Learning Mandarin

I have been learning how to speak Mandarin in the past few months and I would like to share my experience regarding this. At first I planned to join some Mandarin Speaking Classes conducting at my neighbourhood community centre. By the way I am blogging from Singapore. But I was told by a friend that he faced some problems trying to understand the tearcher's English. Thus I decided to learn it on my own using CD-ROM course for Mandarin and I bought some CDs from Kinokuniya BookStore which I think will be suitable for me. The first few brands did not really work on someone like me who do not have prior knowledge about the language. We (the cds and me) just did not click each other.

But the current one I am using has been of great help to my Mandarin Learning Curve. The program started from basic and simple lessons to advanced ones in a very organized and detailed manner. The way it introduces the language to the user and the way it explans things are quite understandable. I think this is especially suitable for us who did not know abc about Mandarin. If you are interested in it, you can check it out here. I hope to hear your comments and opinion.

Happy Mandarin learning!


Note: I found the image I am using in this post from Google Image Search. The copyrights of the image remain with the original creator.

AdSense Misery

I could not post more than 3 ads in this blog and was confused. With the help of a google search, here is the solution I found out in google's adsense help centre.

Aid for an ACCA F3 Student II

If you are a student accoutant currently studying ACCA F3 Financial Accouting, I hope this post has got something helpful for you. If you are an experienced accountant, well i guess the topic in this post will be something trivial to you.

When I first started learning about double-entry bookkeeping, I had a little trouble trying to decide whether accounting item should be in debit or credit. For example , if the business purchases a motor vehicle by cash , I know that the two accouting items are motor vehicle and cash, but I couldn't easily decide which is debit or which is credit.

So I tried to get a way to easily identify this and I got myself this easy way as follows.

************
****AID****
****EID****
************

That means if Asset Increases, it is Debit. Likewise, if Expense Increases, it is Debit.
Since we only have Assets, Liability, Capital, Income and Expenses, if the rest of them increases, it is a liability. Let's re-use the example above. If the business purchases a motor vehicle by cash, the two accounting items are motor vehicle and cash. In this case, we know that both a motor vehicle and cash are assets. We also know that motor vehicle increases, so it is debit(AID), but as for cash, it decreases and it is credit.

So we get ourselves as follows:
Dr Motor Vehicle 3000
Cr Cash 3000

Hope this helps you.

Cool Joke

The following post is from my friend's blog: michaelsync.net. I really liked this joke and hope you guys like it too.

Title: Young and pretty lady wishes to marry a rich guy. Fantastic reply from a financial person

A young and pretty lady posted this on a popular forum:

Title: What should I do to marry a rich guy?

I’m going to be honest of what I’m going to say here. I’m 25 this year. I’m very pretty, have style and good taste. I wish to marry a guy with $500k annual salary or above. You might say that I’m greedy, but an annual salary of $1M is considered only as middle class in New York. My requirement is not high. Is there anyone in this forum who has an income of $500k annual salary? Are you all married? I wanted to ask: what should I do to marry rich persons like you? Among those I’ve dated, the richest is $250k annual income, and it seems that this is my upper limit. If someone is going to move into high cost residential area on the west of New York City Garden (?), $250k annual income is not enough.

I’m here humbly to ask a few questions:

1) Where do most rich bachelors hang out? (Please list down the names and addresses of bars, restaurant, gym)
2) Which age group should I target?
3) Why most wives of the riches is only average-looking? I’ve met a few girls who doesn’t have looks and are not interesting, but they are able to marry rich guys
4) How do you decide who can be your wife, and who can only be your girlfriend? (my target now is to get married)

Ms. Pretty
**************

Here’s a reply from a Wall Street Financial guy:

Dear Ms. Pretty,

I have read your post with great interest. Guess there are lots of girls out there who have similar questions like yours. Please allow me to analyze your situation as a professional investor. My annual income is more than $500k, which meets your requirement, so I hope everyone believes that I’m not wasting time here.

From the standpoint of a business person, it is a bad decision to marry you. The answer is very simple, so let me explain. Put the details aside, what you’re trying to do is an exchange of ‘beauty’ and ‘money’: Person A provides beauty, and Person B pays for it, fair and square. However, there’s a deadly problem here, your beauty will fade, but my money will not be gone without any good reason. The fact is, my income might increase from year to year, but you can’t be prettier year after year. Hence from the viewpoint of economics, I am an appreciation asset, and you are a depreciation asset. It’s not just normal depreciation, but exponential depreciation. If that is your only asset, your value will be much worried 10 years later.

