10 things you ought to know about me

(1) I'm self-employed. I am not a member of any society, organization or cause and everything I say has no agenda except for the fact that I felt like sharing my thoughts on something. I'm almost completely, autonomous, or self-directed.

(2) I don't know how to do anything that doesn't involve great passion. I've always had a passion for this or that thing. I cannot wake up and go to work if I'm not 101% passionate and believing that what I'm doing is going to help me figure out how to make this world a better place for my children and the next 7 generations.

(3)I have purpose but absolutely no long-term goals in life.

(4)And because I am free, I am fearless. Being fearless means to look at fear and decide, "I'd like to be afraid of you but I have something important I got to do for the Big Guy."

(5)Because I have passion, purpose and fearlessness, it doesn't mean I'm a warrior. I love peace, not violence. I'm a pacifist to the end. However, I'm not a pushover..not anymore.

(6) Just because I don't have goals of being wealthy and successful, doesn't mean I don't love money. I don't believe in being wealthy if it means other people have to pay a higher price for my product/service than necessary, causing a direct or indirect chain of hardship; or other people have to compete to buy my product/service; or other people have to become poorer in spite of the value they're offering because of the tactics I'm employing to increase my profits.

However,to remain poor is to be lazy in two ways (1) to fight the systems that keep you poor out of fear of retribution (2)to not discover how to apply oneself effectively to create/be a player in a robust economy. But first things first; and being wealthy per se is not the first thing.

I'm absolutely not goal-oriented. I'm purpose driven. At first it seems contradictory. To have a goal is to have a man-made definition of what our Ego wants to achieve. When we need to adapt or re-evaluate, we might see it as a sign of failure or going offtrack. Goals are a purely business/bottom-line element. Goals are used to drive people to achieve something for themselves which also benefits the group/tribe/company.

To be purpose-driven, on the other hand, is to not look at bottom line or the physical movement of time to judge and benchmark one's progress. Purpose driven is an intuitive process that is invisible until the final masterpiece gets revealed. Thousands of thousands of people form underground movements or currents that are the bedrock of the next phase in human's evolution yet we don't see their purpose until upon retrospect. While humans decide the benchmarks and values of goals, Purpose is decided purely by an Invisible Hand. In Malay, there is a saying, "Manusia hanya mampu merancang.....". It clarifies my meaning that we can aspire and be filled with a purpose to execute something but only God decides the outcome of the purpose, aspiration.

(7)I care deeply about the world. There's nothing I want more than to end world hunger, to live in a world without poverty, to redirect the leadership economics has been taking that has caused environmental imbalance, to right every injustice, to save every soul, to defend those who cannot defend themselves, to liberate everyone to experience inner joy, freedom and fulfillment of their gifts, to bring humanity into 'fruition'. And I know all this sounds childish and unrealistic. As a child I gave myself 2 cut-off points to grow up : when I became a mother and raise my own children and when I hit 30. I've passed both points and I still feel the same way I did as a child. So if it means I have to work only with young people and people who are 'dreamers' then....so be it. My dream world is a lot nicer than this so-called 'real-world' that is full of the delusions and illussions of the Adults running it.

(8)I have no particular gifts or talents. I'm just particularly good at figuring out the most basic thing about how something works, enough to use it with another thing and so on and so forth until I can articulate the connections I have weaved, a connection that's always been there. I do not exactly create new things, I synergize existing things.

The second would be story-telling. After synergizing things and letting them percolate in my mind, I separate my story from its story and weave the synergy again, this time, in an oral or written tradition. I am not an original thinker nor artist or creative entity. I can't even think up fiction themes and plots nor write my own melodies. I can't come up with original theorems in science or mathematics.

Sometimes I have thoughts that seem stupid. Like once after a lengthy interview on life by a student, she said she wished she could download all the info from my brain. I said i wish I can bluetooth whatever info she asked because it's tiring using words and thinking up metaphors to illustrate or give her background premise to help her visualize and meaningfully understand something she had a question about. She thinks I should write a book and share the many things i tell her with other young people out there - but I tell her there are hundreds if not thousands of books out there already, written by people who specialize in that topic. All everyone else needs to do is do what I do - synergize,because by the time I write, publish and market one about one thing, 100 more in-depth writing about the same thing would've hit the market already. I get bored listening to myself because it's the same old thing to me.

<9>I'm not religious.

(10)I am unpredictable. No sooner had I thought I figured my self or my cause out, I change. I've given up trying to be a rock, a solid thing. I shall move like ether in this realia; this world that teaches me through tools it presents as i try to float in synchronicity in our state of flux. I have some things which are constant; the most constant is Love.

Wait....1 more:

(11) I still need to constantly edit myself for clarity. I talk too much.

Be the Master or be the Dog

When I look back to my post-F5 life, it sometimes amazes me why I did not pursue Economics and Law and instead, chose something so academically unchallenging as - Business Comms! Well, the silly choices people make when they are 17. Or could it be that schools of Econs and Law simply did not appeal to people who prefer to think out of the box?

