Worst case scenario for love-seeking men

It took him 2 years to realise that the current one is not the right one.
It took him 5 years to realise that the first one is the right one.
It took him his entire life to realise that all of the above is wrong.

Power and responsibility

"With great power comes great responsibility" - Spiderman
"With no power comes no responsibility" - Kickass

A gifted child...

Son: Dad, I want to quit school.

Me: What?! But why?

Son: School is so boring. They are teaching calculus, which I already knew since I was 6, and they are still learning Newtonian physics. When are they going to start on quantum mechanics?

Me: Yes, you are a gifted child. But do stay in school, dear. If you find the academic side of the school is boring, try joining student organisations, like the Chinese Language Society or debate team.

Son: Like what you did when you attended high school?

Me: Yes. You can learn about people relationship, people management, organisational skills but most of all it is fun! You could also do some charity work in the local community. By helping the poor and the weak, you get to see things from other people's point of view and it will change your life. You could also play some games, mix with people, go after girls, you know, those things that other high school boys do?! (laugh)

Son: But what's the point?

Me: What's the point of going after girls? (*Gasp*)

Son: No, dad. (=.= "') I know about going after girls. I meant, what's the point of learning people skills, etc ...

Me: Great to hear you are interested in girls already (*wink*). Well, there's a lot more to school than just knowledge, you know. And that's certainly true as well when you step into the society to work, which will happen soon enough. To make the right decision, you must learn how to appreciate the people around you, the culture and history. To realise a plan, you must make people to work with you. You don't expect to get everything done by yourself, do you?

Son: Didnt' Einstein developed theory of relativity all by himself?

Me: No. First of all, without Newton and all the subsequent scientist's groundbreaking work in gravity, there would be no theory of relativity. They were the necessary foundation to Einstein's work. Let's not forget that he had to rely on Eddington to verify his theory. And most important of all, Einstein was not just a physicist, he was also actively involved in politics and was influential in both the World War 1 and 2.

Son: Really? I see.

Me: Your knowledge must have a positive impact to yourself, to the people around you and ultimately to humanity, but you would not be able to do that if you do not first appreciate and respect the people around you. What good is knowledge if it doesn't help yourself and those around you?

Son: Does it always come in that order? Self, people around me, and then humanity? Sounds a bit far-fetched don't you think? Humanity, eh?

Me: Your sphere of influence grows in that order - you first influence yourself, the people around you and then, if you are lucky, humanity. But the importance is in the reverse order. Always place others before yourself. You will never know though, that some day you may be some one great and influential. But even if you are not the leader of the world, you are always important to me, to your family and those around you.

Son: Thanks dad.

Me: You are welcome. Remember, stay in school. Spend the extra time with friends and learn more about people, it's much more complex than quantum mechanics and string theory, trust me on it. There's no hurry in learning quantum physics and string theory. You can always accelerate your academic skills after high school when you start your university education. So what do you think? You feel better about school now?

Son: I guess so. I will check out the notice board tomorrow to see if any student project interests me.

Me: Good. Now, go out and play with your friends.

Son: OK. But I think I would go to my room and finish the book "The strange theory of light and matter" by Feynman. I am already at the last chapter. Love you, dad.

Me: Love you too.

Allah must be laughing now...

Allah (whichever God you might refer to) must be laughing so hard now that His teeth is falling off from the sky in the form of meteor showers tonight.

I am pretty sure Allah can understand more than one language, so He must be bemused by the people who are worried that He could not understand you if you do not address Him in the right language. He must be even more bemused that some of His followers actually got confused when a different name is used to call Him.

I am neither Christian nor Muslim, but I am pretty sure that "what is the correct name to call Me" is the last priority for God's teachings. If it isn't, you should reconsider your religion because it sounds too damn easy to go to heaven.

Certain quarters of Christians and Muslims felt insulted. I think Allah aka Tuhan aka God should be the one that feels most insulted because of all His teachings passed down over the centuries, we were most concerned with what to call Him. I am sure this make a heck of a religion.

My mentor in high school once told me this, "There will always be problems in your life. A beggar and a businessman millionaire have the same number of problems. But the level of problems faced by these two people is what distinguished them. One is of higher stature, the other is not..." I cannot help but to think that this applies to religion too.

