Sho Sweet Ooo Google Goochi Gooochi Goooo

I don't know whether my parents had a similar joy when I had first step of my life. ;-)
But I really love this moment. As if there is an unexpected rain in a desert, or a cool breeze in mid June. I wasn't expecting this, so soon.

I can't express how happy I am :-D. Perhaps someone just clicked, as a buck up :-/. But I like it, really like it.
What do you think how does it feels when you start yielding something from your Adsense?

Happy (Previous) Eid

Thanks to Almighty, this bruised nation was rewarded with Eid once again. Thanks to His blessing that He rewarded us with Ramadan and provided us opportunity to ask for forgiveness, to cure our souls and eliminate our sins. Thanks to Almighty that he granted the precious moments of Ramadan and Shawal 1st.

Happy almost previous Eid to the readers of this blog. Hopefully you enjoyed yourselves, met friends and relatives and had a good time. Or perhaps you enjoyed the time in my way, lying down on the bed in front of laptop staring at facebook, watching for technology news, downloading and watching new episodes of Star Trek Deep Space 9 and Stargate SG1 :-).

Well that's what I did today for the whole day, except 1 case when I left home to say Eid Mubarak to my teacher. I ate, drank, watched movies, read struggle of new technologies (just the skirmishes of HMTL5 with Silverlight, Flash etc and developers worrying about the future of proprietary technologies, pretty much cool topic :-D ;-)), and experimented my new laptop stand. Wanna have a look? See for yourself.

Well as you may have figured out. It is an old portrait (not a portrait it was an add from a medicine company pasted on a portrait like frame, I removed the add and used the frame). I attached a Rs 5 foota (wooden scale 1 foot long) with nail at one side of the frame to prevent laptop from sliding down (picture 3 for an unclear glimpse). And to make it look like a stand, I raise it using a box or a piece of wood (whatever is readily available) :-D. So here is what I've done on Eid.

Planning Your Career

As I've seen in short period of my life, there are two types of people in the world: the lucky and the not-so-lucky. The lucky ones are those who get an early breakthrough in their career. This boosts their career and they can fly on new horizons. The not-so-lucky ones are those who do not get an early breakthrough, or any breakthrough. So either they can become pessimist and stay where they are, or they can become hard workers and start to build up their career bit by bit and step by step.

I've seen the live examples during my MSc Applied Linguistics. Two lucky people were among my teachers. Sir Hafiz Fazl-e-Haq always fascinated me, so does Madam Rabia Yasmeen. Both were just MSc Applied Linguistics at the time when they got University job. So I considered them best examples as people who get breakthrough, and specially an early breakthrough in their career. Another example from the same university, GCUF, is my friend Sir Noor-ul-Qamar. He is a lecturer in English Department. He got his job when he just was completing his M Phil. And now he is a well settled person. I am also fascinated by him when I see my own career. Well, when I talk about my career, perhaps I was not able to get a breakthrough. For me, the maximum one can get as a MSc Applied Linguistics degree holder, is to get university job, specially public sector university. The teachers were required actually, but I couldn't apply for the job because of my incomplete thesis.

So we get that sometimes we are not so lucky, or we miss some chances to get something. How to rectify any such error? Well, in my limited experience and knowledge I've seen that you've to build your career step by step. It is a 10 years plan actually which starts after you get your graduation/ masters degree. This plan, as I see it, can be build considering following points.

