Exam Result Day - Completion of ACCA (F - Level)

This is a day on which ACCA releases the results of Dec 2014 exam session. I have been waiting for the result which should have been delivered by email since 7am in the morning until around 2:30pm when I could finally log on to myACCA to check the result online.

Though a little later than others, my results are PASS!!! I took exam for the last two papers of e F-level (F8 and F9) and now the result is 73 and 69 respectively. I'm not really satisfied with the scores I achieved. However, since I didn't put too much effort in them last term, I didn't dare to expect too much. After all I received the lowest score I have ever had in my record (69 marks). For such a high standard setter like myself, I am kind of dissatisfied. But coming to think of it again, others have done a worse job than I did. They failed the exam. A friend told me that he needed only one more mark to pass! By then I should be happy with what I got for the effort I have put in.

Now I declare that I officially a F-graduate of the ACCA. I am undertaking P1 and P2, and I will maintain equal effort and time for the two papers, and at the same time, spend time to read other non-academic books to enhance my general knowledge and way of thoughts. 

Thanks to Dr Ghanty and Mdm Maita for their efforts in teaching me and other Cambodian young generation. I have done a good job in the last two papers.

Cheers,

Jocelyn

2015.02.08

10:14pm

FIA completed!

CAT/FIA papers are all completed in June 2013 exam session. Though there were problems in seeing my result on the due date (August 8), I finally received my results of FAU and FFM on August 15. I passed all of the papers now, and what I need to do is to prepare myself to write the FPER and IFP to obtain the membership.

Look forward to receiving the Certificate of Completion from CamEd!

About My FIA

June 10, 2013

I took the FAU exam this afternoon which is the final paper I have done to complete the FIA/CAT program. This marks another point of my education background. However, getting the professional qualification will surely need some more work to apply for the membership. Although the result is due to release in August, I am quite confident that I will pass the final two papers (FFM and FAU) for this June exam.

Recalling the first day at CamEd Business School, it was in July 2011 when I was offered the scholarship from the MEF and was admitted to this program. I was partly excited but partly dissatisfied because I didn’t manage to obtain scholarship for the ACCA program. Now, I am here, completing the CAT program and preparing myself to apply for the membership and then continue to embark on the path toward ACCA qualification. Hopefully, I will be able to finish the next dream in my life and to be a real publicly- and internationally-recognised professional accountant.

Study Tour to Kompong Chhnang

After having studied the theories of non-formal education, three classes of students from different sessions (morning, evening, and weekend) were given an opportunity to see the real practice of NFE, particularly the community learning center which is organized by the local authority in the commune which responds to the Cambodia’s national policy on NFE.

Led by teacher Sangvath, teacher Darin, and teacher Im Keun and supported by the university, we went to Kompong Chhnang province in which CLC management is evaluated to be the most successfully throughout the country. We witnessed the establishment and implementation of CLC in Teuk Phos district.

The study tour took place on Friday 27th August, 2010. There were 43 participants, 12 of whom are from my weekend class, studying with teacher Darin. The bus was planned to leave from UC at 6 a.m., but it was finally delayed by a student (Bong Sophorn) from the weekend class. As a result, we left UC at 7 a.m.

As we arrived at Prek Gdam bridge, we stopped over for a while to have breakfast. A small group of morning session including me already had breakfast before getting on the bus, so we sat together and waited for others finishing their breakfast. We continued our journey at 9:00. Around 10:00, we arrived at the Department of Education, Youth and Sport based in Kompong Chhnang Province. We were led to the room where the Vice President of the department, Mr. Pich Sambo, gave a presentation on the history, education situation, and local residents’ way of life of Kompong Chnnang Province. We reviewed the origin of name of the province, historical events, and Khmer literature related to the province. At the same time, we were presented about the organization and management of CLC as well as the purposes of its existence.