(in reference to the recent uproar by some Malaysian Muslims against the usage of 'Allah' by Christians to refer to the Christian God)

The End of Days

Ever since the premiere of 2012, everyone seems to be blogging about the end of days.

Most of them would hope to share the last moment with their love ones.

But that is only possible, if you remain to be the only person who knows about the end of the days.

If everyone else in the world know that the world is coming to an end, law and order would break down.

Pessimist, you may call me. But that's the truth. If the end of world is broadcasted, then raping, killing and looting and all other unimaginable atrocities will be omni present.

Most people do what they do, or do not do what they do not, because of law and moral obligations. But what good is law and moral, if what you strive so hard to protect is coming to an end anyway?

If no matter what you do, the world is going to end, humans are going to be extinct and that you are not going to survive, what would you do?

You would fulfill your lust, your greed and all other desires that you may have but couldn't have because of the social restrictions.

So, if you knew the end of the days is coming, please do not tell. You will only bring the end of the world earlier than what it is suppose to be.

A tribute to Yasmin Ahmad...R.I.P.

I can't believe this!! Just a few hours ago, Yasmin Ahmad has passed away.

I grew up watching her ads. And they have touched me, taught me and entertained me countless of times. I've used her ads for my one of my post here. The ads always convey a simple philosophical point, but yet these philosophies are so simple that they often slips our mind amidst our busy modern life pursuing money and fame. Her ads, especially during CNY and Hari Raya, have never failed to get us in the mood and give us a good laugh.

And her movies - Sepet and Gubra have no doubt brought many different races in Malaysia together.

She has done more to the unity of Malaysia than our UMNO govt. and it is a great loss to Malaysia that she has passed away. Let's pay tribute to a great Malaysian.

Below here are some of the ads directed by her.

Funeral - Ironically, I think this is the best ad she has made, which is also hyperlinked above. Must see!

Merdeka Sunat - Who can forget this Sunat ad? For those who doesn't know what 'sunat' means, it means circumcision!! I love the last part, "Ada kasi balik a?" "Eh boleh tengok a?" "Aku sepak a..."

How do you spell dinosaur? - "Race? What is race? race car ah?". Kids know no race. Well said!

CNY Old folk's home - This has to be one of the best CNY ads I've ever seen. For those of you who are busy out there pursuing your dreams, don't forget your parents back at home!

CNY ad - The last scene reminds me of the good old days when my dad would brought 'tonnes' of durians back from Terengganu and we will open it one by one in our living hall. We will try to locate the position to split open these thorny fruits. Not only does it taste good, it was fun too. These days, durians are sold in packages - where's the fun in it?

Iklan Raya - it reminded me. when i was still young, watching a movie, i would always ask my parents 100000 times why this character this and why that character that and is he still alive and why did he died, etc. Now that i've grown up, I sometimes lose that patience when my parents ask me the EXACT same question.

R.I.P. Yasmin Ahmad.

Geniuses don't try.

Geniuses don't try. They just do.
If you are trying, you are not a genius.

That's why I am never one - I try too hard.

In pursuit of happiness...

It's funny that when we pursue happiness, we can sometimes end up being sad. Sometimes, we get happiness by inflicting pain upon others. Happiness, is always about me and the rest of the world.

So, in an attempt to group people based on their methods of pursuing happiness, this is the categories that I came up with:

in order from the most evil and sad cases to the good and saints..



SADIST
Sad people, who not only is himself miserable but makes other people miserable too.
e.g. psychopath, college shooting in the U.S., parents who kill their own children when they divorce, people who hurt their ex girl-friend or ex boy-friend when they breakup.
*Only in small amounts but these people always make the headlines.

SLUMDOGS
Sad people, who incurs pain upon himself and has no whatsoever influence on anybody else.
e.g. drug addicts, people who live in extreme poverty, suicidal
*Many people on this planet is of this kind. 2nd most.

VILLAIN
Happy people, who makes himself happy by making other people miserable.
e.g. Hitler, Genghis Khan, George W. Bush, the British during colonial times, Japan during WW2.
*usually are those people with enormous amount of power. Fortunately, with enormous amount of power means that these kind of people/entity are usually small in numbers at any given time on this planet. Funny thing is, these people always call themselves a hero.