• As a first step you look for a job. At this time your priority is not to get a handsome salary, but you look for 'a job', which can give you the right to be called a professional. In language teaching field, you will get the kinds of jobs as I mentioned earlier. As a trainee teacher, a school teacher, a private college teacher, you do not seek for handsome salary, but here your purpose is to seek knowledge to survive in market. You seek the ways to move in a professional environment. This experience gaining helps you in your future work.
• As second step you seek for a better job. Here the questions come what is the better job and WHEN? The choice of 'what' is totally person dependent because some people are comfortable with teaching, others are not so they may pursue for other fields and start from zero again. 'When' is a crucial thing to answer. Because your first job is very important for you to teach youself professionalism. But at the same time not all first jobs are so generous to offer you good income. So you've to move along. This move along can be tricky and context dependent (see for pragmatics here folks ;-) ). A few things should be kept in mind in this regard:
• You are being offered by a more prestigious organisation with a more suitable salary package.
• You think that you've gained as much as you could from your current institute.
• You think that you've spent reasonable time in the institution.
• You think that you wouldn't be able to survive in this institution any more (this can be due to some unfortunate reason)
• You think that you should concentrate on further studies instead of the job.
• Today's professional world offers you no generosity but 'cut throat' competition. If you are best, you'll survive otherwise you'll be left behind by the natural selection process. So you need to improve yourself constantly. In teaching you should be aware of latest techniques of teaching, use of technology and other gadgets which keep on emerging every day. Along with it, you need to improve intellectually as well. Being a teacher does not mean you've stopped learning yourself. You learn even when you are teaching in class. But that's 'learn to teach', what I want to focus here is to continue your regular studies. Masters degree is nothing today. Hundreds of universities across this country produce thousands of masters degree holders every year. So you are no exception. For improvement, to be exceptional, to be better, you will have to pursue for higher studies. When I see for myself, I have a plan for PhD and Post Doctorate (if possible) in next 5 to 10 years. You should also plan for yourself that what you want to get more along with your masters/ graduation degree.
• Reflection and Hope are two elements which are crucial for career advancement. You should, after a reasonable period of time e.g. 1 year, reflect on your previous time, sit and think about it. What have you gained, what have you lost and where did you overestimate about yourself. Hope is something which keeps you alive, and urges you to move forward. Never let the hope die. Because time is meant to change. Today if something is unfavourable, it wouldn't be so for long. In past 1 year, I always hoped for the best, that I would be no longer in that miserable school. (That's a different story how 1 year teaching in school benefited me and on what cost). But I never let the hope die. I had an urge that after some time I'll move forward. And to remind myself of this, I thought myself as water in a pond, which if stays long in the pond will grow algae in it. So I constantly reminded myself that if I stayed there for long, I'll rot and corrupt myself, because I've never seen myself as a school teacher. At least what I can bear for myself is a university lecturer. But to get this goal, I've to struggle and work hard, measure each and every step, move forward bit by bit, be patient, and keep on getting expertise in terms of education and experience of the field. Then with the Grace of Almighty, soon enough I'll see myself on the desired goal. And perhaps I wouldn't stop there as well, and will set new goals for myself.

So folks keep on moving, never stop and never let the hope die, plan well, be positive and patient, and keep my company ;-). You'll keep hearing such babbling from me in future as well. And your comments are absolutely desired. Correct me if I am wrong at some point, suggest a better way and add in, if I forgot something. What I said was just my experience, maybe you've something better to share.

What to do after a linguistics degree

I’ve been tempted to write something for youngsters who have just completed their degree in linguistics from GCUF and now angry from the whole world about their fate.

There are some problems, no one has denied that. For example linguistics graduates (MSC Applied Linguistics) cannot apply for PCS Lecturers seats. The problem is because PCS only considers MA English in this regard. The solution is to change the name of the degree as BZU Multan, Islamia University Bahawalpur and UMT Lahore did. They have these programs for longer time as compared to GCUF, their students faced the problem and they have made appropriate changes to compensate. As per my knowledge the same is going to happen in GCUF. The degree name would be changed to MA English (Specialization in Linguistics). There would be a few basic courses of literature as well, to give a general idea of English literature to language students.

But the changes are being made as of 2011. The masters program started in 2007 with first batch in 2009, so there are three batches out with degrees. They are at a loss this way. But solution is there, only that it would take some time, and some effort. We, the old students from Applied Linguistics with MSc degrees are going to apply for PCS. We know that we’ll be refused. Then we’ll go to Supreme Court filing a Writ Petition. This way we would request the court to: instruct the university to change the degree name for old students; instruct PCS to allow us the right of application.

Pretty much clean and simple solution eh? Everything perfect and smooth. But that’s not the case. Firstly do not expect that you’ll be granted whatsoever you want. Secondly do not expect that you will get a job in PCS even if you have got the permission to apply. There are less than 250 seats from all over Punjab and thousands of degree holders are waiting for an opportunity. So only the best and fortunate will be selected. Now there are two ways:

• Sit down and start grumbling about the conspiracies, injustice, misguidance done to you by the world, the seniors, the university, the department and the teachers.

