Wednesday, December 16, 2009

The Breakfast Show

The Breakfast Show @ Ntv7, 16 December 2009

My publisher, Marshall Cavendish, arranged for this tv interview to promote Stretching Your Dollar$ and $ense. The live show was held at Sri Pentas in Bandar Utama. Yow Mei Li from MC turned up for moral support.


First time I'm in a studio with a green screen. Look at the tv set. It looks like I'm balancing a giant mug on my head.




I've met Daphne Iking (left) at the Ntv7's old studio at Glenmarie and Aishah Sinclair (centre) has interviewed me for Venus, so I was quite at ease with them.

When you get two breezy hosts, the session is fun. Daphne, being a new mother, singled out the tip on recycling disposable diapers. But I can't see her putting this into practice. You'll know what I mean if you read the book.

Friday, November 20, 2009

Friday, September 11, 2009

Stretching your Dollar$ and $ense Review in The Star



The Star
11 September 2009

Stretching Your Dollars And Sense
Author: Lydia Teh
Publisher: Marshall Cavendish, 144 pages

EVERYONE wants to know how to save money during the financial crisis and this book offers just that with a Malaysian twist. The author of best-seller Honk! If You’re Malaysian lists over 300 practical pointers for prudent spending and more savings. From lowering food costs to saving water, budget entertainment and mending shoes, there is something here for everyone.

Tuesday, September 01, 2009

Stretching your Dollar$ and $ense at Bfm

This is the radio interview at Bfm Radio conducted on 13 July 2009.

Part 1


Part 2

Saturday, August 22, 2009

Eh Poh Nim on Singapore's 938LIVE

Like most, if not all, other authors, I like to google my books to find out what readers are saying about them. That's how I stumbled upon this little review on Singapore's 938LIVE radio.

What is 938LIVE? It "gets you talking as Singapore's only all news and talk radio station. We'll give you all you need to know about What's In, What's On and What's Up in Singapore round the clock." The Write Stuff appears under its English @ Work project in support of the Speak Good English Movement.

THE WRITE STUFF
Do you wear suspenders?: The wordy tales of Eh Poh Nim
By Lydia Teh

Eh Poh Nim is a woman on a mission. Poh Nim, a character created by author, Lydia Teh, loves the English language so much that she has taken it upon herself to introduce new words and phrases to the world. She wants to spread the joy of learning English through her daily interactions.

Written in a conversational tone, we listen in as Poh Nim introduces new words to anyone within earshot. She uses words and phrases cleverly, providing witty explanations for their usage. For example, she refers to a plus-sized American colleague who had just arrived at the airport as "Big Bertha". Big Berthas refer to the huge German guns that were used to shell Paris in World War I.

Contributed by Kweh Soon Huat, National Library Board

Short and sweet.

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Temporary : Click to Save

As mentioned in my other blog, this blog is the only one I will update and that too, with news on my writing. But occasionally, a need may arise for me to blog about other things. I think the best way for me to do that is to create a temporary post to be removed at a suitable time so that this blog continues to stay focused.

A friend, Joshua Chong, has asked that I blog about Digi's Love to Save campaign. It's a worthy cause that's easy to support. All it takes is one click to donate RM5 to the charity of your choice. The target is RM150,000 to be 'collected' over 30 days. This means that 30,000 clicks need to be executed. As of now, with 20 days left, the total donation stands at RM71,980. This translates to 48% of the target and they're only 10 days into the campaign. Not bad. If you want to do your bit, click away and spread the news.

P/S : This post will be removed when the campaign is over.

Tuesday, June 09, 2009

Honk! @ MPH Jimat Campaign



MPH Jimat Campaign is in BBT One, Klang (just in front of Tesco Bukit Tinggi). Though prices aren't rock bottom, you can get new books at a good discount. For instance, Honk! If You're Malaysian is going at RM20, which is 35% off its retail price. I found 5 autographed copies in the RM2-RM20 bin along with 2 copies of Life's Like That - Scenes from Malaysian Life (original cover). Though the latter is tagged at its original price of RM29.90, I think it's going for RM20 too. Klangites, this is a good time to get my books if you haven't. The sale concludes this Sunday, 14 June 2009.