EARTHLING
Happy people, who himself is happy but has little or no influence on the larger community.
e.g. people who goes to work, comes back home, eats and sleeps, spends time with family, plays games or loves shopping. but doesn't care much or care very little about global and local politics or does not bother to do things to improve the world/community around he/she because he/she would think, "with or without me it doesn't make a difference". All they care about is the people immediately around him/her.
*70% of the population on this planet are of this type.

SAINT
Sad people, who sacrifices himself/herself for the greater good. Thus, making other people happy.
e.g. Ang San Suukyi, Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King, Galileo, YueFei, Tunku Abdul Rahman, Sun Yat-Sen
*These are the people who make it to the annals of our history. Great people whom who talk about for generations to come.
(note: you could claim that these people are 'happy' because they wanted to do it, they were willing and 'happy' to sacrifice themselves. I argue otherwise, because if given a choice, they would have done their great deeds without resorting to sacrifices. Therefore, I categorise them as 'sad'.)

THOU DOES NOT EXIST
Happy people, who himself is happy and is capable and willing to make other people happy too.
*Such person does not exist!!


**Obviously, I'm being a bit pessimist here. There are, of course, happy people who are making many other people happy.*

冲凉

告诉你一个秘密：我不喜欢冲凉/洗澡！

我总觉得冲凉很浪费时间。但是今天不知为何，我打算把我自己洗得干干净净。就这样，在冲凉房里呆了很久。

突然间，在我脑海里出现了一个画面。是一个人在洗澡的画面（不是3级片啦）。那个人是我，是3岁的我。起初，画面是模糊的。经一番努力，不断地往大脑里挖掘后，才发现那个是我爸妈正帮我冲凉的画面。

小孩子总爱玩，不爱冲凉。尽管玩得全身是污垢也觉得自己很干净。妈妈总是喜欢叫我涂上肥皂，然后冲水时叫我留意那个卷入洗水盆的水是多么地肮脏。她会说：“你看！黑黑的。”不知道为什么，觉得这很温馨。忽然间，也开始幻想起我帮我自己的孩子洗澡时的情景会是怎么样。

我觉得帮小孩子冲凉你就会感受到父母的伟大和细心。很多人都会忽略这个看起来很简单而且每天都需要做的动作。但是，仔细想想后，你就会发现这是一个只有你与你最亲密的人才能够一起做的事情。从小到大，教你洗澡的人只有可能是你奶妈，你爸妈或是你自己。学会自己洗澡后（大约3-4岁），你就再也不会跟另一个人一起洗澡--（可能，直到你有女朋友/老婆为止）。可是，那时你已经无法改变你的洗澡习惯了。所以我相信，我们每个人都有独特自己洗澡的方法，而这个方法就是爸妈小时候帮你洗澡时，培养出来的习惯。极有可能，每个人的洗澡习惯都是代代相传的祖宗秘方！

这种记忆一般都埋在我大脑海里的深处，我的意识不容易发现它。况且我本人已经要接近‘3张’，这种3岁的事情为什么会突然浮现我也不清楚。但是随着年龄的增长，人的感触会越来越多，想回往事的频率也越来越高。小孩子期待的是明天，他们不会回想过去。比较年长的我，还会偶尔看看昨天。过去很多看似很琐碎的事，如今回首时却有很多感觉。

最后，我也在想，如果有一天爸妈已经不能自己洗澡时，我又会不会帮他们呢？

The triumph of evil...

Dedicated to the fighters for freedom and democracy in Malaysia:

"All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing"
-Edmund Burke


Shin Liang says, "I am a good man."

trying your best...

God always work in mysterious ways...

If you prayed hard enough,
you might not get what you prayed for,
but you may get what is best for you.

So, as my dad always say, "Try your best, God will do the rest!"

On education and knowledge

Systems and processes are there to prevent our evil;
Education and knowledge are there to bring out the very best in us.
- sl, Nov 2008

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

Systems, like legal systems are there only to prevent us from any wrongdoings and to maintain security. They are the fundamental, but not the pinnacle of human civilisation. Law can be made to prevent people from killing people, but only education and knowledge can make people to love other people.