After listening to the presentation, we left the province center to Teuk Phos district where is 30km away. We arrived at the Am Lieang village, Choung Oaung commune, where one of the CLCs is being operated, at almost 11:00. The CLC is quite small, consisting of only 3 rooms where only 3 skills are being taught to the trainees. The 3 skills include playing Pen Piet music (a kind of Khmer tradition music), make-up and wedding decoration, and hairdressing. After interviewing the trainees and the facilitators, we gathered under the trees and listened to the talk of the representatives of the community including the vice president of the commune, the principal of the school and the center, and other related members.

This CLC was established on October 25, 2007. The training period is 6 months per year, and so far two training groups (2008 and 2009) have been completed, the one operated in 2010 is on the process. The organization of CLC is cooperated with the provincial department, village leaders, masters of pagoda, and other influential people. The funds are partly from the national budget and mostly from local community.

The trip covered only one CLC within the province, and the visiting duration was not long enough for us to fully understand how it is implemented. However, this experience enables us to compare the theory with the practice. From the study tour, personally I feel that CLCs in Cambodia focus mostly on income-generating skills such as sewing, Pen Piet music, machinery repairing, motorbike repairing, mushroom growing, hairdressing and so on, while other general knowledge such as of health, sanitation, environment protection, legal understandings, culture, and so on is not highly promoted. According to the leaflet delivered, Pen Piet music training class is offered in all the three training periods in the same community. This may be one of the weaknesses of the CLC management.

After this tour, all the participants are assigned to write report on the trip by showing our impressions and suggestions on the management and operation of CLC in Teuk Phos district. For weekend class, the report is due on September 11, 2010.

Non-formal eduation, a short summary

This is a doc file on non-formal education. It includes:
- how NFE emerges;
- Summary of discourses and framework of how NFE is defined--Deficit, Disadvantaged, and Difference; and
- Discussion on how formal education should be reformed--redeemable or irredeemable.

http://docs.google.com/document/edit?id=1Aua17MxCl-CCFEQQSyYt8VAdzXtuPXkQH3LgHw6RsWU&hl=en

2010 Local Development Forum

Launch of the Local Development Outlook on Cambodia
Fifteen students, five of which from my class, from RULE were sent to participate in the launching of the Local Development Outlook which is prepared by UNDP in Cambodia and UNCDF on the 1st of July 2010 from 8:00 to 13:00 in the Intercontinental Hotel. It was our honor that we were given the chance to widen our view on how to develop our country proposed by the organizations.

Friday 25th June, Teacher Chrin Hai came to our class and informed us of the program. He needed five volunteer students to participate in the program. Malay, Sros, Daly, Danith, and I seized the opportunity. For three years, the university has never given any chance for the College of Economics to participate in similar program. We were excited because it was our first experience to represent the school. Especially, it was also our first time to visit the Intercontinental Hotel.

After registration we were provided with the hard copy of the summary of the local development outlook in both Khmer and English and a CD on the detail of the report. The program was divided into two sessions; first of which started at 8:30 and the second at 10:35. There were many distinguished speakers from UNCDF, UNDF, Ministries, World Bank, New York University, and Acleda Bank. Each of the speakers gave meaningful and remarkable speech on how to develop locally so that development on national level is available and effective.

Though limited knowledge doesn’t allow us to catch the underlying concepts of each speaker, we did learn something from it and at least we could read the outlook by ourselves to further our knowledge.

Here is the ball room where the forum is held. Participants sit in round tables.

From left to right: Sros, Leng, Malay, Daly.

Here is the room at 3rd floor where we had lunch after the program.

Many kinds of dessert taken by Danith (Em).

How are hotel graded?

Degree of luxury is the major factor in determining the level of a hotel. Hotel is graded in various ways in different countries. It is common to hear of star-rating hotel, while there are several other ways such as letter grading from ‘A’ to ‘F’ and diamond rating. The higher the star ratings, the luxurious the hotel is.