OR

• Start building your career by gaining experience and getting what you lack at this moment. So if you want to grumble the floor is open start is right now, if you want second option stay with me.

As a linguistics graduate your plus point is that you know how to teach English. You are not merely having a degree in literature which teaches you old English Drama, Novel, Poetry. It does not teach you “how to teach”. But you have to figure it out yourself. So use this plus point, don’t degrade yourself and start building your career. Let me start with myself. I never expected to be a super hero after getting highest grades in masters. I know life does not yield so easily, you have to be so lucky to gain such a favor. So in the meantime select an alternative path for yourself and start acting on it.

1. Create your CV. A simple 1 pager which would tell what is your qualification and areas of specialisation. I’ve a few samples, drop your email in comments or through Contact Me page, and I’ll forward you the CV samples.
2. Get copies of all of your documents. Attach them to 1 copy of CV and make bundles.
3. Drop in all good institutions of your city. At this moment your target can be Beacon House, The City, Little Angels, The Educators, Lahore Grammar School, and for colleges almost every private college. And be quick because the session is going to start and they need teachers.
4. If you get a job this would teach you how to behave in professional environment, deal with parents, deal with students and you’ll get experience.
5. There is a program for Trainee Teachers in Govt. Colleges. Several of your seniors has been benefited from it. It gives you a reasonable salary as well as experience of teaching at college level. Aisha Chouhdary (BS 2006-10) worked in this position at a govt. college, Sadaf Maqsoof from MSC 2008-10 i.e. my class fellow, worked at a govt. college in her city. From MSc 2009-11 Berg-e-Hina is selected as a trainee teacher at a govt. college in her city, Tahir Imran from BS 2007-11 has been selected in Govt. College of Commerce Faisalabad (he informed me today). And Mudasir, one of my class fellows, secured a similar job at Govt. College Samanabad. But don’t be so excited, the opportunity is over for this year. The interviews held on 19 August, 2011. Like you, I got this news after 4 days and regretted not applying for a college trainee teacher job. But never mind, better luck next time (next year actually). Keep an eye on the newspapers in this regard.
6. Make a habit to read news papers and find job adds. Make a habit to apply for jobs.
7. You want to pursue for CSS, and regretting not having read literature in your masters degree? MA English Literature course is available in market, buy books and start reading works of Shakespeare, Novels and Poetry so you may have some idea of literature. Remember reading is a habit, good books always provide you something. So start reading while you have sometime before getting a job. And who knows while reading the books casually, you decide to go for another MA i.e. MA English. Personally I would like to have a Post Graduate Diploma in English Literature in next years of my life so that I can compensate for not reading literature. But it does not mean I do not read now. I read but my taste is a bit different. I like to read Fantasy and Science Fiction and so far have listened audio books of Harry Potter, Wheel of Time, Codex Alera. Roughly they make 30 books.
8. Be in touch in HEC and see for any foreign scholarships.
9. Pursue for M Phil in Applied Linguistics if you want to go forward for University Jobs. I’ve a similar plan as well.
10. And thank ALLAH for what he has granted you. See what you have now, see around yourself to realize how you are blessed. Even you existence is a blessing. Its you who can make your life heaven or hell. By fretting you’ll make your life hell and nothing would change around your. By Thanking ALLAH you will be obliging for what HE has given you. It will create a positive attitude and give you strength to move forward.

May ALLAH bless us all.