Processes are there to ensure that organisations will continue to work even when there is a large flux of people coming in or going out. But education and knowledge makes us rethink our processes into better ones.

So, invest in education and knowledge. It's worthwhile.

politicians are like salesperson

I use to think that if you can convince someone, you can be a good politician.

And that if you uphold what is the truth and justice, and use reasons to convince the rest, you will get support.

Then I realised that it's impossible to convince everyone. Even when reasons are crystal clear.

Politics then become something like sales. Out of 10 people you talk to, 1 would 'buy'. You just have to reach out to more people than your competitor to ‘win'.

That probably explains why no matter how hard people is trying to fight for peace and justice, there will always be proponents of war and chaos in the world. There is always a market for the evil things in this world.

winning an argument

"We can never win an argument when we have no common goal."
- sl, Nov 2008


"Only try to win an argument, when winning it means something"
- sl, Nov 2008


********************************************
written after several heated debate with some college kids.

What experience can't tell us?

It is very common that people use their experience to tell us to do something.

Someone once told me, "Look, young man, until you get married you will then know how difficult it is."

My parents told me, "I eat salt more than you eat rice."

When I took on my first job in Maxis, someone told me, "I've been working here for 6 years so don't you try to tell me what to do!"

They all have one thing in common. They are trying to tell me to do something, just because they have the experience.

But having experience, doesn't mean we are right. In fact, it may blind us into believing that we are right. Thus, making us repeating the same wrong thing over and over again.

More appalling so if a MP tries to justifies his/her decision by saying that he/she has been an MP for X number of terms. Just because you've been an MP for a decade, doesn't make you any wiser. Worse, if you've been a BN MP because you've been sticking to the wrong decision for the entire decade.

If the number of terms you are an MP is any indication that your decision is correct, then Samy Velu would be the 'truth'. Then next time when he speaks, you shut up (because it's the 'truth' speaking). Unfortunately (or rather, fortunately) this truth is no longer in the Parliament for this term.

If you do not agree to let Samy Velu take charge, then let's not decide everything on experience alone. Use logic and reasoning.

However, experience is not that useless. What it can tell us is when we are making decision in an ambigious situation. Where we do not know the correct answer, but we know that it lies somewhere between point A and point B. Experience will help us to narrow down the range.

E.g. If marketing tells you that 2000 people would be coming for the MATTA fair at PWTC, would 3 TRX suffice to cater for the GSM traffic? As a fresh engineer, you would try to come out with all types of calculation and engineering maths to justify your decision. But there's too many uncertainties and an exact answer is almost impossible. Experience, however, will tell that 3 TRX will not be sufficient, not in a million years. Besides, marketing's crowd estimation is always wrong.

I'm not saying experience is not important. After all, one of the biggest attack on Obama's campaign from the McCain's side is that Obama lacks experience. So yes, experience does matter, especially when it comes to a leader.

But it can also blind us. Just beware.

Experience doesn't tell us a lot of things. And the last thing it will tell us is the truth. That's the reason for 'emptying your cup', and re-learn!

A better lecturer...

Today, my junior at University of Malaya told me a grim story:

Examination is just round the corner. So after days of studying, he had a list of questions which he wanted to ask the lecturer. However, as he approached the lecturer, he was told by the lecturer, "my consultation fee is MYR500.00 an hour. Are you going to pay me?" Now, to make matters worse, that lecturer happens to be the dean of the faculty.

Funny, I had similar experiences too when I was at UM. I remember during one of the class for 1-st year students on mechanics: one of the students in the class asked, "what is moment of inertia?" The lecturer simply ask the student to push the entrance door and look at how it swung. He then claimed, "that is moment of inertia! Now, if you have vacuum in your brain, please do not ask questions!".

I believe this is not an isolated case, not only in UM, but in local government universities in general.

I am not interested in what has gone wrong, but what we can do to make it right.

We need to educate these people (who is, ironically, working in the education industry). There is need for lecturers not to confine themselves to their own academic world, but to cultivate a passion for teaching as well. To respect the students as much as the students respect you.