There isn’t yet an international standard to classify hotel. Some countries have rating by a single public standard or defined by laws. Belgium, Denmark, Greece, Italy, Spain and Hungary are the examples. On the other hand, the rating is sometimes defined by the respective hotel industry association using a 5-star system as being practiced in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, and UK while US employs the diamond rating in some states. Some hotels may self evaluate and give themselves the rating. Therefore, the consumers can be easily misled or confused by the rating. One should keep in mind that two hotels with the same rating do not necessarily mean they offer the same facilities.

Though five-star rating is the most commonly heard, six-star or seven-star are also in use. For British system, AA (Automobile Association) rating system is employed, while the American version is AAA. However, there are several hotels categorized as six-star, and only three hotels around the world are said to be seven-star.

The characteristics and general services provided by a star hotel (based on AA Recognition):
-One-star: small, independent-owned, with family atmosphere; services are provided by the owner or the family members informally; limited facilities; bedrooms may not equipped with a bathroom; cleanliness, maintenance, and comfort are fairly acceptable.

-Two-star: medium-sized and offer more extensive facilities; guests expect more comfortable and well-equipped accommodation compared to one-star hotel; offer wider range of straightforward services, such as food and drink.

-Three-star: having great quality and a wide range of facilities; reception and other public rooms are spacious; the hotel’s restaurant also caters for outsiders; all bedrooms will have fully en suite bath and shower rooms; provided with comfort and equipments such as a hair dryer, direct dial telephone, toiletries in bathroom; room service is also expected.

-Four-star: degree of luxury, quality furnishings, décor and equipments are expected; bedrooms are more spacious, well-designed, and luxuriously decorated; hotel staffs are enough to meet the consumers’ demands; services include porterage, 24 hour room service, laundry and dry-cleaning.

-Five-star: more spacious and luxurious than lower level of hotel, which matches the best international standard; services are formal and carefully supervised; staff is with high technical skills, knowledgeable, helpful, courteous and attentive.

The six-star hotels include: Crown Macau, St. Regis Shanghai Hotel, Gold Coast in Australia, Seoul Park Hyatt in South Korea, and so on.

And the seven-star hotels include: Town House Galleria in Milan, the Burj Al Arab in Dubai, and the Emirates Palace in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

References:
-en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_(classification)
-www.onecaribbean.org/content/files/hotelcalssification(1).pdf

On the Equality of Sexes, essay summary

This essay is an excerpt from an article ‘On the Equality of the Sexes’ published in Massachusetts Magazine in 1790. Judith Sargent Murray, the author, is a feminist writer who strived for the right and recognition of women from the society of her period.

Throughout the essay, the author compares woman’s and man’s ability in imagination, reason, memory, and judgment. She believed that women are surrendered to use their imagination. If fact, if they are allowed time to imagine, they are able to invent wonderful things and write good books. However, this ‘fertile brain of a female’ has been ‘despoiled’, that is, it has been damaged because of the society’s confinement. Women have been supposed to stick with ‘needle and kitchen’ which wastes the intelligent parts of women. Anyway, it’s said that women are lacking of the ability in reason. In fact, they are denied the opportunity to reason. Talking about the ability to memorize, the author prefers the idea that both sexes have equal ability. What is more, people, regardless of sex, by nature are equal in terms of every faculty, but what makes the difference is the after-birth’s education which is essentially influential on their abilities. Girls and boys are exposed to ‘contrary modes of education’; boys are taught to be ambitious and seek to attain goals; girls, on the other hand, are inculcated with domestic work. To sum up these ideas, the author takes the view that women’s and men’s minds are by nature equal but it’s custom that makes up the gap.