Tuesday, June 02, 2009

Read Malaysia 2009

I was one of the speakers at the inaugural Read Malaysia fair held at MIECC, Mines Resort City. Though the journey was smooth sailing from Klang, once we hit Seri Kembangan, traffic was horrendous. It took us almost an hour to get through the final two kilometres leading to MIECC. The road leading into Mines was jammed up and since I was running late, I got out and walked the final lap of 300 metres. Luckily, a friend had kindly consented to drive me there or I would've been stuck for another fifteen minutes.

My topic was 50 Ways with Words - How to improve your English and have fun, too.



It was nice to have Theresa Lam (in white) in the audience. She was one of those whom I keep looking at during the talk. When speaking in public, it's helpful to establish eye contact with a couple of friendly faces in the audience and she couldn't have been more encouraging with her smiling countenance. She hosts the Reading Corner at Chan Fong's internet radio. (Chan Fong is a popular Chinese DJ. I've heard him on radio and seen some of his dramas. He's a natural.) Hop over to have a listen, Theresa's voice is beautiful and melodic.



Jenna Chan and her two boys came specially for my talk. Her eldest son, Jian Sheng (brown shirt), had a question on how to get a book published. He's only 11 and he's already writing a story book with four other friends. Way to go, boy! Who knows he might just be Malaysia's Christopher Paolini (of Eragon fame).



The crowd wasn't fantastic. Azizi Ali who came after me had all the chairs filled up. It must be the times. People are more interested in how to stay rich than improving their English. I listened to him for more than thirty minutes, then before my body could explode into a gooey green mess, I removed myself from the audience and stalked off to find my two kids who were roaming the hall for a good buy and some free reads (comic books).

Astro U-Wartawan

Tuesday, 26 May 2009

I was invited as a guest for U-Wartawan (Astro Awani, channel 501) The topic was rude Malaysians. You can listen to the interview here. Didn't think I did a good job, it's been too long since I was a guest on a Malay program.

This program is interactive. They get the man-on-the-street to give their opinions on Facebook and they choose the best inputs for airing. The session which is aired live is recorded in a corner of the Astro Awani office in Menara Maybank, KL. You can see the cameraman holding a hand-held camera in the second picture. The camera is strapped onto the waist but you still need a pair of strong hands to keep the contraption steady.

Did you know that Astro provides transport for interview guests who can't make their way to the studio on their own? Usually I drive myself to the tv stations but since this interview was at night and I wasn't sure of the way, Astro sent a driver to pick me from my house. Cool!




With Nazri Kahar, the talk show host, and my son

Monday, June 01, 2009

Stretching your Dollar$ and $ense


Title: Stretching your Dollar$ and $ense - More than 300 money-saving tips for anyone and everyone
ISBN: 9789673035625
Publisher: Marshall Cavendish Business
Publish Date: 1 June 2009
Price: RM19.90

If you do not fancy moonlighting to earn extra cash, the best way to weather the tough economic climate is to practise prudence and save as much money as you can.
Stretching your Dollar$ and $ense contains more than 300 tips on how to save your hard-earned cash, ranging from common and sensible ideas to suggestions that could save you thousands of dollars.
Lydia Teh infuses practical pointers with a gentle touch of humour to make these tips more palatable, so that you can smile all the way to the bank.

Saturday, May 30, 2009

Book Talk at Read Malaysia 2009

Date : Sunday, 31 May 2009

Time : 4.00 to 5.00 pm

Venue: MIECC, Mines Resort City (Stage 1)

Topic: 50 ways with words - how to improve your English and have fun, too

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Eh Poh Nim in I.M.

I.M. May 2009 issue

I.M. is not instant messaging. It is the name of a new magazine on all things Malaysian.


Thursday, April 30, 2009

Nerd Love

This is the review of my book in Amir Muhammad's Pulp Friction column in The Malay Mail, Wed, 29 April 2009.




Books that compile newspaper columns are usually as diverting as someone else’s jumbled laundry, but this is a happy exception. It helps that I had never read any of the pieces here before. I mistook Lydia Teh’s Word’s Up, Eh Poh Nim? column in The Star for some kind of simple grammar guide, so never felt compelled to go any further because I have been told that my Englands is already quite well.

Well, the joke’s on me! The column actually reads like a serial novel. Sure, it doesn’t have the relentless pace of, say, Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City, but the story definitely builds. Like several other serial novelists, Teh creates an affectionate and occasionally exasperated portrait of a city as seen by several closely observed characters. In fact, Do You Wear Suspenders? turns out to be a love story!