There are no doubt some good lecturers, dean and VCs within our local universities. And whenever, these 'good' people found out that bad attitude such as the above is present, they will try to 'educate' those 'bad' people. These 'good' people will emanate an aura that will help to reduce the occurrence of events such as the above.

However, they are the minority and they can only do so much. It is quite impossible that their aura can reach each and every staff of the university to make a significant change. And most critically, good people leave more often than they come.

The key to improvement, I believe, is in setting up a system that 'automates' such an 'education', that is self-sustaining in this sense.

Leading universities in the world like Cambridge, Harvard, Stanford and MIT relies on a strong culture for this 'automation'. Whenever a lecturer behaves out-of-place, students and lecturers alike will condemn him/her because it is just not the norm in that university. Whenever a new lecturer joins the faculty, he/she will be overwhelmed by this culture that 'forces' him/her to change attitude to fit into this group of people.

We do not have such culture here.

Therefore we need another kind of 'system'. Remember those survey forms or questionnaires that we submit at the end of every course? I always wondered what happened to them. Are they processed? What bearing do they have on the appraisal of the lecturer? What if the dean is the one getting 'hit' badly by the students?

The thing is, faculties do not put too much emphasis on those surveys. They are just supplements to 'help' lecturers improve themselves. However, more often than not, the lecturers just turn a deaf ear to them.

I would like to suggest that these surveys be published to students at the notice board, just as the students' exam results would be published. So, not only the students will be judged, so will the lecturer. Lecturers have to be accountable, play their role as educators and cannot get off scot-free for intimidating students like above.

Of course, this will generally put lecturer in an unfavorable situation because students can gang up to 'score' their lecturer unfavorably low. But if the survey forms or questionnaires are carefully constructed, it can help to develop an effective communication between the lecturers and the students. The students can voice their dissatisfaction, but so can the lecturer defend themselves. And I'm sure, that if the students disliked this lecturer merely because he/she gave the student bad grades, the students themselves will be disgraced and it would instead reinstate the lecturer's pride.

It would be difficult for the lecturer if their sole appraisal is based on the surveys alone. This is because as students, they care for nothing except for getting a pass (or good grades). Previously, even as a part-time lecturer, I received numerous e-mails and calls requesting for me to pass them for exam even though they handed in the answer sheet scribbled with all the wrong answers.

Also, in general, Malaysian students like to complain that lecturers do not spend enough time teaching. However, in other parts of the world, it is common that a more renowned professor will actually spend less time teaching. Lecturer is slightly different than a teacher. A lecturer imparts his/her experience and insights, a lecturer does not go through line-by-line of the syllabus, and it is the student's responsibility to ask question when he/she doesn't understand. However, when the students do ask a valid question, the lecturer should answer it to the best of his/her knowledge.

So there must be a balance. The student must know their responsibility too.

I believe this mechanism of revealing the outcome of the survey, and encouraging discussions between the lecturer and the students on how to improve teaching sessions is like freedom of speech in the society. It's the clashes of different views that would help both the lecturer and the students to improve themselves.

Instill freedom of information in the faculty and it shall help to instill a culture for excellence among local varsities.

婚礼，朋友，人生。。。

好像是，年纪越老，出席婚礼时的感触会越多。。。

昨天出席了中学朋友（秀芳）的婚礼，大家一看到我的第一个问题都是：“勋亮，你怎么还在马来西亚啊？”。在短短的几个小时里，我不知要回答了多少遍。

婚礼进行中，我跟大家了解近况。有的朋友结婚生孩子了，有的今年结婚，有的已经有非常稳定的女朋友，有的还在追求事业。但无论是处于什么阶段，我们这班公教中学的‘废材’只要聚在一起，还是会谈个痛快。