I remember taking to Ekonomi Asas like duck to water. I was out for 2 months in F4 because of a severe case of chicken-revenge (I didn't realize I had developed chicken pox...at a party, I volunteered to finish off an entire tray of belacan chicken) and so failed my mid-terms yet emerged top in class by the end of the semester. I also did peculiarly well for Commerce and History - both subjects, including Econs, I famously slept throughout the entire 2 years.

By the end of F5, my curiousity had gotten the better of me. How is it possible that I sleep through History, Commerce and Econs, never do my homework nor bought any revision books to do and yet 'get' exactly what the subject/exam questions ask of me (I later went on to score A's in all those subjects in SPM.)Worse, they were in a language I could barely speak : Bahasa. Thankfully, those subjects did not tax me on language style.

So Mrs. Kwan told me, "Because you have an analyctical mind." I wanted to know what lay ahead of me post-SPM and so far, what I had to work on was "analyctical mind". What am I supposed to do with that? Go into Econs, Financing and Law because of my powers of memory and written skill? The thought of wearing black all day in a highly competitive environment hung over my head for a good 5 minutes before I decided - nope, never Econs, Law, Finance. Besides, my father was a banker. I needed to 'establish my own personality' and live away from the expectations of everyone in my family. Advertising had a certain 'rebel' effect that seemed a nice place for a stowaway.

I sometimes half regret not taking up an undergraduate study that would be more academically taxing. But then I realize why I didn't : The study of Econs and Laws in general required people to play by the rules. Little did I know that what MAKES a great economist or lawyer is someone who knows ALL the rules and then tweaks and elaborates on it based on the scenario at hand to present a highly interesting and provocative theory/argument to the audience. Damn if I'd known that!

I met Law and Econs undergrads outside of school - from UIA and other unis around the Klang valley or during my part-time jobs. Boy, were they always the most boring people who could not provoke arguments or extrapolate interesting arguments from current events. They usually just mouth what last week's newspaper printed. They were almost always male which made me question the actual intellectual ability of men in those areas : Were they really smart or did they just take up Econs and Law to SOUND smart? Well, then again, KL and its surrounding areas is no New England.

Perhaps it's a good thing I never went into Economics and Law because I can retain the freshness of my thought. I somehow doubt that the understudy of a thing necessitates the knowing of the thing. Perhaps I have always known instictively that we only pay for experiences we would otherwise not have been able to experience on our own. I was a little too bookish to actually have enjoyed being a little 'extroverted' or 'wild' or 'superficial'.

So now, well into my 30s, I rediscover my love for solving everything on the context of Economics and the framework of Law. I overheard a conversation between the local grocer and another public servant - you know, over the same things, especially the pseudo-apartheid treatment of non-Umno Malays in this country. It's the typical sort of exchange you'd expect all across Malaysia : bigotry, inequality, etc.

What seems to pain the Chinese community the most is that academically bright students don't get what they think they deserve post SPM and post STPM. I'm simplifying things a lot, I know but using Economics to solve the problem - what is the true purpose of seeking free study handouts from the government? Can't people just work and pay for their own CHOICE of study? If you want it that badly, shouldn't you find a way to get it?

I don't take it personally when a Malay who can barely cope with their studies is being offered full scholarship. Lots of Malay teachers get sent overseas to do grad and post-grad degrees in TESOL and come back with little next to nothing. It annoyed me for a bit when I was in my 20s but I eventually asked myself, what is it that I'm bitter about? And why am I feeling that way?

I realized that I felt the country owed it to me to realize my potential and my commitment to serve all levels of community and a postgrad degree would give me a kind of cushion to put me on the academic pelamin of sorts. It was all about ME and what other people needed to ACKNOWLEDGE in me!

Of course, I'm a very different person these days. I make it one of my core arguments in life that people who stay poor are people with a poor mentality - and a poor mentality is a thinking that is all about "me" and what "I" deserve. I'm not talking about abject poverty, I'm talking about the tightness in one's life that one feels, a lack of a sense of liberation, empowerment, choice, autonomy, financial freedom.

Like many people out there, I got a chance at STPM and chose not to go. I had an excellent chance of doing very well in STPM because, unfair as it seems, the way schooling and testing is set up plays to my inherent abilities. I KNEW then (from the early 80s) the declining standard of local universities and I simply CHOSE not to risk dumbing down my intellect in 4-5 years of 'cheap' studies. I already had 11 years of that and I was going to use my "Free from Jail" card.

So I find it really difficult to understand people who blame anything and everything for 'doing well' and 'going nowhere'. It sort of proves to me that these people who 'do well' in school are behaving like they DESERVE to DEMAND things from life. That, in general, is not a good attitude to have and does not reflect well on a person's character.