The eponymous (geddit?) protagonist is a single woman with the annoying habit of always correcting other people’s word usage. Even when visiting a friend in hospital, she scolds Clara for writing ‘complement’ instead of ‘ compliment.’ (The reason Clara is writing is that the poor thing is not healthy enough to talk.) Instead of flinging her filled bedpan at her, Clara just lies there and takes it all in.

And so it goes. Eh Poh Nim (the name is always spelled in full) has several talky escapades that help illustrate concepts like alliteration, hyperbole, puns, metaphors and similes. She has memorised the origins of many idioms and phrases too: “Trojan horse” is easy enough, but how many of us know where “below the salt” came from?

One of the most fun chapters has Our Lady of Pedantry instructing Australian mates on Manglish terms, which is how the title of the book came about. We use suspenders to refer to something worn underneath, rather than to hold up, men’s trousers. Another favourite has an ending where we are taught that ACDC is slang for bisexual, which you can never be too young to learn.

Strangely enough, Teh doesn’t take advantage of the interesting origin of the phrase ‘half-past six.” When a former Prime Minister (guess which one!) used it to describe the new leadership, I never realised it was a local expression. It comes from the early days of the Selangor Club in KL, where Eurasians were permitted to be at the bar only from 6:30pm onwards – when the whites would be away, preparing for dinner. So the term was a racist one to mean second-rate. (My source is this novel).

I sometimes felt like throttling her, but I feel the same about many of my friends, so I guess Eh Poh Nim became a friend. Besides, her compulsive desire to educate is a way to conceal (wouldn’t you know it?) a certain loneliness. While fending off an oafish colleague named Paul, she grows interested in Gene Rick, whose charms prove to be anything but generic. He, too, is a sticker, I mean stickler, for using the correct words, so you imagine a very happy future of matching thesauri on the bedside table.

But the path of true love is filled with sticks and stones, … or words to that effect. Eh Poh Nim first needs to make sure none of her friends or family members bludgeon her to death for always reminding them not to pronounce words to become ‘Grand Pricks’ or ‘fox pass’.

Unlike the sterile conversations in our textbooks, her mini-adventures never exist in a vacuum. (This book has far too much pork to qualify as an MOE text, anyway). There are many delicious references to contemporary controversies: the mansion built by dubious Malaysian politicians, the sex scandals of Hong Kong stars, the agricultural study trips to Taiwan, and so on. Even the romantic clincher in a park involves a hilarious cameo by killjoy khalwat-busters. Perhaps in a decade we would need footnotes to get all the jokes, but to present them unadorned adds to this book’s cheeky, faux-naif charm.

Faux-naif is a word we are not taught to pronounce properly here. Dare we hope for a sequel?

(Malay Mail, 29 April)

Wednesday, April 01, 2009

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Eh Poh Nim at Pop Club

Pop Club March 2009 issue


Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Eh Poh Nim at Traxx Fm


(With Yen Nee and DJ Mary)

Attended a radio interview at Traxx fm today. This is the first media interview for Do You Wear Suspenders? The Wordy Tales of Eh Poh Nim. It was one of the easiest sessions I've ever had because the DJ, Mary, kept to the prepared questions. Thanks to the assistant producer, Aeida, for arranging the interview. Ten copies of the book were given out to winners of an sms contest.

Sunday, March 01, 2009

Do you wear suspenders?


Title: Do you wear suspenders? The wordy tales of Eh Poh Nim
ISBN: 9789675222085
Publisher: MPH Group Publishing Sdn Bhd
Publish Date: 1 March 2009
Price: RM32.90

This is a collection of anecdotes about the everyday life of Eh Poh Nim, a loquacious woman who launches into explanations of words and phrases at the drop of a hat.

Anyone with even a passing interest in the English language will find this book appealing and amusing. Phrases like "bake a tit," "Mrs. Malaprops nipples," "pie in the sky," "bananas and fruitcakes" and "satay mushrooms" may sound deliciously naughty or vulgar, but none of them are what they seem.

Eh Poh Nim, a punctilious wordsmith, enlightens readers on idioms, hyperboles, metaphors and other figures of speech with delightful humour and an insight into Malaysian life and its complexities and peculiarities.

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Bookertisement - Do You Wear Suspenders?

My bookertisement (a trailer to promote books) is up on Youtube. There's a contest running on my blog. Pop by to take part. You might get lucky and win RM100 worth of book vouchers and an autographed copy of the book DO YOU WEAR SUSPENDERS? THE WORDY TALES OF EH POH NIM. Closing date is 20 March 2009.