How to make your blog SEO UN-friendly

1. Use a theme which is unreadable by occasional reader of your blog. Use a colour combination that is impossible to read e.g. Dark Blue over a Dark Background.
2. Never place a navigation pane on your blog. It may help the user to jump from post to post and browse your blog easily.
3. Never add social sharing buttons. They might help increase your blog traffic by socializing.
4. Never submit your blog to any search engine.
5. Write your posts in یل بللڑ (Yall balallar) words i.e. obscure and if possible non English words, that reader may not understand what the hell you wanna say.
6. Your blog title must not tell what your blog is about.
7. Your post title should have least connection to post content.
8. Write your posts in long single shot mode with no paragraph breaks. This way your reader will not be able to dive into your post and understand what you wanna say.
9. Disallow comments, trackbacks and pingbacks. They can harm your blog by increase the traffic and by creating user interaction.
10. Never mention your blog URL when commenting on other blogs.
11. Never try to socialize with other bloggers. Do not attend blog summits. Instead stay home, cheer and relax.
12. Never submit your blog address to a blog directory and a feed aggregator. It might increase your blog traffic.
13. Never add an About page.
14. Never add a Contact Me page.
15. Never answer emails from users if they fortunately find your email ID.

Misguided Attitude of our Students about Professional Life

He blames me of misguiding him. He thinks that his degree is a piece of s**t, wastage of money and time, killer of the hopes of his parents. And for this he blames me, because as a senior I motivated them to continue their career in linguistics, because I told them that linguistics was going to have a bright future. So he blames me for all that. But you, the reader, be just, and tell me. Was I wrong doing so? But first of all let me explain in detail so you may understand what do I mean when I say “he blames me”.

I was one of the lost children of my nation who didn't know where to go, what to do, what is the career, how to move in life, how to plan for future, what would be the consequences of studying science, arts or commerce. I studied science in matric because “intelligent” students were supposed to study science. It was in fashion, and as I was unfortunately considered an “intelligent” student I opted for science. Thank God there were no further choices in science, it was just Biology, Chemistry, Physics with Maths as compulsory subject. I studied and got good marks, 79% actually.

When I encountered a college first time in my life, and got prospectus again I was confused to select. My friend, actually best friend at that time, was opting for science and per-engineering (Physics, Chemistry, Maths). So I opted for science as well as per-engineering. Science because I had started thinking myself “intelligent” and per-engineering because my friend was also opting for it. That's another story that our sections were separate, we just met in the morning we were coming to college or in afternoon while going home on bicycles. My performance was rather poor in intermediate and I only managed to get 62% something marks.

Two years passed like two minutes and again I was standing there, thinking what to do next. I was not “intelligent” as I used to be. I had financial issues in front of me. My friends moved to engineering, telecommunication, repeating intermediate examination to get good marks and so to get admission in engineering university. I was left behind, thinking what to do. Then someone told me opt commerce subjects in graduation. And I did. I'd never studied commerce in my life. There were subject choice available in intermediate named Intermediate in Commerce (I. Com.) but as I had studied science, there was a little problem for me. But I got it as a challenge. I worked a bit harder, and tried to get good marks in Bachelors of Commerce (B. Com.) part 1, 62% actually. I found in this period that accounts, commerce, business, economics were not that difficult as they looked like. In second part, however, I couldn't maintain my percentage and finally I could barely secure 60% i.e. first division.

I was thinking myself to be a teacher somewhere in some college, teaching commerce. So my intention was to pursue for M. Com. (thank God I was a little bit clear about my career after 20 years of my life). But this was not the case with fate. My fate led me to Linguistics. It was really ironic for me when I was informed that I couldn't get admission in M. Com. at Govt. College University, Faisalabad. The Commerce Department had conducted test plus interview. I passed test, and they failed me in interview with 0 mark. If they had given me 1 mark, I was in. But I couldn't get admission because there was someone else who had a giant behind himself endorsing him for admission. So I, a refused Shakir, turned to Allama Iqbal Open University for MBA, and started looking for jobs. What kind of Jobs? Job was to get a home tuition, to teach in an academy, to work with someone as a computer assistant.

I did these jobs for a few months. As mentioned earlier, I was working as a computer assistant with someone. And here happened the most ironic twist of my life. The people I was working with as assistant (now my teachers) convinced me to leave commerce and study linguistics. OHH MY GOD :-@. Can someone has such a twisted educational path as I have? But I accepted that and 3rd time in my life changed my field Science > Commerce > Linguistics. So I worked for them in the morning, and took classes in the evening. It was not a regular program, just a post graduate diploma in which I was granted admission on continuous insistence of the teachers I was working with. Other member of the Department of English, including the head weren't convinced that I could be allowed to study English Language Teaching. But I did it, I got admission, I completed the degree.