这样的情景还会持续吗？ 当有一天大家都有自己的家，有孩子的时候，我们还能像这样吗？

也不知道为何，我总是非常喜欢这班陪我度过中学生涯的朋友。多么希望，我们能够像以前一样，就坐在我班的左右，随时想到他，就走过去打个招呼，说个笑。

现在的我，拥有一切。爸、妈、哥哥都还没有离我而去。有大学的朋友，辩论的朋友，还有中学的朋友。有辩论的活动，有梦想要追寻。而且身体健康没大碍。

多么希望，时间就会停留在这里。但也许正因为时间不会停留，所以这些才会显得美丽。

人们都说：生、老、病、死。但是，实际上，在生与老之间有的就是读书，工作和结婚。

结婚，就是进入 ‘老’ 之前的最后一个阶段。多么恐怖！

但也不能说这就是我对婚礼所有的感触。总之，那个感觉很奇怪，就是很多情绪，回忆，和顾虑往头上冲。

也许，有一天，我能整理好我的思绪。到那个时候，再来把我真正的心情写在部落格。

也许，那一天，就是我结婚的那一天。

Love...

Loving someone,
is not about giving the other what you think love is.
is about giving the other what the other think love is.

the functions of languages - a war...

I'm no linguist. But since posting my previous personal post regarding the Chinese and English language, I am itching to write this post on the functions of languages.

Let me begin by describing my sins of the past. I used to loathe "bananas". Yes, by "bananas" I mean those English speaking Chinese who can't speak a word of Chinese (other than the few famous phrases spoken in those HK TV serials aired over RTM and ASTRO). That was more than 10 years ago. Many things happened since, and I've come to let go my prejudice. However, this doesn't mean I'm any less insistent on the education of the Chinese Language for Malaysian Chinese.

This is mainly because I see a Language as more than just a tool of communication. Language also represents a way of life, a way of thought and most importantly a cultural representation. Therefore, by foregoing your right to learn Chinese is like losing a part of you as Chinese. (Note: I'm not being racist or promoting cultural superiority here. That being a proud Chinese doesn't make you any less Malaysian because, I think, we all can agree that there's a vast difference between Malaysian Chinese and China Chinese)

Many of my English-speaking friends disagree with me. Insisting that culture and language are independent of each other. My simple answer to them is this: reading Shakespeare in Mandarin is quite different from the English version. And likewise if you are reading Sun Tzu's art of war in English, the 'feel' is very different. Moreover, terms such as 'gentleman' are difficult to translate to Chinese and likewise 君子 is not possible (or near impossible) to translate to the other.

It is not possible to describe what 君子 means in a word or two. You'll have to understand Chinese literature and history and stories to understand how the concept of 君子 is depicted. And there are many more words like that in both English and Chinese. Language is actually a bridge that connects our thoughts to the real world. But there is always a gap between what we think and what we say or write. Therefore a lot of expressions (words or phrases) in a language are beyond explanation. Only experiences can give you the true meaning of a word or phrase.

I'll give you another example. We all know what love is, in a very general way. But everyone understands love in a very different way because of the love stories we hear, the movies we watch, the way we are brought up, etc. There is nothing that would suffice in explaining what love is until you experience it. A definition of word is not given by the dictionary, but given by one's experience of the world. It is how one perceives the world. And therefore, the teaching of a language will inevitably include the teaching of how one perceives the world.

Given that, it is not surprising why Chinese-educated and English-educated folks think very much differently and view the world quite differently. Not just in the command of language, but also the way they think. And that's why I think there is a minute, but detectable polarisation among those that are Chinese-educated and English-educated. It's because language is closely tied to culture, behaviour and thinking patterns. In Chinese, 'respect' (尊敬) is closely tied to the relationship between the younger ones, and the older ones; between teachers and students. But there isn't any such ties in English version of 'respect'. This is why, in general, Chinese-educated students have a tendency not to challange teachers in the public.

In many parts of the world, there isn't any clear distinction in this function of language. The language used to communicate is the language used predominantly in their respective cultures, e.g. Germans, English, Japan, etc. That is why, I do not expect Chinese nationals (from China) to really understand this situation. In Malaysia, however, it is different. We are a multicultural (or heterogeneous) country, each race with our own preferred choice of language and hence a different set of thoughts.

As a result of this, there are many ongoing arguments in Malaysia on which language we should use for our Math and Science subjects. Some may even argue that Malaysians should use one unified language - English for our education system. There are two issues here. One, should there be only one language? Two, which language should it be if we should only have one unified language for our education system?

