Wednesday May 16, 2007
Is ‘white gold’ acceptable?
Your questions answered by FADZILAH AMIN
AT funeral wakes, we give monetary sums to the bereaved family. The Chinese call it “pak kum”, literally “white gold”. Some refer to it in English as “white gift”.
However, I cannot find this term in my dictionary. Is it acceptable? Is there another term? – Dr Ng Kheng Chat, Chemor, Perak
I couldn’t find the term “white gift” even in the 20-volume Oxford English Dictionary, but I found a website on the Internet consisting of a 53-page pdf file, called “A Guide To Cultural Awareness – For Strathclyde Fire & Rescue Staff “, which contains information on various aspects of the cultures of minorities living in Britain. There, on page 6, I found a reference to the “white gold” you mentioned:
“Traditionally white is the colour of mourning. When a person dies, friends, relatives and members of the community collect money in a white envelope (called white gold) for the family and [of?] the bereaved, which goes towards the cost of the funeral.” (From http://www.strathclydefire. org/pdfs/CulturalAwareness.pdf)
Perhaps that’s the term used in English for this gift, but since it is not widely known among non-Chinese English speakers, it hasn’t found its way to a dictionary yet. Does any reader know of another English term for this gift?
Rigid marking scheme
MY daughter is from a Chinese primary school. I would like to know why the sentence “My mother bought a beautiful dress.” was marked wrong by her teacher.
When approached, the teacher explained that my daughter should have written “My mother bought a beautiful dress yesterday.” She said the time frame had to be added.
She also explained that was the new marking scheme required in the exam.
Can you clarify? What has happened to the standard of English in Malaysia? – Confused parent, Selangor
The new marking scheme as described by the teacher sounds rather rigid and limiting. I answered a similar question to yours about two months ago.
Not all sentences that use the simple past tense must state the time of the action. A lot depends on the context.
Often, the time has been stated in a previous sentence or is implied. For instance, the British Prime Minister Tony Blair used the simple past tense in his speech the other day: “But I did what I thought was right for our country.” No time was mentioned in the sentence. But in the context of his speech, it is implied that he was talking about what he did after he became Prime Minister.
Similarly, your daughter’s sentence may be an answer to a question like: “What did your mother buy at the new department store yesterday?” The answer doesn’t need to repeat the time word, “yesterday”. So “My mother bought a beautiful dress.” is absolutely correct.
Is this correct?
IS this sentence grammatically correct:
Don’t mind if I ask you how often did you come to Muar before started working in Muar? – K.H.
No, there are some errors in it, some words left out, and a needless repetition of the word “Muar”.
If you are in Muar, it is better to say: “I hope you don’t mind if I ask you how often you used to come to Muar before you started working here?”
If you are not in Muar, you should say: “I hope you don’t mind if I ask you how often you used to go to Muar before you started working there?”
The changes I made are indicated in bold.
'This' and uncountable noun
PLEASE let me know whether the determiner “this” can be used with uncountable nouns such as in the following sentence:
This information is very useful.
– En Cheng
Yes, “this” can be used with “information” and other uncountable nouns, e.g. “This water is not fit to drink.”, “This confidence which he has comes from the way his parents brought him up.”
RSS