Here, before coming to this degree, for the first time in my life, I was crystal clear. I knew where I've to go. I had a path in front of me. I knew that there was not going back. I had burned my boats. I was now a linguistics learner for whole of my life. My job was to teach English, research on Urdu and Punjabi and translate (as I later became). I had started a 10 year plan for my life. Because PGD was not enough, so after PGD, I went for MSc in 2008. In the mean time, thanks to a very kind person, Talmeez, as I mentioned above, I started working as translator. With the passage of time I got better, my interests developed in corpus linguistics, computer assisted linguistic research, computer assisted language teaching, research on Urdu and Punjabi. And now I am here, after one year of my masters, seeking to get admission in M Phil, working as a translator, having worked as a teacher for 1 year, looking forward to PhD.

And now, today, he says to me that I betrayed him. He thinks his education is just a piece of s**t and I am one of the responsibles. But how he can blame me for all this? Hadn't he a mind in his head? Couldn't he think of a better way at the time of admission? The reality is that he was like me, like one of thousands of students who are left behind, because they are not “intelligent” so they can't study science and can't be doctors or engineers. So they move to arts, they complete BA, then they move to specific areas of arts, Sociology, Psychology, Islamic Studies, Business, and English (to include now Linguistics as well) etc. They don't know where to got, they just follow others, sometimes they seek some department to get admission in because their marks are not enough for merit in certain other departments. We faced this dilemma for last several years in Applied Linguistics Department. Students who came here for admission had lowest grades, no idea to move where to, seeking for some magic degree which could give them employment. We as old students motivated them, told them about the benefits they could get after becoming a linguist, ones who convinced took admission and got degree. And now one of them blames me. Is he right doing this?

Sir Asim used to tell that Winners have place in linguistics not Loosers. So I ask them all, are they winners? Are they having something in them? Any spark? Good grades? Abilities? Motivation? Courage? Patience? If they don't have all this, then they should blame all of the world which is against them.

Our students need to realise the world is not a bed of roses. They think that every thing would be just fine once they get the degree. The employer will be standing at front door of their house requesting them to honour him by joining his organisation. This is not a Utopia, an ideal world. This is real life with all cold bitter harsh realities of life. You have to struggle, you have to be a winner, if you are not, you have no place here. I would suggest my juniors do not expect miracles for themselves. 1400 years ago Angels have stopped coming to this world to create miracles, now we are on our own. You should have faith in Allah, thankfulness for what He has given you, and courage to struggle patiently. This is not the end, this is beginning of a new degree, Masters in Life. Here you will learn for all of your life, you will get good grades only if you are capable. And remember in the tests of life, there is least chance of cheating. May Allah be with you all.

SEO or Spam Generation?

I've never been able to agree with SEO strategies the 'experts' use to promote websites. Perhaps I am not even a person who can talk about it due to lack on knowledge. But in last 5 years, being online I've heard, read and seen a few things about it. You have to build links and back links. You do it by providing your link to website directories, forums, by commenting on different blogs etc. You write articles about something and publish them in article directories with carefully adding you own website link as well. And what does people do? They go to a blog, "its very good" paste their link and run away. I hate such comments. They write rubbish content, non standard language in the name of article writing, insert a link and put in an article directory which is already full of such crap. When a user will go to Google to search a query, he will come across such directory articles on the topic he was searching. But what is the worth of such topic? Same things said in a different way, to avoid search engine plagiarism detection, sub standard language and content which is produced by someone at $1 per article, what can someone expect from it? So the user disappoints because the article is not helpful, rather it embraces him. I always hated such search results who come to my screen while searching useful content. The webmasters are creating spam, loading internet with tonnes of unnecessary, crap, spam data and there are websites who are happy to store it, show it in their showcase, and there are search engines who are happy to dive again and again in this pool of stenchy water to pull out this crap again and again. What are we collecting in the name of information? How much of today's Tera Byte data is useful and not the regeneration of same old crap, repetition of same thoughts again and again, a mixture of 10 similar articles in 1? I really wonder.