By the terms we use in Wall Street, every trading has a position, dating with you is also a ‘trading position’. If the trade value dropped we will sell it and it is not a good idea to keep it for long term, same goes with the marriage that you wanted. It might be cruel to say this, but in order to make a wiser decision any assets with great depreciation value will be sold or ‘leased’. Anyone with over $500k annual income is not a fool; we would only date you, but will not marry you. I would advice that you forget looking for any clues to marry a rich guy. And by the way, you could make yourself to become a rich person with $500k annual income. This has better chance than finding a rich fool.

Hope this reply helps. If you are interested in ‘leasing’ services, do contact me.

signed, J.P. Morgan

ACCA F1 Exam Experience

I attempted ACCA F1(Accountant in Business) exam in december 2007. What surprised me the most is that quite a number of exam questions are based on the knowledge which I have never studied before. To be honest, I diligently studied Kaplan textbook for this module. It actually covers quite a lot of topics in its 600 over pages altogether but i feel it does notcover enough topics for the exam. I have checked with my friends who attempted the same exam and they did have problems too.


Many questions that came across my mind during or right after the exam.

• Are those exam questions which I did not know how to answer really in the context of the syllabus?
• If they are not, what is the purpose of the examiner?
• If they are, why Kaplan textbook does not cover them?
• Is an acca student supposed to study more than one textbook?
  

I attempted f1, f2 and f3 in december 2007 and my expectation before the exam was that f1 would be the easiest among them but it turned out to be totally wrong. Well that is the case with me at least!

Aid for an ACCA F3 Student I

The difference between having an easy life studying ACCA F3 and the tough struggle againt it mainly depends on your understanding about one of the most basic accounting concept named double entry accounting. Although, at times, this might seem quite trivial to some people, I firmly believe that the understanding of this is the most basic and the most important step to take for every student accountant before embarking the journey of financial accounting. Let's dig in a litter deeper into what I am talking about.

Double Entry Concept

Each transaction that a business enters into affects the financial statements in two ways; e.g, a business buys a building for cash. This transaction have two effects on the financial statements.

1. There is an increase in buildings.
2.There is a decrease in cash.

To follow the rules of double entry bookkeeping, each time a transaction is recorded, both effects must be taken into account. These two effects are equal and opposite such that the accounting equation ' Assets - Liability = Capital' will always prove correct. Traditionally one effect is referred to as the debit side and the other as the credit side of the entry.

A quick reference to wiki about this is here.

Please let me repeat again here. This is one of the most important keys to unlock ACCA F3.

ACCA F2: Formula Guide

Things you should remember before entering the exam hall for ACCA F2 or before you start practicing Past Exam Papers: This is some kinda acca f2 formula guide.


************************************************************************************
Material
************************************************************************************
1) Reorder Level=Maximum Usage * Maximum Lead Time


2)Minimum Stock Level=Reorder Level - (Average Usage * Average Lead Time)


3)Maximum Stock Level=Reorder Level + Reorder Quantity - (Minimum Usage * Minimum Lead Time)
************************************************************************************
************************************************************************************



************************************************************************************
Variance
************************************************************************************
4)Sales Margin Price Variance is the difference between a and b.

a. Actual Sales Qty x Actual Selling Price
b. Actual Sales Qty x Standard Selling Price


5)Sales Margin Volume Variance in Absorption Costing is the difference between a and b.

a. Actual Sales Qty x Standard Profit Margin
b. Standard Sales Qty x Standard Profit Margin



6)Sales Margin Volume Variance in Marginal Costing is the difference between a and b.

a. Actual Sales Qty x Standard Contribution
b. Standard Sales Qty x Standard Contribution


7)Material Price Variance is the difference between a and b.

a. Actual Qty Purchased x Actual Price
b. Actual Qty Purchased x Standard Price


8)Material Usage Variance is the difference between a and b.

a. Actual Qty Usage x Standard Price
b. Standard Usage for Actual Production x Standard Price


9)Labor Rate Variance is the difference between a and b.

a. Actual Hours Paid x Actual Rate
b. Actual Hours Paid x Standard Rate


10)Labor Efficiency Variance is the difference between a and b.

a. Actual Hours Worked x Standard Rate
b. Standard Hours for Actual Production x Standard Rate


11)Variable Overhead Expenditure Variance is the difference between a and b.

a. Actual Variable Overhead
b. Actual Hours Worked x VOAR


12)Variable Overhead Efficiency Variance is the difference between a and b.

a. Actual Hours Worked x VOAR
b. Standard Hours for Actual Production x VOAR


13)Fixed Overhead Expenditure Variance is the difference between a and b.

a. Actual Fixed Overhead
b. Budgeted Fixed Overhead


14)Fixed Overhead Capacity Variance is the difference between a and b.

a. Budgeted Fixed Overhead
b. Actual Hours Worked x FOAR


15)Fixed Overhead Efficiency Variance is the difference between a and b.

a. Actual Hours Worked x FOAR
b. Standard Hours for Actual Production x FOAR

************************************************************************************
************************************************************************************



************************************************************************************
Labor
************************************************************************************
16)Halsey's Scheme to calculate bonus.