The author gave an example that if an uneducated girl marries an educated man, she will experience a feeling of ashamed and inferior which fills her with deep sadness. If, in another case, she marries an uneducated man the same to her, she will be even worse-off. Therefore, proper education for women is vitally important for the determination of their own fate and the formation of a happy family. With good education, they are able to make good judgments and choose a good partner for life. Also, there is a possibility that women will become an expert in what she learns. Besides, the author raised a question that 'Will the achievments of women take the place of their domestic works?' The answer was that women could do both things well if they are willing to.

So far, many females, as males, have used their powers of nature to win recognition and applause. There are many ‘robust masculine’ women and mentally weak men. Thus, women are persuaded to use their mind power as a kind of strength to be equal to man’s physical strength. Finally, the author appeals to the readers that we must struggle with the preoccupation of the society to gain the advantages stated above.

The author intends to make us, especially all women, regardless of space and time, beware of and revolutionize these discriminations for the sake of themselves and other women on the purpose of gaining recognition and respect. Personally, I totally agree with the author’s viewpoint that women should not be confined to domestic work; rather, they should be given chance to absorb knowledge from school and perform professional jobs. But what is important is the women themselves who must have ambitions and strong determination to tackle with the societal burdens for real equality.

This essay gives us, as a reader, the idea of equality of sexes. We learn about the lower value and role of women in the author’s time and that women were not given equal right and opportunity for education and work as men were. In this case, women were always inferior to men in terms of not only physical strength but also intelligence. We also realize that many women have been struggling with the social burdens so that women today receive rights and better opportunities for edcuation and jobs in the society. As a new generation, we should also continue to promote women's right and value so that men and women are equally treated.

Knowledge in Traffic Law

Are you driving a vehicle? Have you ever been fined because of violating traffic law? And have you got a driving license? If your answers are ‘Yes’ for the first questions, it means that you don’t thoroughly understand the traffic law. It is a must to understand the law and abide it so that there will be fewer cases of traffic accidents which cause injury and fatality.

This Saturday (25th July) my friend and I went to the Safety Riding Center established and organized by the N.C.X Honda Co., Ltd, which provides Road Traffic Law and Safety Riding Course with free of charge. The course takes one whole day which includes real riding training and theory study. A certificate is provided after we have successfully finished it. This certificate is one of the requirements in test registration for driving license.

The N.C.X Safety Riding Center is located in the N.C.X Honda company compound along the Street Vengsreng, Sangkat Chom Chao, Khan Dangkor, Phnom Penh (nearby the Canacity Market). Every trainee is required to bring along a photocopy of I.D card or family book or birth certificate and two pieces of 4 x 6 size current photos. The application forms to apply for driving course is provided at the Center.
After the one-day course, I’ve learned several things especially the law. I’ve realized that I’ve violated the law in several aspects so far. Now, I feel like following the law more than before. I believe that if all drivers have attended the course, they will be more conscientious in abide by the road traffic law when they are driving in the way I experience. Traffic in Cambodia will be improved!

This is the field where we learn to drive. It is in mid-day, so the safety cones placed on the field are gathered back to the warehouse.

Here is where we sit to relax and listen to the instructions.

This is the free booklet on guidelines on land traffic.

My Duan Wu Jie

Zong Zi（粽子） - a glutinous rice dumpling wrapped in bamboo or reed leaves - is no exception. It is meant to honor Qu Yuan（屈原） (340-278 BC.), the pioneer poet of ancient China.

Qu Yuan（屈原） was a famous poet who was also concerned about the fate of his government. Unfortunately his stature aroused the jealousy of the king, who banished him to a remote area. The poet despaired of the government and its policies. When the state's capital was captured by enemies, he committed suicide by drowning himself in the Miluo River (on May 5th according to the Chinese lunar calendar五月初五). The Chinese people felt this loss deeply, as he was a much beloved poet. Local folk searched for him in the river, meanwhile dropping dumplings of glutinous rice wrapped in bamboo or reed leaves into the river in order to keep the fishes from attacking Qu Yuan's body.

Since that time, it has been customary on this day to enjoy Zong Zi dumplings as a memorial to the patriotic poet.