There's always this argument I hear that the Malays get to go into Matrikulasi and get all the perks. It's like, "My neighbor gets to eat durian because his datuk has a durian orchard." Seriously, does other people's durian runtuh have ANYTHING to do with the fact that we didn't go out and buy our own durian? Right, I perfectly understand it's taxpayers' money but don't we think the 70% of Malays in our country pay taxes too? And if we don't like paying x% of our taxes to the BN-government, why don't we just learn the financial intelligence that will help us make MORE MONEY and PAY LESS TAXES? Why do people sit there and get taxed at amounts they feel sakit about instead of making so much more money and moving that money around legally that whatever gets taxed doesn't hurt so much anymore when compared to the volume you've already made?

The argument that 'governments' are corrupt is the lamest most boring argument I can bear hear anyone make. Who put the government there in the first place? It wasn't me! Whose taxes are paying for schools? Who's forcing their kids to go to school, pay books, fees, uniforms, bas sekolah and endless tuition and workbooks? Who's playing into the whole 'tuition' farce? It's the WORKING CLASS, of course. The working class MALAYS, CHINESE AND INDIANS and DAN LAIN-LAIN. Who is putting all their hopes and dreams on their children's education while not getting educated themselves? Not ME! Who's hoping their children will 'become rich' or 'get married to someone rich' instead of doing that themselves? Not me!

People will then use the same intellectual arguments that landed them in their current reality to dismiss everything I just said : We didn't have it so we're doing it for the future of our children - WRONG! See, YOUR parents and grandparents did exactly what you're doing right now and that is why we inherited this world from you.

Not all parents like to complain and blame. Some parents I know actively campaign and create powerful platforms to mobilize resistance. And then there are those who think they are the cleverest - they leave this 'damn country' because, you know, Malaysia SUCKS and they're too good for Malaysia. But I don't know which is worse : those who leave and then view Malaysia sentimentally, or those who are still here and talking (noun) out of their hinds - flaming and thrashing politicians and reps as if they're pinatas.

People have to consider that the only reason anyone would want to become a politician is because that's the easiest way to make money without integrity. Don't be deluded that politicians get elected to serve YOU - that is simply their warcry. How many of you would vote me in if I were to tell you I'm going to be a self-serving representative? NONE!Exactly my point!

And people also have to know this : If politicians WERE entrepreneurs and knew how to handle our money and make money, why would they want to take the slow and treacherous road of being a politician? Rather than sit and wait my turn, I'd rather spend 20 years on fabulous, innovative ideas and investments that will reap me greater, more satisfying rewards. Would't anyone? Why do you think people like Trump, Mohd. Yunus, Buffet, Kiyosaki, Krugman....don't run for office?

Seriously, if governments did nothing but knew how to save, invest and grow the economy - why would anyone need a government? We'd all be capitalists. And if we knew NOTHING about investing and growing the economy, what makes us think the people we elect to office, who, let's assume, know how to save, invest and grow the economy feel OBLIGED to serve us when we're so stupid ourselves? Because of a $50,000 a month salary? That might sound a lot to working class people but SMART INVESTORS, you know, the sort you expect your governments to be.......CAN MAKE THAT AMOUNT IN THEIR SLEEP!

Politicians serve no one's agendas but their own. Politicians, Left Right or Centre who form a government have an obligation to SPEND money to avoid a surplus. And they are not likely to make WISE SPENDING AND INVESTMENTS because we didn't elect them into office based on their solid economic sense and entrepreneurial spirit - we elected them in because we BOUGHT THE RHETORIC. Beware the entrepreneurs who enter politics - they might have reached a ceiling in their income generation and innovative capacity and thus, gotten lazy. They figure : If I get me and my boys in as the ruling party, we'd sub this and that out and bring this and that in and just sit back and watch the kickbacks fill our coffers.

No matter what anyone says, the nature of a politician is to be in it for him/herself. It's like watching Marley & Me : you either pick a labrador that serves and obeys you, the master, or you get a delightful one like Marley and he runs wild and tears everything up and ruins everything that costs you a fortune. Except, politicians aren't so benign or cute when they do that.

I'm Running out of Time

In one of my blogs before, I had said that the reason I started putting my thoughts for public-reading is because I'm running out of time. I've been feeling like I'm running out of time for 20 years now. The people in my inner-circle wonder why I have such a morbid view of life yet can be so optimistic about living. I'm not running out of time because I'm dying; technically we're dying with every breath we take. I feel like I'm running out of time to START Living.

I delayed a good 20-25 years of my life. I think it's fair that I take my chances now, to prepare more groundwork for the next-gen to take over. I often feel like I'm going to be one of the few Gen-X-ers who will be able to link the glories and virtues of the old-world/old-capitalism/old-intellect with the new evolving world, a world where Information is Plenty but the Knowledge to utilize and Power to Magnetize Information is scarce.