Time Allowed - Time Taken
-----------------------------
2


17)Rowan's Scheme to calculate bonus.

Time Taken
----------------- x Time Saved x Time Rate
Time Allowed
************************************************************************************
************************************************************************************



************************************************************************************
Cost-Volume-Profit Analysis
************************************************************************************
18) C\S Ratio

Contribution per unit
------------------------
Selling price per unit


19) BEP(units)

Fixed Cost
-------------------------
Contribution Per unit


20)BEP($)

Fixed Cost
-------------
C/S Ratio


21)MOS($)=Budgeted Revenue - BEP($)


22)MOS(units)=Budged Sales Units - BEP(units)


23)MOS(%)

Budgeted Sales - BEP Sales
--------------------------------- x 100
Budgeted Sales


24)Target Sales Units

Fixed Cost + Target Profit
------------------------------
Contribution per unit
************************************************************************************
************************************************************************************

The Joy of Tech III

The Joy of Tech II

The Joy of Tech I

Good Partner I

Good Partner II

Corporate Lesson V

A turkey was chatting with a bull. "I would love to be able to get to the top of that tree," sighed the turkey, but I haven't got the energy." "Well, why don't you nibble on my droppings?" replied the bull. "They're packed with nutrients." The turkey pecked at a lump of dung and found that it gave him enough strength to reach the lowest branch of the tree. The next day, after eating some more dung, he reached the second branch. Finally after a fourth night, there he was proudly perched at the top of the tree. Soon he was spotted by a farmer, who shot the turkey out of the tree.

Moral of the story: Bullshit might get you to the top, but it won't keep you there.

Corporate Lesson IV

A crow was sitting on a tree, doing nothing all day. A rabbit asked him, "Can I also sit like you and do nothing all day long?" The crow answered: "Sure, why not." So, the rabbit sat on the ground below the crow, and rested. A fox jumped on the rabbit and ate it.

Moral of the story: To be sitting and doing nothing, you must be sitting very high up.

Corporate Lesson III

A sales rep, an administration clerk, and the manager are walking to lunch when they find an antique oil lamp. They rub it and a Genie comes out. The Genie says, "I'll give each of you just one wish." "Me first! Me first!" says the admin clerk. "I want to be in the Bahamas, driving a speedboat, without a care in the world." Poof! She's gone.” Me next! Me next!" says the sales rep. "I want to be in Hawaii, relaxing on the beach with my personal masseuse, an endless supply of Pina Coladas and the love of my life." Poof! He's gone. "OK, you're up," the Genie says to the manager. The manager says, "I want those two back in the office after lunch."

Moral of the story: Always let your boss have the first say.

Corporate Lesson II

A priest offered a lift to a Nun. She got in and crossed her legs, forcing her gown to reveal a leg. The priest nearly had an accident. After controlling the car, he stealthily slid his hand up her leg. The nun said, "Father, remember Psalm 129?" The priest removed his hand. But, changing gears, he let his hand slide up her leg again. The nun once again said, "Father, remember Psalm 129?" The priest apologized "Sorry sister but the flesh is weak." Arriving at the convent, the nun went on her way. On his arrival at the church, the priest rushed to look up Psalm 129. It said, "Go forth and seek, further up, you will find glory."

Moral of the story: If you are not well informed in your job, you might miss a great opportunity.

Corporate Lesson I

A man is getting into the shower just as his wife is finishing up her shower when the doorbell rings. The wife quickly wraps herself in a towel and runs downstairs. When she opens the door, there stands Bob, the next door neighbor. Before she says a word, Bob says, "I'll give you $800 to drop that towel." After thinking for a moment, the woman drops her towel and stands naked in front of Bob. After a few seconds, Bob hands her $800 dollars and leaves. The woman wraps back up in the towel and goes back upstairs. When she gets to the bathroom, her husband asks, "Who was that?" "It was Bob the next door neighbor," she replies. "Great!" the husband says, "Did he say anything about the $800 he owes me?"

Moral of the story: If you share critical information pertaining to credit and risk with your shareholders in time, you may be in a position to prevent avoidable exposure.

The GodFather 1972

One of the best movies i ever watched so far. I love the storyline and the characters. This really is a true drama with some gunshots , some insights into American gang culture, revenge, family ties, success and business dealings.

Check this out in wiki here.












Note: I found the image I am using in this post from Google Image Search. The copyrights of the image remain with the original creator.