparti Sweet, Fluppy Little, along with me, of course, are all here to answer them. — Windy

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