I found some of the meaning for my drive when I realized the threat, the pursuit of English, is posing to cultures and languagues and thought processes around the world. I realized how significant this was when I began acquiring Mandarin at about the same time I'm sold on Steven Pinker's writing;our thoughts, which influences our perspectives and actions, are based upon the way we process information and express them; language. I'm not advocating that we abandon English wholesale. I'm merely expressing the opinion that no one language should dominate another in terms of 'importance'. Even if only 10,000 people speak one language while 10million people speak another, the right to learn and feel confident about the validity of either should be preserved.

Perhaps some Malaysians realize this, perhaps many still don't; learning English is NOT the answer to a better future, it is only one of several enablers that can only work in synergy with other things present. Many people out there are profitting from this grand illussion, I call them, "Peddlers of false prophecies". (I'll TM that if the phrase hasn't been TM-ed yet!) So you sign on to a contract with illussions of a car and 15 years later you realize all you have is the steering wheel.

I am not against the pursuit of English as a second-language, I am against the idea that a proficiency and thought-immersion in the American-English culture determines a person's currency, validity and worth within a certain economic frame. A majority of people pursuing the acquisition of English as a second language will never reach the sort of proficiency in reading, writing and speaking to benefit from a perceived advantage in an "English-speaking" world. What I'm concerned with is that these people will constantly be left with a feeling of reduced self-esteem, not because they truly believe they are worth less economically or otherwise, but because of the looming illussion that their English is not 'good enough'. I doubt even the native-speakers of English wish this upon others, and I doubt it's their fault. It is the fault of a collective of people who were misguided in their ambitious frame of thoughts about 'the future'.

It is the lessened view of non-native speakers of themselves and the pursuit of false prophecies that I am concerned about. "Poverty" is not a lack of money, "poverty" is the perception that a person lacks opportunities and empowerment to create as much wealth for themselves, and those they care about, as possible. I do not wish to see a world with a new kind of 'mental poverty' when automation and technology has facilitated the creation of enough abundance and information yet people still feel lacking.

I am fortunate that I have a very strong ability to magnetize information, resources and support towards myself. I feel fortunate to have moved from Zero to where I am today, in a matter of a few years when it comes to understanding the myriad of questions I have about the history of politics and schooling and how everything else ties in, things from finance, economics (including the offshoot of marketing;branding, positioning, distribution, mass-media, etc) psychology, sociology,...

I received a gold nugget again today - in the form of a comment left by a reader. It introduced me to an option I've been searching for - Esperanto. I somehow knew that I would not be able to make it in time to reduce the degree of myopia we make up our worldview from. In fact, I am not even in a position to say I have transparent, omniscient knowledge of the evolving world.

Freedom of Expression (R)

[This entry has been transferred from another blog with the title : My Time is Up, let it Snowball.]

I would like to insist that none of the things I talk about are new nor novel. If they, for some reason, appear eye-opening or insightful to you, the credit goes to many thinkers and writers that have gone before me. The only thing I can take credit for is how I sometimes, attempt, to meld existing information into narrative digestives and putting them up - like this. The availability of online blogging made this sharing possible and that's all that matters to me. It took 10 years of silencing the inner-critic for this to happen. I even gotten some advice from people who told me not to publish anything electronically because then the copyright would be lost. But I suppose that's only valid for academic papers and works of fiction. Who in the world would want to sound like me anyway? Besides, I believe in a world of abundance and reciprocity; there's a revolution out there, there's more than enough for everyone!

I think the idea of the threat of people plagiarising off a person is OTT. (over-the-top)Sharing is caring, right? I live on a philosophy of abundance; 2 plates of Char Koay Teow, keh-liao. If someone wants to ridicule themselves trying to sound like me, ...it's really not an insult, you know? Think about what good can come out of it; the plagiariser would make my ideas known to more people and proliferate even further knowledge expansion and thought. Everyone loves a freebie but no one wants to give out any, notice that? So, when it comes to the thought of someone ripping my ideas off, I think I'm going to be OK with that. (Notice how I'm phrasing my words.)

As for my belief in reciprocity, I'm sure you've heard of the saying, "What goes around, comes around." I don't plagiarise. I don't see a need to plagiarise. Anyone who has to plagiarise might as well consider a new career path for their own mental and spiritual health. Everyone wants to be able to make a living and go to sleep at night, right? Having said that, once in a while, when I see that someone else had put what I had wanted to say in better context than what I could've come up with, I'd lift that part to fit into the rest of the context of an argument I'm making. But I cite the source - so that's not plagiarism then...I suppose. ???

Besides, do you know what the greatest drawback would be? The things I think and blog about are not tea-talk pieces. They'd make enemies out of friends. They are not topics you can sit on the fence on. They'd even make you sound a bit off your rockers if you bring them up in a social setting.

