Christine Jalleh

Actually, that was the initial title for my article in the The Star’s “Mind Our English” column but it’s such a clichéd phrase, I decided to go for Foodalicious Phrases (I have a penchant for alliteration and assonance).

In the end, the editor decided on The Whole Enchilada, which is fine by me

I looked through my photo archives for a juicy, mouth-watering shot of an enchilada but couldn’t find any. It’s one of my favourite foods – I must remember to take a shot the next time BEFORE I eat it!

Here’s one taken from PreparednessPro (an interesting blog about being prepared for anything!)

Read on…

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There is a wealth of food-related phrases that add flavour to the English language.

WITH ayam percik, roti jala, nasi kerabu, ikan bakar, lotus paste mooncakes with golden egg yolks, murukku, vadai, laddu, thosai with tomato chutney still fresh on my tastebuds (and thoughts), various food-related phrases come to my mind.

The English language has sprinkles and dashes of foodie phrases which may or may not be related to food at all. As a firm believer in a balanced diet, I would like to share with readers some morsels (or metaphors) for you to chew on.

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Writing my recent article on “Effective Emails”, I’m struck by this quote from Plato:

“Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something.”

In today’s click-happy, high-tech world where anyone and everyone has something to say (or blog or Tweet), it’s easy to send out too many messages…and have those messages get lost in the masses.

Are we in danger of doing that sometimes, especially for emails? Yes or no, it’s still good to refer to a checklist just before you hit that that “SEND” button.

As usual, here’s my article in full, which originally appeared in The Star’s “Mind Our English” column on August 19, 2009.

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ACCORDING to technology market research firm, The Radicati Group, an average of 210 e-mails are sent per day with business users sending and receiving about 156 e-mails per day (reported in August 2008).

The majority is spam, which still leaves an average of sixty-plus e-mails flooding your inbox every day.

With 1.3 billion e-mail users worldwide, it isn’t surprising to hear people state: “I’m buried in e-mails at the moment.” Despite this, Dr Sara Radicati, president and CEO of the The Radicati Group, still believes that “e-mail saves time”.

And why not? No matter where you are, no matter what time of the day it is, and no matter what you may be doing, you can still receive and send messages at the click of a mouse to one or thousands within your network.

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This article appeared in The Star’s “Mind Our English” column yesterday, which was the last issue edited by Kee Thuan Chye, who “manned” the column for the past eight years. (Read his farewell note ‘Goodbye and thank you‘.)

It has been a pleasure working with Mr. Kee and I know we won’t be seeing the last of him even though he’ll no longer be with MOE. Looking forward to working with the new editor

In the meantime, enjoy these light servings from the Land of Milk and Honey:

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GROWING up on a rich diet of British English through Enid Blyton, The Sullivans and Mind Your Language, my exposure to American English was limited to TV shows like The Cosby Show, Three’s Company or Eight Is Enough. As enjoyable as these shows were, they rarely included conversations about work.

Years later when I started working for an American and later an American organisation and participated in meetings or teleconferences with American colleagues, I was perplexed by the unfamiliar phrases used in our discussions.

If you’re in the dark like I was, here’s some light on these American mysteries.

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