Look! These are my ‘masterpieces’. I made them just before I went to school. They are uncooked yet. I like making them a bit smaller so that they look cute. Eh! How do they look? Can I be a professional rice dumpling wrapper?
这都是我的杰作啦！昨天中午上学之前，我亲手把这些粽子包好的。图中的粽子还是生的啦！我包的粽子比我妈妈包的小一点，因为小的比较可爱。你看我手工如何？是否可以跟一个包粽子师傅比较啦？

Guess who she is. I think you have the answer in mind. Yes, she is my mum. Can you see those ingredients? She had spent lots of time to get them prepared!
猜猜她是谁？我想你们一定心中有数吧。她就是我妈妈。你看到桌上的材料吗？这都有是用来做粽子的。她花了许多时间和心思去准备，就是为了我们可以享受端午节吃粽子的气氛。妈妈，辛苦您了！

Mummy, look at the camera, please?妈妈！看看镜头，等我把你最甜美的微笑放进我的博客里，让全世界都有可以感受到我家的温馨。

It’s 5:30pm. The rice dumplings are being cooked. Mum had finished wrapping at 3:30pm and started cooking until now. It’s not ready yet! Eh? There is good smell coming out through the steam; they may be ready in another two hours.
这时候已经是五点半了。这些粽子在三点半时终于给包好了，然后放进锅中煮了两个小时，但根据以前的经验，它们还要再煮大约两个小时才可以大功告成咯。唉？已经可以闻到粽子香味了！

This is the ‘finished good’! Oh, the color is not natural; it looks too white. Actually, it looks a bit green. It tastes delicious and unique. You can never find this taste in somewhere else.
这就是我们的‘产成品’咯！看起来很好吃吧？它不但外貌美观，而且吃起来还会上瘾呢。这味道是全世界独一无二的，因为这是属于家传的‘秘方’和经过妈妈的改造喔！是否想尝尝啊？

I should have posted this yesterday, but there were errors in my computer that delay the post. Hope you could enjoy the festival and had eaten delicious rice dumplings.

Special ‘Guest’---稀客

From the back of the house my mother screamed for help. My brother and I rushed there and found this special ‘guest’ on the window’s door. It’s the first time ever I’ve seen this kind of creature. My mother told me that it’s called ‘Tok Ke’ in Khmer, and she is very afraid of it because of its disgusting look. I didn’t know how it is called in either English or Chinese; therefore, soon after that I checked on the internet to know more about it.

According to Baidu Baike（百度百科）, this little creature is normally called ‘Tokay Gecko’ in English and 大壁虎in Chinese. It’s also name in other ways such as 蛤(gé)蚧(jiè)，仙蟾(cán)，多格，蛤蟹，蛤蚧蛇and so on. It’s biggest kind of geckos, body length 12-16cm, tail length 10-14cm, and weight 50-100g.

It looks just like a gecko（壁虎）; however, it has got a bigger triangle head which is like that a toad’s head and big protruding eyes. It’s got a very big mouth and tiny teeth on both upper and lower jaws. Its skin is absolutely rough; we can see small roundish things all over its body. This creature varies in colors; basically, it’s in black, black brown, gray brown, dark grey, blue gray, red gray, black green, green blue, etc. It’s got stripes on its back. There are also six to seven horizontal rows of dots in white or red color on its head.
Tokay gecko likes living in between rocks, rock’s role or tree’s holes; sometimes it also stays on the balcony or wall in human’s house. Its hearing ability is very strong, but in daytime its visual ability is very weak. Being afraid of the light, it opens its eyes as small as possible in a small vertical line. It looks for food at night when it can open its eyes four times bigger than it can in daytime. It’s got a flexible tongue which it uses to catch preys which mainly are insects such as cockroaches, dragonflies, crickets, moth, ground beetle, and locust; however, once in a while, it also eats other lizards and small birds.