Page 24 - IDFR-Diplomatic Voice Vol 2 2014

NEWS confidence as comfortable users of ment, verbs, tenses and correct struc- participants found the course to be the language. This course on grammar ture of different questions types. very beneficial as it helped them to and deals with problem areas like improve their English especially in sentence skills, subject–verb agree- Based on their written feedback, the dealing with their daily tasks. Effective Writing Skills 1/2014 Good writing skills comes with the BERNAMA, National Sports Institute language. As such, the content of the confidence and ease of putting pen to of Malaysia, Department of Standards course was drawn up with a review of paper or in the globalised world of Malaysia, National Visual Arts Deve- the English tenses and the construc- today; from the keyboard to the screen lopment Board, Federal Department of tion of strong sentences. The partici- and ending with the printed form of the Town and Country Planning Peninsular pants were also exposed to the tone written piece. Thus, a total of 21 Malaysia and Malaysia Maritime and purpose of writing, developing participants from various ministries Enforcement Agency. ideas and composing strong para- and government agencies attended graphs. Other than that, participants the course which was held from 17 to In order for the participants to write were taken through on the use of 20 June 2014. They were from the effectively in English, they need to resources in writing and how to proof Ministry of Health, Ministry of Educa- have a good understanding of the read and edit their writing. tion, Prime Minister’s Department, grammatical structure of the English Conversational Malay Course 2014 The 42-hour Conversational Malay the Arab Republic of Egypt, Embassy of conversational Malay and at the Course was conducted from 4 March of the Republic of Senegal, Embassy same time to help the participants gain to 15 May 2014. The course was of the Republic of Peru, High Commis- a better understanding of the Malay specially conducted for foreign diplo- sion of the Republic of the Fiji Islands, culture in Malaysia. The participants mats in Kuala Lumpur and was held Embassy of the Islamic Republic of showed their enthusiasm towards the every Tuesday and Thursday from 5 Iran, High Commission of the Islamic course by interacting in the Malay p.m. to 7 p.m. Republic of Pakistan, Embassy of the language throughout the course, Czech Republic, Embassy of the based on their experience and prior A total of thirty diplomats from the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, knowledge of the language. Embassy of the Republic of Iraq, High Embassy of the Oriental Republic of Commission of the Republic of Singa- Uruguay, Embassy of Romania, pore, High Commission of the Repub- Embassy of the People’s Democratic lic of Zambia, High Commission of the Republic of Algeria and Embassy of Republic of Kenya, Embassy of the Austria attended the course. People’s Republic of China, High Commission of the Republic of South The objective of the course was to Africa, Embassy of Italy, Embassy of expose the participants to the basics Special Foreign Language Course for Wisma Putra Officers The special foreign language course classes, to all officers of the Ministry of March and ended on 24 May 2014. It for Wisma Putra officers was provided Foreign Affairs who were eager to was conducted at IDFR on Saturday at the request of young officers learn these languages but found it mornings from 9 am to 1 pm. interested in improving their compe- difficult to attend evening classes on tency in Arabic, French and Spanish. week days, due to work commitments. There were eight participants for The course aimed at giving the oppor- Thirty-four participants registered for Arabic, 12 for Spanish and 14 for tunity to attend foreign language this 44-hour course that started on 8 French. Most of them had some previ- 24 bulletin@idfr.gov.my