Blogging and I are strange bedfellows due to the fact that 'blogs' are an avenue to (1) self-publish (2)advocate a thought or opinion while hiding under an electronic veil of anonymity! and (3) which is completely uncritical of a person's lack of ability to edit for clarity. The only reason I decided to put my thoughts out on public domain is because my time is up..........my end is near. I've delayed writing for 20 years and it's done nothing for my life except cause protracted adolescence and the guilt that comes with not allowing a thought of mine to be unleashed, to gather momentum and magnetize other similar thoughts/people in order to put the wedge in the door. It's time we allow radical thoughts to Snowball.
I decided on the title of this blog after picking up "Freedom of Expression Overzealous Copyright Bozos and Other Enemies of Creativity" at Penang's Popular Book fair a couple of weeks ago. I picked this up at just the right time for just the right price - RM9.90 (originally RM99.90). The book has a certain beautiful quality about its jacket and pages, paper quality. Of course, the content is a great read too.

The Future of ESL in Malaysia

It is no secret that 90% of teachers and owners of franchises may not be qualified to preside over your child's learning. The 10% who are qualified would cost too much for 90% of people to afford.

Despite the fact that I teach for a fee, I am against the idea of the commodification of learning. I hold one free consultation session for 1-2 hours, addressing the parents' / learner's needs and explaining to them how I would approach those needs. I am more of a coach than a teacher. The learning I teach is to empower the individual to have the confidence to pursue their own interests. For the older teens, the learning I teach is to prepare them for a future many cannot yet see in their minds. The tools I give them is the awakening of a critical mind, the acceptance or reclaiming of themselves, of the validity of their own thoughts and feelings. I also show them the 'common sense' way of learning which they have completely forgotten since they traded their own Intelligence for Schooling - the way of The Child, The Autonomous Learner.

90% of places make a business out of this exchange of information and knowledge. 99% of the time, not much information or self-perpetuating knowledge gets transmitted. In order to compensate for this real lacking, they 'brand up' their learning in two ways : Make it exclusive with big signboards, franchised names, advertisements in print, banners, etc. or turn it into a commodity where it is so cheap people can't seriously expect the Product to be accountable for results.

Franchises and centres WILL not work for both Buyer (parents) and Sellers (education owners) for several reasons :

(1) Apart from a temporary, in-service training situation, it is both unfair and impossible to treat capable, intelligent people as 'workers' or 'teachers' at a school/centre. The turnover rate can be expected to be within the 3 months to 2 years' duration. A Learning Centre with 'economies of scale' in mind MAKES ITS PROFIT by not paying a fair sum to the teacher who brought in the revenue. Paying a high-performing teacher more would constitute making them a PARTNER, in a way, within the Board/Management.

What this means for 99% of centres out there which depend on revenue from their business (either holding a franchise or own a centre) is that they are left with only one solution : to hire unskilled, incapable, unqualified, undriven, or questionable characters who would accept the hourly-wages. There is absolutely no way, 99% of the time, for kindergartens, tuition centres, franchises, to hire highly qualified and driven individuals - you know, the sort you want your children to model after? Parents are better off keeping their children at home and allowing them to have 'personal time' on their own rather than chaeuffering here and there to be taught by people who are not the sort of intellectuals we want our children to grow up to be.

(2) The market for learners is not made up of one homogenous, empty vessels demographic. Learning must be organic in order to be effective. It cannot possibly be manufactured. The people who lead and teach learners must be highly experienced and knowledgeable in order to be able to adapt to and customize learning for the learners they come across.

The variety of learning difficulties, learning experiences, multiple intelligences and scheduling commitments compound the fact that learners cannot get results if they are going to undergo a programme that, at its core, makes learning a Brand, Commodity and Scalable. But that is exactly the scenario 90% of people are paying for.

The future of ESL in Malaysia depend on Individuals who are both intellectual, driven and committed to results to teach groups in their geographical area with customized plans that matches exactly what the learners need. In order to be able to do this, they must have a variety of innate qualities and skills which must include an ability to diagnose a learner's background and having enough information and insights to be able to draw up / design a learning program that is both flexible and a rewarding experience for the group of learners.

ESL practitioners must be results-oriented. Real results are measured by yardsticks beyond paper-and-pencil exam scores or parrot-like oral exams. The Dawn is very, very near for the demise of English Tuition Centres / Language centres who are out of sync with what non-English speaking parents want. They have noticed that franchises, brand names and advertisements are meant to pull the wool over their eyes and that they actually CANNOT deliver results. The fundamental reasons why they CANNOT deliver results is outlined in this blog; reasons that parents suspect but have not publicly declared because they do not have insider confirmation. Well, here's the Insider Scoop!

To give an example of how out of sync these centres are, I'd use the example of the Penang British Council. About 2 years ago, they spent nice amounts of money insulting the intelligence of Malaysians, Penang people in particular, for our use of colloqualisms. NOTHING in the entire field of ESL training ASKS that non-native speakers speak with ONE TYPE OF REGISTER with A PARTICULAR BRAND OF ACCENT! Nowhere in the entire field of ESL debates the importance of perfect knowledge of ever-changing grammar rules or the need to insult non-native speakers on the way they enrich the English language with their colloqualisms. The theme of the last few decades is about learners achieving COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE where EXPERIENCE IS of UTMOST importance in making sure learners develop the confidence to receive and accept the learning of English in a positive way.