But first, let there be no doubt that using one single unified language as the medium of teaching helps the national unity. While learning your own mother tongue is human right, there is no denying that the nation needs to speak or understand one common language for unity to happen. And this so-called common language for unity is not just a language we learn and know per se, but also it becomes the preferred choice of language for communication among ourselves. This is something that even Dong Zong （董总）should realise. And obviously that language will not be Chinese.

Then should it be English? Or Malay?

I noticed that most Asean scholars or Singaporean-educated Malaysians, if given a choice, would prefer to use English as the sole medium of education. I guess, in giving me a choice between Malay and English, I would have chosen English too. As Tony Pua mentioned in his blog, many Chinese-educated students may find it difficult to obtain a good job at the highest level of corporates due to their inept in English language. However, one should not go to the other extreme of our neighbour too.

Decades ago, the then Prime Minister of Singapore Lee Kuan Yew decided to discourage the use of Mandarin in Singapore. He reckons that learning two first languages (English and Chinese) will make Singapore less competitive. Obviously, at that time, when China was just recovering from the cultural revolution and during the pinnacle of cold war, Lee Kuan Yew chose to abandon Mandarin. Just a few years back, however, he changed that. The reason is again obvious - China's back as the superpower of the world. Therefore, I reckon that Singapore is the perfect example in the World that uses the language for nothing, but merely as a communication tool. More precisely, as a business communication tool. And I think that is pathetic.

Given that a language has its cultural value, there is no doubt that I want to learn Mandarin. And I would want my sons and grandsons to learn Mandarin. This language is built up upon more than 3000 years of history. But since, also knowing the fact that Mandarin is impossible to be the 'unifying' language used in Malaysia, I admit I'm in a dilemma in this issue.

But I'm adamant, that one should not pursue a language purely as a tool of communication. It's much more than that.

Understanding what I do not understand

Sometime ago, I attended a training which revealed an interesting theory on 4-stages of learning (i.e. the process of gaining competence from incompetence).

Stage 1: unconscious incompetence
Stage 2: conscious incompetence
Stage 3: conscious competence
Stage 4: unconscious competence

The best way to describe these few stages is to consider driving lessons as an example. At stage 1, you do not know what are the skills required for driving. At stage 2, after attending some classes, you now know what are the skills you lack (traffic law and the principle of balancing clutch and accelerator, etc) and thus are conscious of your incompetence. Then comes stage 3, where after numerous hands-on lessons, you are now prepared to take the on-the-road examination and pass. At this stage, although competent, you are still very fully aware of what you are doing. But after driving for years, driving becomes an instinct. Pulling brakes, stepping on the accelerator, balancing on the cliff, all these comes naturally to you (subconsciously). At this time, you are at stage 4 - performing your task without fully aware of it.

It'd be intrinsically implied that the transition from stage 1 to 2 and stage 3 to 4 is a natural progress. For the former, all that is required is for someone to inform you of your incompetence. And for the latter, all that is required is constant practice.

However, the same can't be said of the transition from stage 2 to 3. Because, simply said, it is not a natural progress to become from incompetent to competent. In fact, I'd like to argue that there will be an important transitional stage here, which I will call it - understanding what you do not understand. I think, this is the most frustrating stage of all learning processes.

Let me cite you an example, drawn from my recent personal experience.

I'm studying micro-magnetics in preparation for my PhD later this year. Now, I'm definitely conscious of my incompetence in this area and I'm trying very hard to achieve competence by reading a lot of texts in this area. As I read, I came across sentences such as this:

"..the competitive effects of the micromagnetic energy contributions upon minimization determine the equilibrium distribution of the magnetization..."

'competitive'.....check!
'micromagnetic'.....check!
'energy'.....check!
'contributions'.....check!
'minimization'.....check!
'equilibrium'.....check!!
'distribution'.....check!!
'magnetization'.....check!!!

I understand EVERY SINGLE word of it.

But when I put them together, What the %@$%& does it mean??

This, is the classical case of me not understanding what I do not understand. And how am I going to gain competence through this?

I realised that I am not alone in such situations. Many people have problems expressing what they do not understand. It is very often difficult to express what you do not know into a valid question. And when we fail to do that, we cannot seek to gain competence or ask guidance from someone else, as no one (including yourself) would know what you do not understand.