On top of that, the British Council Penang makes it a point to insult Chinese parents who have money to pay. I was one of these parents. It is as if they are somewhat exclusive or superior simply because they are housed in some colonial building where pigeons crap a lot around. One parent I met even told me that, upon entering the place at 4:45, she was asked to leave, even when the sign said they close at 5pm. She said she had come all the way to pay the following semester's fees but the front-desk employee told the security guard to show her out. The other parent told me, the woman said to her, "If you can't come back another day, then your child simply doesn't come here for English classes. If you're so insistant, you can go somewhere else."

This is truly the attitude of the British Council, Penang. Many years ago, I went there to try and sign up for the CPE exams. A year or so after the first time, I went to sign my daughter up for English lessons. I was treated in equally rude ways both times so I believe the tales of parents who have complained about British Council Penang to not be exaggerated.

Many people know that non-profit set-ups like foreign societies depend almost exclusively on grants from their Western governments, grants which are getting harder and harder to come by and coming with higher and higher expectations of accountability on how the money is spent. They ARE DEPENDENT on fees collected from their language classes to sustain significant parts of their operations, namely, the salaries of staff members who choose to insult the intelligence of the paying-public. There is no point complaining to 'upper management' because there is no such thing as upper-management. Centre managers are employed on a contract basis, ranging anywhere from 1-2 years. They were hired more for their willingness to accept the contract than their superior management and educational backgrounds. These foreign hires do not plan to spend the rest of their lives climbing a non-existent corporate ladder working with a pseudo-NGO like the British Council. Despite the fact that some universities in the UK can offer lifetime experiences to students who can afford it, education in the UK is generally suffering from its own decline from elementary to university level. It smacks of naivete to look to the Colonialists to solve our economic/tangible benefits of learning problems.

It is no secret to language practitioners that foreign societies often take unqualified people to stand in front of their classes. This is because the fees have been accepted upfront and the date for the class to start is drawing closer. In order to not have to refund any monies, they plunk anyone ...seriously, ANYONE, even caucasians whose first-language is NOT English and who have not had any prior experience in teaching or related fields. They obviously do not have the luxury to do a background check. Which foreigner in need of a paying job in Malaysia would be willing to come all the way, stay for a few weeks after the interview while his employer gets a reference check confirmed from his/her last employer? And if I were a foreigner, how willing would I be to spend thousands of dollars on flight ticket and accommodation just to come for an interview in Malaysia for a job that pays so much less than in neighboring countries, in a country that has a cost of living much higher than neighboring ones at the same time.

When enterprising, driven, honest, committed people see all of this, they will realize that language centres are not competition AT ALL. In fact, it is BECAUSE of how badly language centres and franchises have screwed up that the market is now ready to reward people who already have the diamond and jsut needs the polishing to shine.

Current and future ESL practitioners should not quit their jobs and become a teacher if they think they can get rich. No one can get rich nowadays being a Skilled Professional. The economy today simply doesn't allow that anymore. The economy also doesn't allow mass-scale education to benefit any longer. But if they are willing to settle for a fulfilling vocation, lots of fun and humor, time to read and space-out or write and travel, own lots of accountability and become a more committed, driven and passionate social-capitalist in return, then the future is extremely ripe for Individuals who can offer the market what franchises, brand names and foreign bodies are incapable of. I am not even optimistic these large centres can change. The premise of their problem lies exactly in their business philosophy. These franchises or foreign counterparts cannot reform fast enough due to the nature of their existence. Bureaucracy glues all their parts together like industrial strength adhesive. Rather than taking a good look at how they've been treating their market, they continue to spend money in roadshows and promotions trying to reel in as many naive customers as possible. Rather than respecting the needs and intelligence of the market, they continue to insult us with bigger and bigger claims, signboards and cut-out coupons.

We live in a world where the old order of authority and conformity to a faceless name or brand is rapidly breaking down. Only those who are small enough are quick enough to respond and make money from the market. That is the future of ESL in Malaysia.

What happens when you get on the wrong train?

Almost every parent who considers themself 'responsible' is sending their children to additional classes money can buy; Piano, Ballet, Art Classes, ...you name it. Sending them to learn another language - English - is also in the list.

I'm not sure whether parents who send their children for 'tuition', piano, Math, ballet, etc desire for their children to excel in those fields as a future profession - to grow up to be a 'tuition teacher', 'piano teacher', 'Mathematician', 'prima-ballerina', 'artist'. Or maybe it's just to spend some money to give their children more 'space' to explore their interests outside of school.

I can understand it when home-schooling parents pay for up to 4-5 different types of activities per week - they are, after all, exclusively pursuing a path where their children effectively and directly apply opportunities to learn and grow in their mental or physical dexterity. But I have a harder time understanding when parents pay for lessons which are the school's sole responsibility to cover - you know, with that thing they pay called 'tax dollars'? On top of doing school two times and three times over, some parents 'opt' for piano/ballet/Math/English, etc....'just in case' their child does badly in school.

So I don't know exactly what most parents want when they send their children for "English enrichment classes". Is it just for recreation? Or do they have real needs to prepare their children for the future? You can't have it both. You're either indulging your child to enjoy their present childhood with all the trappings of enrichment classes - or you're getting them prepared for the future. Ultimately, the enrichment classes, those without fixed curriculums and structures, are the most beneficial for the child's future. By giving a child their childhood, they will unfold their nature to become intelligent, adaptable, confident adults.

On the contrary, the ones which 'prepare for the future' are essentially preparing for the past - a past that would be 50-100 years overdue by the time these children grow up. Those programmes claim to "intellectualize" your child, "improve their IQ" and make them "be more ambitious about getting a better job in the future." What future, exactly? As it is, those who are in their 20s and 30s are already finding that schooling did not prepare them, to skill them, after years of de-skilling in schools, for the world they are to function and prosper in.

I have a problem with entities that aim to 'intellectualize' children. There are two important factors to consider before even buying into that message. Firstly, Intelligence is largely hereditary. Another 50% is made up of the home-schooling environment the child is in. Secondly, what do parents hope can be achieved by 2-3 hours, once or twice a week, at those centres? Based on the fundamental factors that Intelligence is largely genetic, 2-3 hours would not mitigate much. Secondly, whatever can be done in those 2-3 hours, will be undone back home or in schools if the home and schooling environment does not reinforce the same style of learning. Thirdly, the benefits of 2-3 hours a week is based on the assumption that the children have highly intelligent, knowledgeable, experienced and dynamic adults to MODEL THINKING AND BEHAVIOR AFTER.

Realistically, which intelligent, knowledgeable, experienced and dynamic adult would want to work for $800 to $2000 a month? A highly dysfunctional, underachieving one? It's different if the Principal happened to hire a dysfunctional/underachiever as a one-off incident, an incident that would soon be rectified after a few months (by firing the person). But it would be a completely different story if 'learning centres' depend almost exclusively on a pool of UNEMPLOYABLE/UNDRIVEN people for these children to look up to.

I'm not knocking every single person who considers working as a teaching assistant as a long-term solution to their career plans; I'm sure among the many are highly-driven, highly-altruistic people who genuinely care about allowing children the need to develop into themselves. Oh wait, I've just contradicted myself - highly-drive and altruistic people would never settle for being 'a worker' as a long-term solution to their career plan! Maybe you're one of those people currently working but are highly-driven.

Needless to say, franchised-brands and principals are unable to retain the best talents. Like how one Boss told me, "I can't hire really good people and treat them well - if they are that good, why would they want to work for you? They would eventually set out on their own after gaining experience here." - I know this seems ironic, but those were her words exactly. (Three months after opening her own centre, she closed down.)

That was not the first time an owner/principal has said something like that to me. At a dinner party a few years ago, the owner of a well-known franchise specialising in Math and now branching into English and Chinese, told me that only people who do badly in school will end up teachers. She said that right in front of me, obviously wanting to tell me that she thinks I must be a complete loser. This was in the presence of a piano teacher, a surgeon from Taiwan, an architect, engineer and several other small business owners.

Personal insult aside, I thought it was very ironic that she said that because she depends EXCLUSIVELY on the people she insults to take up positions in her centre to teach children of high disposable-income families in Pulau Tikus and its surrounding areas. Was she trying to say that she hires people who did badly in school to TEACH these children under her franchise brand?

FYI, her English, by my standards, is truly atrocious and it scares me that she teaches English. I honestly believed that this centre is the exception; that other people who teach must be altruistic socialists at heart, driven with a passion to affect change in the future of the children they teach. Over the years, I've come across many grouses from students and parents alike that tuition centres are hiring people who sometimes don't even have the basic SPM qualification. I've even personally seen people who would otherwise get fired from their jobs, get hired to be public school teachers.

I have nothing against people who lack some form of basic qualification to teach. The most important factor in teaching is simply a genuine concern for the welfare of others, intellectual curiousity and an unsatiable appetite for learning and deepening one's insights into the art of teaching. But to have those qualities, it is absolutely necessary that the person isn't driven solely by a paycheck or a lack of employment opportunities elsewhere!

It would be easy to say that I'm also unemployable elsewhere because technically, I am unemployed. Since I cannot judge myself, I leave it to the people who personally know the level of my work, who have seen my performance within a company - to say that.

Penang people one kind wan........

When I was a student in KL, people would giggle each time I say I'm from Penang. They'd test their "Hokkien" out on me and ask me why Penang people say certain things so differently from others. I was made to feel like some kind of freak, which really compounded the fact that I was already being called 'weirdo' during my secondary school years for reading things like "A Brief History of Time" and surveying how many people believe in UFOs. In my schooldays, I was made fun of because I go almost everywhere with a book, and they were books with no pictures in them, except, sometimes, black-and-white reproduced photos and were filled with so many lines per page upon pages of words it made other people feel dyslexic.

Well, I was pretty sure the 'more open-minded' people of KL will not find me so 'weird'. And they didn't, really.....until the fact that I'm from Penang sort of becomes a laughing-matter. Oh well....

Later on, it dawned upon me that people regard Penangites as weird because of our dialect, habits, cuisine and ...perhaps coz we're a city island makes it a bit fascinating to non-Penang people. (Personally, I strongly dislike the sound of the word "Penangite". The sound of it is so sengau.....) - Penang people were also, apparently, (in)famous for the way we conduct business...and the way we drive as we go our way to conduct our daily business.

I honestly have a sense that Penang-people di-gelakkan collectively by Malays, Chinese and Indians elsewhere. For a time, many Penang-people didn't have the sort of Mandarin-fluency other people have. The DuZhong movement is extremely weak in Penang, unlike in Selangor, Seremban, Johor, ....or other areas with big Chinese populations. We expect everyone to speak and abide by our Hokkien grammar and diction. The Malays in Penang are called, "Anak Mami"s, and they too, are a sort of 'humor' for other Malays. And our Indians are "mamaks", which I didn't realize fascinated other people. For me, it was a simple matter of "Ah Kow, Mamak and Ahmad."

About a year ago, I became obsessed with branding, promoting and selling Penang. I had no idea at the time whether we were bidding for or had won that Heritage thingy-thingy. I just got to know about that Hertitage thingy-thingy a couple of months ago. (Yes, I'm ignorant...you can go laugh yourself silly now.) Not that I was doing anything about my obsession; but day and night I was visualizing Penang as a cauldron and we had discovered alchemy - we were making Gold out of nothing except what was already available and free to us!

I shared some of my inspiration with my students and they found it extremely hilarious. We thought of ways to 'sell' and 'brand' Penang. It was an exercise for them to think creatively and express their thoughts in English. Since all of us are from Penang, the topic was something that students had both knowledge of and a personal affinity for. It was a full hour of laughter, as one person built upon another person's idea - it was like a scene from an Advertising Agency's boardroom, a brainstorming session gone right. Honestly, if I had been CD, some of the ideas were seriously low-cost and highly do-able. Because the ideas came from people who had a piece to complain about Penang, allowing them to turn their grouses into creative ideas unlocked a floodgate. These were the perfect 'focus group' because the group was the perfect demographic; young, adaptable, trendsetters and future decision-makers and entrepreneurs. We know that often, we can't mine useful information from actual market research focus-groups because 'scouts' get their friends or friends' friends'/relatives to attend these groups, sometimes, feeding them information so they can respond to what the interviewer/client wants to hear. But there I was, staring at faces who were genuinely wanting this vision to be real. We knew it was just for fun, that we had neither the infrastructure/qualifications to galvanise it into reality, but it was just really fun, to imagine a Penang that, in Tiffany's line, "Could've been so beautiful, could've been so right...."

The most significant difference with this 'focus group' was that, the pitchers (of ideas) were also the Customers; these young people will grow up to OWN Penang, eventhough it was just a discussion piece, they have a stake in it. We wrapped class up feeling really good about ouselves as Penang people - and I told them to watch out for opportunities because now they have seen in their mind, that such a scenario is possible. But in our hearts, we knew, no one else but a bunch of kids and their facilitator, could even think of such an idea, what more, take it seriously.

It's OK to be crazy as long as it's good fun for everyone. But it's even better when, 8 months later, you see a talk being organized by a college titled, "How to Brand Penang when everything is so different." I almost fell out of my chair laughing.......and I was alone, on a Saturday evening, at a kopitiam. It's really a lot more fun being crazy when people take our crazy ideas seriously.

After watching the entire ALIAS series on DVD recently - well, guess what it did to me? I started liking the idea that some ideas/events will unfold themselves and be set in motion. If very few people understand that but you believe in it, it's called, "an obsession". If more people start to accept it, your obsession becomes, "a prophecy". If things unfold with little collateral damage, and a lot of economic advantages, "you're a wizard!". If things unfold with collateral damage people cannot be patient enough to see why the destruction of something was necessary, "you're insane! a villain!"

I'll be attending the talk this Thursday at a location in town. But I'll be sure to keep my mouth shut and my mind wide-open. As much as I'm interetsed in what the Lecturer has to say about branding Penang, I'd be more intrigued by what size of turnout it would attract, what sort of questions will be asked, what sort of responses elicited?

My older posts on another blog :

http://thewayizen.blogspot.com/2008/08/why-i-want-to-sell-penang.html